Thursday, January 31, 2013

Whatever happened to Ana Michele Tavares?

With all this interest in the women's 115lb division, the question I always ask is why hasn't anyone called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu whiz Ana Michele Tavares? It also gives me the opportunity to announce that DEEP has started a Youtube channel at DEEP2001TV. The match they have posted is Ana Michele Tavares winning over Yuka Tsuji with a triangle armbar on July 13, 2003. This was Ana Michele's debut match and a big upset. Tsuji would get her revenge with a win on the Sept. 6, 2007 SMACKGIRL show. Ana Michele's only other loss was to Megumi Fujii. Her record is 7-2. Ana Michele had beaten Kyoko Takabayashi and Lisa Ellis on her way to the final of SMACKGIRL's 2008 World Remix Tournament when SMACKGIRL lost a major sponsor and were forced to suspend operations. Yuichi Ozono bought the company and renamed it JEWELS. The tournament never finished. We haven't seen Ana Michele Tavares since then. She hasn't retired. She still trains at Nova Uniao in Brazil and said in an interview a couple of years ago that she's still in fighting shape and was waiting for someone to call her. She hasn't fought in Brazil and to get a call, I think she should be active. But it might be worth a phone call to see if she still wants to fight. She was a quality fighter and given an opportunity, she could still be good.

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