SANTA CRUZ — Of the more than 800 fighters and martial arts fans who filled the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on Saturday for the opening day of the 14th annual U.S. Open of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the toughest person in the building may have been the gregarious 70-year-old man handing out the medals on stage.
His name is Francisco Mansor, better known as Master Mansor to the fighters who approached him throughout the day to bow and shake his hand. He is one of seven men in the world to achieve the rank of ninth-degree red belt, the highest level of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Mansor began practicing martial arts 55 years ago in Rio de Janeiro as a protege of Helio Gracie, who founded the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu along with his brother Carlos Gracie.
Mansor opened his own jiu-jitsu school in 1965, and when he wasn’t teaching, worked as a police officer for 35 years, patrolling the rough streets of Rio. He has dimpled scars from bullet holes dotting his body to prove it.
“I’ve spent my life teaching and fighting bad guys,” Mansor said in his thick Portuguese accent. “I tried to never teach somebody to be a bad guy.”
Mansor has taught the martial art to more than 20,000 students, including Claudio Franca, who owns academies in Santa Cruz and San Jose and hosts the U.S. Open, one of the largest jiu-jitsu tournaments in the country.
The competition is run by three black belts who trained under Mansor — Franca, Marcus Vinicius and Mansor’s
nephew Alvaro Mansor. Mansor said any black belt he trains is like his child, and any black belt they train is like his grandchild.
“I am biased because he is my son, but the truth is this a beautiful competition and Claudio has helped change the sport,” Mansor said as he sat at the tournament directors’ table watching four matches taking place simultaneously on mats laid over the Civic’s hardwood floors. “Brazilian jiu-jitsu has come down a long road.”
The sport gained prominence in the 1990s when Helio Gracie’s son Royce Gracie won three of the first four Ultimate Fighting Championships using Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques to take down bigger opponents. The fighting style is based on grappling and ground fighting with the goal of forcing opponents into choke holds and joint locks.
“Brazilian jiu-jitsu is action and reaction. It’s all technique, not based on strength,” Mansor said. “[After] 55 years in jiu-jitsu, it’s easy for me to look and see who is a white belt [the least skilled] and who is not. White belts try to use a lot of power because they lack technique.”
Fighters in this weekend’s contest, which continues today at 9 a.m., said it was a honor to have Mansor there watching them compete.
“It’s very inspirational, especially knowing the lineage he comes from. It almost feels like family,” said Carlos Melo, a San Jose police officer and second-degree black belt under Franca.
Santa Cruz’s Nate Mendelsohn, 19, has trained under Franca for 10 years and taught at his academy for three. He won four matches by submission Saturday to win the purple belt lightweight title, and has never lost a match in four years competing at the U.S. Open. He tapped his fist over his heart when speaking of Mansor.
“He’s one of the few grandmasters in the world. He’s history watching you,” Mendelsohn said. “It’s extra special to me because he’s my master’s master.”
Mansor now runs a school in New York, where he moved in 1999 after retiring from police work. He said he made a lot of enemies fighting criminals in the crime-infested city.
“I had to move so I don’t die,” Mansor said.
In 1994, Mansor was shot four times in the stomach by two gunmen on motorcycles, according to Franca. He spent 37 days in the hospital. He’s been shot 11 times in his life, but said a lifetime of martial arts allowed him to survive the injuries.
“Brazilian jiu-jitsu is not fighting, it’s a system of life. The fighter will do nothing that’s no good for him — no drugs, no drinking. He eats well and maintains condition,” Mansor said. “Honor, character, discipline, education and courage — those are what a good jiu-jitsu school gets you.”
Franca, now a fourth-degree black belt, said Mansor is just as enthusiastic and energetic as he was when Franca started training with him at 6 years old.
“He’s still training every day. He wants to come out every year and be involved and participate. We have to make sure he’s not around when we’re setting up because he’ll try to help. A 70-year-old man doesn’t need to be lifting these things,” Franca said.
It’s tough to keep a ninth-degree red belt from doing whatever he wants.
NOTES: Other winners from the county Saturday included Claudio Franca students Eric Anderson and Dylan Tescher. Anderson, a student at UC Santa Cruz, won the light heavyweight purple belt division. Tescher won the purple belt middle-master division. In the prestigious black belt open division, which features fighters from all weight classes, Paul Castillo of Half Moon Bay will face Brazil’s Carlos Diego today in the final.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/sports/ci_13588408
