We want to congratulate Simon Chandra for becoming a world champion. Simon won the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship winning four fights to get the gold. He had worked so hard for this competition and got the result he was after.
Simon is a great kid. At 13, he shows the maturity of someone much older. He is respectful, passionate, hard working, and very humble. He will take this win in his stride. He has big plans and he is working hard on achieving them. I have not met a person as focused and as clear on what they want in life as I have from Simon, especially at such a young age. Many people have dreams at that age, which we all need to have, but Simon is actually taking the steps to make them come true. He has a loving family who would be so proud of this achievement and he has the best mentor possible in Bruno. In fact he has many great people around him including Igor, Aaron, and the rest of the SJJA family.
Simon had an ankle injury leading into this competition which was a bit of a setback but he done well to take care of it and make sure he had it right for the worlds in Abu Dhabi. He was also really dedicated to his nutrition as he had to maintain his weight during the time he was injured. It is really good working with an athlete like Simon. He takes everything we say on board and he gets the results because of it. He didn't have to panic to cut weight or anything like that. We had it planned and he sat at weight for the final two to three weeks of preparation. This allowed him to have energy at training, not have to stress about making weight too much, and kept his strength.
