Jul-1-2008
Jorge Gurgel: Goodbye Teacher, Hello Fighter (For Now, At Least)
By Elliot Worsell
As a youngster growing up in Fortaleza, Brazil, Jorge Gurgel taught the locals how to speak English. Fast-forward a decade and Gurgel now teaches predominantly English-speakers the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It’s a unique and compelling 360 that slaps the exclamation mark on Gurgel’s astonishing rise from waiting tables and waiting for leftovers at American diners to cleaning up 155-pounders in the UFC. So which was harder to teach - explaining verbs and adverbs or escaping triangle chokes?
“Good question,” laughs the affable Brazilian. “They’re both easy. English is a very easy language to pick up. I’m very good at picking up things like languages just as I’m very good at picking up body motions. I can dance any dance and play any instrument. I’m horrible with directions, though. For example, I get lost coming home from my gym at least twice a week. I listen to music, lose concentration, miss signs and suddenly I don’t know where I am.”
Gurgel loses his bearings on this question, too, by the sounds of it. I throw him an A-to-Z and get him back on track.
“Teaching English was easy and teaching jiu-jitsu is just as easy,” explains Gurgel, a man who has helped mold UFC stars Rich Franklin, Dustin Hazelett and Matt Brown, amongst many others. “I’m very honest in the way I teach jiu-jitsu and I’m very hands-on with each and every student I work with. It’s always a blast watching a shy, skinny little kid walk into the gym and then one day walk out as a UFC standout. That’s what it’s all about.”
Gurgel hit the momentary ‘stop’ button on his revolving door of future champions six weeks ago. He shut up shop. The reason? Lacklustre performances. Only we’re not talking about the students here. We’re talking about the teacher. Despite being 3-3 in the UFC since signing up over two years ago, Gurgel has yet to record a UFC ‘win’. Oh, he’s come out on top a few times, but he’s still searching for a victory - to feel victorious.
“I’m still waiting for my first win in the Octagon,” emphasises Gurgel, 15-3 overall in his MMA career. “I’ve been disappointed with every single UFC performance so far. Yeah, I’ve had some wins and, yes, I won Fight of the Night once (for his back-and-forth scrap with Diego Saraiva at UFC 73) but, to be honest, I don’t ever want to get Fight of the Night. That was my worst performance. I should never be getting awards like that for the opponents I’ve been fighting. I won’t mind those awards against guys like BJ Penn, Sean Sherk or Kenny Florian, but I shouldn’t be getting competitive with guys like I’ve been fighting.”
Gurgel continued: “I’ve been waiting for a feeling of accomplishment ever since I first stepped into the Octagon and it’s never arrived. I want that feeling I see a lot of other fighters get when they close their eyes, scream at the top of their lungs and jump on the fence after they’ve stopped someone. I’ve never felt that feeling. Whether I win or lose you’ll always see me with my head down thinking, ‘s**t, I did not fight well’.”
Gurgel, BJJ expert and all-round nice guy, was kicked out of his own school six weeks ago. Packing his bags and ditching appointments, Gurgel set off for Seattle. He hooked up with Matt ‘The Wizard’ Hume and knuckled down in preparation for his fight this Saturday (July 5) at UFC 86. The coach needed to be coached again.
“I feel the best I’ve ever felt, especially mentally,” admits the 31-year-old Gurgel. “I’ve always been everyone else’s coach and now was the time to get one of my own. I’ve never had my own coach, someone to rely on and someone to assist me. I got the best in the business in Matt Hume and he told me to come to Seattle and I did. I left everything behind and became just a student again. It was like going back to school. I did everything he told me to and was his student. I’m excited to have the chance to display all the new skills I learned under Matt. I’m a totally different animal now, man.
“I’m just a fighter and it’s the best feeling in the world. I love coaching – in fact, I can’t wait to go back and teach – but I now know I need to separate the two things.”
Separating the two loves of Gurgel’s life was similar to deciding whether to keep his cat or his dog. There’s a reason why it’s taken the expansion of 12 nationwide BJJ schools for this moment to come. Gurgel’s an ambitious character. “Stubborn” is the best-suited word, he’ll probably tell you.
“I always thought I could do both,” he says. “I really did. I saw Renzo Gracie and a lot of other people do it, but my schools just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was a good problem to have in a way because it meant the schools were doing well. There came a time, though, where everyone wanted me to teach them or be in the corner with them and it just got too much. I became very stressed out with it all and it affected the way I was competing. I’ve been producing really sub-par performances in the UFC and it’s time to change that.”
One figures now probably isn’t a good time to fight Jorge Gurgel. He appears to be at a place - mentally as well as physically – that few fighters are able to reach. He’s hooked up with sports psychiatrist Brian Cain and has got his “head sorted out now”. There appears to be no fear of reality. No cover up. Gurgel admits his failings inside the Octagon and doesn’t offer excuses, reasons or complaints as to why he’s underperfomed. One thing’s certain – it’s not due to a lack of talent. After all, a run of nine submission wins preceded his first trip to the Octagon.
