Text and photos by Michael Sears | Several of the top-ranked UAEJJF competitors took part in an intense training session at the GF Team Headquarters in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam.

The Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu World Tour 2017-18 will host the fourth of five Grand Slam events for the season on January 12-13.

Featured in this training session are...

• UAEJJF male black belt seventh-ranked Jorge Nakamura (56kg) 
• 10th-ranked Jaime Canuto (85kg) 
• 16th-ranked Patrick Gaudio (94kg) 
• Third-ranked female brown/black belt Amanda Nogueira (55kg) 
• Eighth-ranked male brown belt Carlos Oliveira (56kg)

Both Nogueira and Oliveira were the champions earlier this season at the Grand Slams in Los Angeles and Rio.

Training in the sweltering Southern Hemisphere summer heat of Meier (located in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro) the crew put in two training sessions led by seventh-degree coral belt and GF Team founder Julio Cesar.

The day started off with a two-hour drilling session in the morning. After a lunch break, the athletes returned for three hours of intense sparring in the afternoon, at the peak of the Rio summer heat.

In the final stages of their preparations for an event on the other side of the globe, the athletes from GF Team Meier will no doubt be ready for war next weekend in Abu Dhabi.

Watch the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam LIVE or On Demand on FloGrappling

All photos by Michael Sears

Jaime Canuto (top) and Patrick Gaudio roll

Jorge Nakamura 

Carlos Oliveira training with Amanda Monteiro

Jaime Canuto 

Jorge Nakamura with the squeeze

Gaudio gets an armbar

Canuto and Gaudio rest

Post-training