Sunday, August 30, 2009

Liveblog: Carmine Zocchi's New School

Local jiu-jitsu black belt Carmine Zocchi opened a new school today in Ridgewood, Queens, and MMA Journalist was on hand to snap a couple pics and listen to some tales from Carmine's early days training under Marcelo Mello. Apparently back then it was commonplace for Mello to field challenges from streetfighting or karate yahoos who were unaware that grappling was an essential part of fighting, so Carmine was his inadvertant enforcer, injecting jiu-jitsu into fistfights while honing his craft. It is of course a kinder, gentler jiu-jitsu now, with Carmine playing the role of teacher and his new digs here in Ridgewood serving as the BAMA FightNight and ROC vet's homebase. Incidently, there appears to be a boxing/kickboxing gym downstairs, so his facilty has it all.

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