Small world. Just found out that my judo teammate's brother used to be roommates with Vitor Belfort when Vitor lived in Los Angeles back in the mid 1990s. Anyway, my teammate used to watch some of the "closed door" training sessions when guys like Vitor, Murilo, Liborio, Sperry, and Wallid would roll. He said Wallid was super intense and one time he was going so hard his head hit the wall and put like a 12 inch hole in it. Funny thing is that Wallid kept sparring like nothing happened until people stopped him because his head was so banged up.
Also my judo teammate doesn't really follow BJJ so I see no reason for him to lie. For example, in describing Liborio he initially said some stalky guy who worked at a bank. He then said he thought the guy's name was Ricardo (Liborio's first name). He initially didn't recall Wallid's name, but his description of Wallid fit to a t and when I said Wallid he said, "yeah that's it."
according to legend, leading up to his fight with royce, wallid used to eat paper with royce's image on it
God damn, Wallid is the coolest guy ever! Ha ha! Thanks for sharing, Aaron!
Somewhere at Jungle Fights, Wallid is fuming!
i would love to train with wallid
aaronlapoi - Small world. Just found out that my judo teammate's brother used to be roommates with Vitor Belfort when Vitor lived in Los Angeles back in the mid 1990s. Anyway, my teammate used to watch some of the "closed door" training sessions when guys like Vitor, Murilo, Liborio, Sperry, and Wallid would roll. He said Wallid was super intense and one time he was going so hard his head hit the wall and put like a 12 inch hole in it. Funny thing is that Wallid kept sparring like nothing happened until people stopped him because his head was so banged up.
Also my judo teammate doesn't really follow BJJ so I see no reason for him to lie. For example, in describing Liborio he initially said some stalky guy who worked at a bank. He then said he thought the guy's name was Ricardo (Liborio's first name). He initially didn't recall Wallid's name, but his description of Wallid fit to a t and when I said Wallid he said, "yeah that's it."
I remember that.
Also there was Carlao Barretto and some musclebound monster named Sergio there at the time.
iirc, he was going with Murillo. Everybody there was freaking out, everyone except Wallid who didn't even blink an eye. He had a gash on his forehead too and they had to talk him into stopping.
Vitor was beasting that day, no one could take him down.
Honest to god, before I started BJJ I walked into the Carlson School in West Hollywood once and there was a head sized hole in the drywall.
There were also a bunch of muscular Brazilian guys napping on the mat everywhere. Gi's laying all over.
I felt like I walked into a lion's den when the big cats are all sleeping. No one noticed me.
I literally turned on my heels and tip-toed right the fuck out of there. LOL.
***
I like the story where Carlson was living on Larabee or somewhere in the heart of West Hollywood --the Gayest city in America- unbeknownst to him when he rented the place.
And of course he had all these ripped, young Brazilian guys crashing at his place, hanging out, laying by the pool, etc.
So, one day in the elevator, one of Carlson's more "fabulous" neighbors gives him the eye because he always sees Carlson with all these "Cariocas".
Carlson gets pissed, goes up to his own apartment and throws EVERYBODY out, telling them, "Get the hell out of here, they all think I'm gay because of you!"
shen -
Honest to god, before I started BJJ I walked into the Carlson School in West Hollywood once and there was a head sized hole in the drywall.
There were also a bunch of muscular Brazilian guys napping on the mat everywhere. Gi's laying all over.
I felt like I walked into a lion's den when the big cats are all sleeping. No one noticed me.
I literally turned on my heels and tip-toed right the fuck out of there. LOL.
***
I like the story where Carlson was living on Larabee or somewhere in the heart of West Hollywood --the Gayest city in America- unbeknownst to him when he rented the place.
And of course he had all these ripped, young Brazilian guys crashing at his place, hanging out, laying by the pool, etc.
So, one day in the elevator, one of Carlson's more "fabulous" neighbors gives him the eye because he always sees Carlson with all these "Cariocas".
Carlson gets pissed, goes up to his own apartment and throws EVERYBODY out, telling them, "Get the hell out of here, they all think I'm gay because of you!"
Awesome.
Awesome.
Back in 2001 at the Arnolds, Joe Moreira, Relson and myself had been reffing matches all day, it was 1:30 AM. We finally had it down to 3 matts, the 3 of us just sat down and Carlson comes running up screaming for one on us to ref another match. Relson and Joe told Carlson to do it himself, Carlson got the most dumbest look on his face, stood there and look us over for a few moments, raised his hands, then went out and reffed the last few matches. The 3 of us were sooooo surprize to watch him, we started to joke with him, he finally started to smile at us and gave us the FINGER. There is some pic's somewhere out there.
