There was alot of trash talking regarding Joe's No-Gi tournament held last Saturday. Here is a response from him. Classy response.....

"I have been told there is some negative stuff on the Internet about me and my last tournament. Let me first say that I agree with much of it. I have been doing tournaments for well over 20 years and this is the most disappointing one of all. The worst one of all my tournaments.

I was prepared to give you all of the excuses, but I don't thing anyone really wants to hear them. I am going to just speak from my heart. First I apologize and promise that the next one will be much better. I beg everyone to please forget this competition and please give me another chance to correct all my mistakes. I am planning to have another one August 22nd at Santa Ana High School. The cost of entry will be just $35. Kids under 10 and women will be able to compete for free.

I want everyone to understand, what I do, I do from my heart. We had a beautiful location, nice medals, plaques, and T-shirts. The tournament cost about $10,000 to put together. We only got back around $8,000. I promised to give half the income to charity to help kids who are less fortunate than I was. I lost about $6,000, but I am still very happy because I was able to do something for people who need help. I am 43 years old with a wife and 4 kids, and maybe half way through my life. I have made a lot of mistakes in the first half, but the rest of my life I want to do something good. Not for me, but for people who are less fortunate than I am.

The only things I ask of you is to give me another chance to make a good tournament and please give me a lot of ideas so I can help to make the sport of submission grappling better in the USA. This is a new sport in America. And this is an American sport, not Brazilian or Japanese. So I ask grapplers of America for your help and advice.

Of course I will never be able to make everyone happy. Even Jesus who has no competition has problems making everyone happy, so if I can just make a small percentage happy, I know I am heading in the right direction.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me and supported me at the competition. Joao Pierini, Randy Bloom, Eddie Bravo, Kami,Wrestling Federation, my sister Claudia, my wife Carla, my sponsors Silverstar and Neck Break, and all the others who I may have missed, including all competitors who supported me by competing. I would also like to thank Master Roberto Leitao. For me Carlos and Helio are the fathers of BJJ, but Master Leitao is the father of submission grappling, and those who took his seminar have an idea of what I mean. I am happy to announce that he is planning on coming back to the next tournament.

Finally, I would like to make a public apology to Randy Bloom. He has been my student and good friend for 12 years. In my opinion he is one of the very best referees in grappling. I am proud that just hopefully my teaching had something to do with his success. I spoke to him in a way that embarrassed him at the tournament. I already called him and apologized, but since I embarrassed him publicly I wanted to apologize publicly.

If anyone wants to talk to me they can e-mail me at dmdarrow@cox.net or call me at (949) 254-3554".

Thank You


Joe Moreira