If you push me, then [MURILO SANTANA, JIU JITSU COACH]
you will lose your hips and have to get up on the right side. Okay. But it is better to stay close and lift from behind. The joke in the house is… [ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CHEF, AUTHOR, TV PERSONALITY] [ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CHEF, AUTHOR, TV PERSONALITY]
my daughter runs up to me and suddenly punches me in the stomach and I tell her that the rule is : not dad, go hit mom, she has squares. She trains [IGOR GRACIE, BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU COACH]
as hard as a professional fighter. [IGOR GRACIE, BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU COACH]
Every day he spends three or four hours here. And then he goes somewhere else, does conditioning training, does yoga, does everything a professional fighter does for a professional fight. [FIGHTLAND] [FIGHTLAND MEETS] [OTTAVIA BOURDAIN] I want this to be my livelihood. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I wish more women would like jiu-jitsu, with the fact that now women are fighting [OTTAVIA BOURDAIN, BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU BLUE BELT]
[OTTAVIA BOURDAIN, BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU BLUE BELT]
in the UFC.
[OTTAVIA BOURDAIN, BRAZILIAN JIU- JITSU BLUE RIBBON] [OTTAVIA BOURDAIN, BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU BLUE RIBBON]
More women will approach Brazilian jiu-jitsu and it's good because it's never realistic when you fight a man and then compete with women . Sometimes they try not to use too much force with you, but they don't realize how resilient we women are. I just love to do it. I love the feeling of punching and kicking and it was… pretty good for that. I think this came first. Then the tatami mats, then our little friend here. The gis spoiling everywhere. Somehow he found time to go to the gym and stay in fantastic shape. But I started noticing that she was enjoying the gym. She was enjoying beating up the men, especially. And it all started there, it started escalating into MMA training with a focus on jiu-jitsu, to the point where it was becoming a full-time job. It has the same level as any other blue belt in the United States, on the planet. She went to Brazil as a white belt and beat a fairly experienced competitor as a blue belt.
Ottavia was a white belt and defeated a blue belt. And in his last competition, he won one and lost one. You know, it's there. It is getting better. It is a learning that never ends. I mean, when you do kickboxing you learn how to punch you learn how to kick, how to throw knees and elbows, and then you perfect it, but with jiu-jitsu there are new techniques to learn every day, you can create your own techniques, it's very mental, that's how they say It's like chess for your body.
You really have to think. He is very intellectual. It's not just physical. I struggled a bit in high school. I took judo classes for a couple of years when I was 13 or 14 years old. I understand, I like to see it. I understand why Ottavia does it, but at this point in my life, I prefer a quiet life, in those moments when I'm not working. I could be, you know, using my husband's credit card and spending my days at Barney's, getting manicures and doing my hair, but no, I need to keep busy. If I'm not busy, I go crazy. I really like the idea that she can kick the butt of anyone in any bar she walks into. Or he can definitely subdue them, if they don't expect it, you know. I grew up in Italy, in a small town of 2,000 inhabitants. Manerba del Garda As a child, I played sports at school but had never done any kind of martial art. I fell in love with an Irish musician.
He got a contract in the United States. I decided to follow him here and my parents told me, "Okay, you're not going to have any money from us anymore." “So, you are independent. Do what you want, but now you're in charge." Some friends of my ex-boyfriend found me a job in the restaurant industry. And he was working a couple of days after he arrived.
I started as a hostess and ended up as a general manager. From the time I started working as a manager, you know, I was working 14 or 16 hour days. I started working at Le Bernardin, where I met Eric Ripert who was the one who eventually, years later, introduced me to my husband. So basically he knew how hard he was working. He knew how much my husband traveled, and he thought, that we would be the perfect couple, like for one night, or something, because we were both very busy, and he had no idea that we would end up in a serious relationship. Married with a daughter, but… He actually warned her, “she's crazy”, AND (Anthony) told her, “I mean, look at me”. What happened was he went to Beirut to record a show when the war started and they bombed the airport and he got stuck there, it was very dramatic, when he finally came back, that same day, we conceived our daughter because we were like, you know what ?, life is too short.
I basically worked until I started having contractions. I was pacing in my heels, up and down, up stairs, scaring everyone because I fell every five minutes. I couldn't stop so I had my Baby Shower at the restaurant. And a couple of days later I was in labor. My daughter already likes sports, she loves going to Gracie Academy with her mom. My daughter is six years old, the day will come when little Timmy at the next desk is going to pull her hair, and I like the idea that she can beat up little Timmy. a good hiding. When it comes to jiu-jitsu, you are already familiar with many principles. I mean, they train arm bars together.
I'm very happy that my will be able to hold her own, and that she's not prone to taking [ __ ] from any boy and then with that kind of training that she won't have to take [ __ ] from any man in her life, so… Yes, I'm very happy with that. Being a jiu-jitsu instructor is the most rewarding profession you can have because it changes people's lives. You see a guy walking in here with no training, he's shy, he has low self-esteem, and a couple of months later the guy just from the way he walks, he's a totally different person. [NICK DIAZ, WELTERWEIGHT]
Do you live here now? [NICK DIAZ, WELTERWEIGHT]
No, I live in New York. Oh, okay, that's good. I actually took a seminar with your brother. Really?!
Like two weeks ago. Hello. I started watching MMA fights, especially the UFC, on television. And I had never thought about wrestling or jiu-jitsu. I just liked to watch them and then I remember going to the Prudential Center to a Gina Carano fight, it was in 2008.
And I was like, “wow, girls can do that”. That was very good. It was very inspiring. But she still wasn't convinced to try training on the ground. And I tried it and I liked it even more than muay thai. This is like my second home. Although sometimes it seems like it's my first house, because I spend more time here than in my real house. I'm not scared that he's going to get hurt. A: Because I'm sure he won't get hurt. B: Because he really doesn't care. How do you like it? One time she came home with a black eye, I think she complained, but she walked around feeling pretty good about herself. Her strength is definitely her athleticism, she's very athletic. He's strong, he's got good cardio, he can roll for over an hour without stopping.
He's smart, he learns things very quickly. I like being muscular, my husband doesn't like it, but to me, a woman with muscles is beautiful. I like to be marked, I like to have a marked abdomen. I like having big thighs. I like having a wide neck and my husband hates it. Because for some reason, the first thing that shows muscle is my neck and it's like: Ugh. If I have a fight with someone, it better be over in 3 or 4 seconds because otherwise it'll be like… my chances aren't good. My ultimate goal will definitely be to open an academy obviously affiliated with Renzo Gracie, who is my inspiration and role model. You know, I wake up and I'm restless, you know, when I get here I'm like. "Uh-uh-uh." And everybody's like, okay. Let's get ready for Ottavia. You know, and I roll and roll and roll until I can't take it anymore. [FIGHTLAND].