Randy Bloom - Back in 2001 at the Arnolds, Joe Moreira, Relson and myself had been reffing matches all day, it was 1:30 AM. We finally had it down to 3 matts, the 3 of us just sat down and Carlson comes running up screaming for one on us to ref another match. Relson and Joe told Carlson to do it himself, Carlson got the most dumbest look on his face, stood there and look us over for a few moments, raised his hands, then went out and reffed the last few matches. The 3 of us were sooooo surprize to watch him, we started to joke with him, he finally started to smile at us and gave us the FINGER. There is some pic's somewhere out there.
That is SO Carlson.
Man, I really took his presence for granted. He used to come by the school often and sometimes a few of us would go to dinner or Rey and I would take Carlson somewhere and I never thought to take a picture with him. It was like asking your neighbor to take a picture with you--even if your neighbor is someone you really would like a picture with you always think you have the chance to do it tomorrow or a month from now. I never thought he'd pass so "young". 
Randy Bloom - Back in 2001 at the Arnolds, Joe Moreira, Relson and myself had been reffing matches all day, it was 1:30 AM. We finally had it down to 3 matts, the 3 of us just sat down and Carlson comes running up screaming for one on us to ref another match. Relson and Joe told Carlson to do it himself, Carlson got the most dumbest look on his face, stood there and look us over for a few moments, raised his hands, then went out and reffed the last few matches. The 3 of us were sooooo surprize to watch him, we started to joke with him, he finally started to smile at us and gave us the FINGER. There is some pic's somewhere out there.
Its funny to think of Carlson reffing BJJ. He was so gifted at 'working' the BJJ referees. I remember back at the Arnolds in 2002 or so there was a Brazilian referee who made a few questionable call against some Carlson Chicago guys. Carlson was really giving it to him - as I later learned through a translator - Carlson was basically telling the referee that he never one anything in Brazil because the Carlson Team was always beating him and now he was trying to get back at Carlson now!
Interestingly, Carlson told me that he used to referee soccer matches in Brazil. I laughed and told him that was hard to imagine - but he sounded a bit hurt and insisted he was a very good referee. I kept imaging a soccer player complaining to Carlson about a call, and Carlson telling him to shut up before one of his fighters whoops him. Heck, Carlson reffing would likely have alot less butt flopping in the game....
nobody could take BelFort down then? THats BS, I saw them all together plenty oF times, Alan Goes was the meanest, piss mean and made BelFort look like kids class back then. Those guys trained each round like it was NHB, they were on each other as iF they hated each other. Goes was the most technical and Fluid as any, maybe most on the team
Goes' guard is amazing.
HuntingtonPUNK - nobody could take BelFort down then? THats BS, I saw them all together plenty oF times, Alan Goes was the meanest, piss mean and made BelFort look like kids class back then. Those guys trained each round like it was NHB, they were on each other as iF they hated each other. Goes was the most technical and Fluid as any, maybe most on the team
Goes wasn't there that day.
I'm sure Vitor has been taken down in training, but that particular session he was in full beast mode and giving everyone he went with fits.
I have a few good ones, the first time I went to the Chicago I wore a white belt because I was never ranked in BJJ. So I trained under the master and Jeff Neal the vibe was truly electric and I was in awe.
After class Carlson would sell some tshirts and his book so I waited like kid waiting for his favorite baseball player to sign an autograph. He looked at me when I was up to him for some tshirts and said in a chuckling voice.. " desss not your first day of jiu jitsu.... You have-a good gwaard. Not your first day jiu jitsu. You good. I make you champion. First day of jiu jitsu white belt boooosheeet don't stop train in Jiu jitsu" all this while he patted my head like a puppy and shakes his index finger at me. I can say from that moment I knew why Master Carlson was looked up to and loved by everyone. He made me/everyone feel like they were the only student on the mats. And that was my first day at CGBJJ- Chicago.
ttt
Sperry has some of the best wallid training stories ever!
I've had my fair share of success in BJJ tournaments in the past, but none of the medals compare to the complement the Sr told me after I won at the Pan Ams. I was by default, a member of his team, but never trained with him since he was in Chicago and we were here in Socal, but our teams joined for the bigger competitions since my instructor was under Sr. During the finals match he was next to my coach and was also coaching, but I really didn't understand what he was saying. After the match he came up to me and said "you casca grossa." That to this day, is the only BJJ compliment I really care about.
A funny Wallid story:
After choking out Royce, Wallid gave himself a new nickname based off of that match (I can't remember what it was right now, does anyone remember?), and he started promoting himself for seminars and privates.
I was at one of the big SoCal tournaments (again can't remember which) and Wallid was there with a handful of flyers promoting himself. People were crowding around him as he walked around.
He and the crowd had gotten right next to me when I noticed that Rickson had arrived through the main doors. Since most people knew that Wallid was there, the whole place kinda went, "whoa!" when Rickson walked in.
I wondered what Wallid's reaction would be to Rickson being there, so I turned back around to see his expression. He had been about ten feet from me, but when I turned back around he had vanished. He was making his way through the crowd as fast as he could in the opposite direction from where Rickson was coming from, and his flyers were literally floating back and forth to the ground like in a cartoon.
That was one of the funniest things I ever saw.