“I want to get back to doing that,” says Gurgel, who has frustratingly travelled the long-route each time he’s stepped into the Octagon. “I have no interest in decision wins anymore. They make me sick. It annoys me each and every time. It’s nothing to do with the big show – I love the crowd, the lights, the noise and everything else – it’s just that I became so busy and so distracted with my schools and students that I lost a little something. I’ve now got that something back.”
Saturday’s opponent Cole Miller, 13-3, has been warned. The Augusta native is gearing up to meet a man in Gurgel who is not only intent on pulling out the win, but doing it early and in style. A proper ‘victory’.
“He’s a very well-rounded fighter,” remarks Gurgel on Miller. “He’s very tall for the weight. He keeps saying he’s not worried about my ground game, which is probably one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard. How can you not be worried about my ground game? He should be very worried about my ground game.
“Hey, Cole’s a confident kid, he’s got good jiu-jitsu, he’s calm and he’ll come to fight. He’s the guy taking a huge step up in competition and he’s known me for a very long time. I’m not about ‘needing’ to do things anymore. It’s all about ‘wanting’. I want to fight, I want to win and I want to absolutely dismantle this guy from head to toe. It’s a really, really bad time to fight Jorge Gurgel and unfortunately for Cole he’s right in front of me.”
Best-laid plans often disintegrate in the heat of battle. It’s a conundrum Gurgel has encountered in the past, of course. He’s brawled when he should have boxed. Kicked when he should have punched. Stood when he should have gone to ground. Twisted when he should stuck. It’s all led to one thing in Gurgel’s mind – a big UFC bust.
“I get caught up slugging mostly because I have so much fun,” he admits. “I get so excited in there and if they give me one I’m going to give them two back. I get caught up in the moment and I’m training myself out of that mode. I need to fight a strategic fight and fight my fight.
“I’ve really worked hard on developing my mental game this time round. This is the beginning of a new fighter. A fighter determined to show his skills and not his bravado. I know I’m tough, I know I have heart and now I want to show what I’ve learned in over 16 years of training in martial arts. I want to go back to being a technical fighter.”
Gurgel’s performances inside the Octagon are often perplexing. Seemingly preferring to stand-up and slug rather than head to the ground and display his language of choice, Gurgel presents a hard-to-read figure. He’s bilingual in the Octagon and more than capable of striking – but now may be the time to express his natural tongue.
“I haven’t gone to the ground, man,” he says, almost despondently. “Brian Cain would say it is a mental block. Knowledge minus action equals nothing. That basically means if you have all the knowledge on the ground – and everyone knows how good you are there – but you refuse to use those skills you’re just as useless as the guy who knows nothing on the ground and avoids being there. A student of mine had another theory for it. He said I was afraid of going to the ground because everyone knows my reputation down there and that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to live up to expectations. At first I was in denial with that one – I thought it was bulls**t – but maybe he was right.”
Gurgel’s refusal to showcase his unique selling point is akin to David Beckham refusing to take free kicks anymore.
“I enjoy standing up,” says Gurgel. “I have lots of confidence in my chin. I’ve fought with a broken jaw and still never been dropped in my life. I’ll stand up on Saturday until I’ve hurt Cole pretty badly and he’ll want to go to the ground. There’s no way he can stand with me so I’ll bust him up a little bit on my feet then go to the ground with his will broken and do what I want.”
Saturday night marks the beginning of a new chapter in Gurgel’s life and career. If past history is anything to go by, the smart money’s on Gurgel turning his fortunes around and notching that elusive first ‘win’. After all, this is a guy who has followed his dream from Brazil to America to Brazil and back again. He’s taught, learned, waited tables - you name it, he’s likely done it – just to keep the journey on track. For once, Jorge seems to know the direction he’s going. The A-to-Z is redundant when it comes to his goals.
“It’s my childhood dream,” says Gurgel. “It’s not about the money. I don’t care if another organisation offers me hundreds of thousands to fight. My goal in life from the age of 15 was to be a part of the UFC. I don’t care if the UFC pay me $5,000 for every fight for the rest of my career. I didn’t get into the sport when it was fashionable or trendy. Everybody nowadays wants to be a fighter to get girls and sign autographs. I do this thing to test myself and to honour my students and my schools. Half of my life has been dedicated to this sport and I want the UFC to be my home forever.”
Although the spotlight has now shifted from the students to the teacher, it wouldn’t be worth interviewing Gurgel if the name Dustin Hazelett didn’t pop up somewhere – especially in light of the Kentucky native’s piece of jazzman-esque improvisation on Josh Burkman at The Ultimate Fighter finale.
“I did not teach him that,” laughs Jorge in reference to Hazelett’s exquisite whizzer to flying arm-bar finisher. “No way. The first thing I said to him on the phone was ‘man, I did not teach you that!’. He just said, ‘well Jorge, I did it anyway!’. Dustin has never done that in his life. He’s my kid. I’ve been with him since he was like 14 years old. He just pulled it straight out of his ass. Once you get to a certain level you stop learning specific moves and start developing your own style and concepts. It was instinct. I don’t think he was thinking for one moment – it just happened – and he wound up pulling one of the greatest armbars I’ve ever seen.”
Like student, like teacher? It sounds a little backwards but, come Saturday night, professor Jorge Gurgel hopes it rings true
Tune in on Saturday July 5th on Pay Per View to see how Jorge performs.
