Friends
Life is a long journey to walk alone. That would be hard without our friends who helped us on the way. We are grateful to them for sharing their knowledge, training with us, supporting us and most importantly considering us as their friends...
Christian Graugart
Denmark
Ümit Kemal Yilmaz
Turkey
Rafael & Guilherme Mendes
BrazilThe Mendes Brothers, began training jiu jitsu about 10 years ago, in Rio Claro, a very small town located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His cousin Thiago Mendes, who is now a personal trainer and brown belt, was responsible for bringing the brothers in the martial art, was with his cousin who learned their first steps.
With the arrival of coach Ramon Lemos in the city, started a great friendship, the brothers always trained with the goal of being champion, not only in jiu jitsu, but champion in life!
With much perseverance and dedication the dream became reality, Rafael and Guilherme Mendes won the major championships, such as World championship, European, Brazilian and ADCC.
We met with them at a seminar in Corvos MMA Academy, Istanbul. They showed a lot of techniques and guide us. They rolled with everybody and give special instructions. It was an opportunity to understand the minds of champions rather than another day at the mat. Wining a lot of world class titles is not about athleticism or technique but dedicated minds.
During question and answer one of the guys asked some special move that he learned in the past. Move was tricky but during transition opponent might take the back and gain advantage. Although move was great Mendes Brothers didnt like it because of that risk. Here comes one of the lessons for us in the seminar: Never give your back!. That was a privilege to know them. We hope our paths crossed again in the future.
Vedat Abdurrahmanzade
TRNCVedat Abdurrahmanzade was born in North Cyprus and began his active sports life in Famagusta Zendo Kai Kickboxing Muay Thai gym at the age of 15. After a while, went to England and continue to pursuit the combat sports training.
He trained thaiboxing in Bromley and fought fullcontact K1 kickboxing at Croydon GYM. Also attended street fighting classes for a period of time with instructor Cavit Hacimevlüt who was an undefeated off-license bare knuckle fighter in London
He currently holds a lot of titles and success including Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus official Stage 1 Kickboxing Trainer Diploma, 2nd Dan Black Belt Certificate and Diploma of the 1st Stage Boxing Referee.
He never quit and stopped learning during his career, tried to understand other martial arts and studied them with all aspects such as wing chun, tae kwon do, wrestling, judo and hapkido. Recently he got interested in mixed martial arts and has brought together technical knowledge and international experience which he gained over the years for MMA.
