Bernardo Faria Looks Forward to 2016 After 'Dream Come True' in 2015

Bernardo Faria is coming off the biggest year in his career becoming the World Champion at both his weight and open divisions. We talked to Bernardo to find out what he attributes his recent success to and what he is looking forward to in 2016.

"It was a dream come true. I have been doing jiu-jitsu since I was 14 years old. My dream was always to win Worlds open class as a black belt. I was getting very close. I won as a purple belt, got 2nd as a black belt in 2011, 3rd in 2013, 3rd in 2014. So I was always very close. I had won all the other open class except Worlds.

"I had won Brazilian Nationals, the Pan Ams twice, Europeans, so the only one I was missing was Worlds. Then last year I won double gold at Pan Ams and Worlds, it was the best year of my life. I always knew I could win, but it was just another year, I thought let's see what's going to happen and then I won double gold. There were years where I was feeling better and more confident and I didn't win. last year I felt normal and it was my best year ever."

"It was a bunch of things together. Last year I was two years training here at Marcelo's. I think the training here help me, because it's all different games. I can train with Marcelo as well. There are a bunch of people here with different games than in Sao Paulo, that's something that made my training harder because it was all different.

"Second thing, after my finals with Rodolfo Vieira in 2014, I missed three single legs so I started doing wrestling. The wrestling helped me a lot. And another thing in 2014 I started doing physical conditioning."