Pablo Popovitch has never been my favorite grappler.
That is in no way a knock on the guy's skills - which are "Top of the Food Chain" as Joe Rogan puts it. Part of my aversion to Popovitch is that he is perennially on the opposite side of the ledger against Marcelo Garcia. And I root for Marcelinho every chance I get. But I know that another part of it has to do with my wrestling self-loathing issue, about which I've already said too much ...
Nevertheless, in the same way I've come to embrace guys like Jake Shields who have blended their wrestling with their jiu jitsu beautifully, I think I'm going to have to put Pablo on the same list after reading his latest in Gracie Magazine talking about the scheduled appearance of catch wrestler and twice-accused performance enhancer, Josh Barnett, this weekend at the IBJJF No-Gi Mundial:
“Someone has to beat him and represent our Jiu-Jitsu. After all, we can’t let a guy who does catch-wrestling win the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship. I’m going to fight in the absolute and hope to put on a show. I’m feeling great, and my confidence is through the roof. One hundred percent of my game is mental and that helps a lot. I did a lot of preparations for ADCC 2009, and I’m still in my best shape.”
To get this Pablo Popovitch party started right, here's a recent Grapplers' Quest video of Pablo in action that just arrived in my inbox a few minutes ago.
