Ahead of his match with Matheus Spinandelli on BJJ Stars 11: Gladiators, Isaque Bahiense has found himself in a war of words with Alliance São Paulo head Michael Langhi.

In an interview with BJJ Cria earlier late last month, Bahiense criticized Spirandelli for his recent performances. “He doesn’t know how to handle pressure, which is something I’m used to,” Bahiense said. “He always breaks in the middle of matches. It happened when he faced Andy (Murasaki), Braguinha (Gustavo Batista), and also with me.”

Spirandelli responded in the comments:

“It seems like he hasn’t wanted to deal with pressure in some time.”

Bahiense was once an Alliance representative, when he ran the Dream Art social project as a body within the Alliance program. Then, Dream Art athletes represented Alliance in competition.

Dream Art separated from Alliance in September 2021, just months before the 2021 IBJJF World Championships.

Tension between the two teams spiked when athletes from Dream Art faced off against their former teammates at Alliance. But that tension was most prominent at the IBJJF World Championships in June 2022.

Tempers spilled over after the 2022 IBJJF Worlds quarterfinal, where Bahiense defeated Spirandelli via split decision, leading to a scuffle in the crowd between Alliance and Dream Art supporters.

Speaking with BJJ Cria this week, Bahiense gave his take on the bad blood between the teams, explaining that he felt that many of the Dream Art and Alliance athletes remain friendly, but that most of the animosity has occurred between the team leaders.

Bahiense added that he felt scorned that Langhi, the head coach at Alliance in São Paulo, removed Bahiense his photo from the world champion mural days after the teams separated.

Langhi didn’t pull punches in his response to Bahiense or his assessment of the 2018 world champion’s style in his own interview with BJJ Cria.

“Isaque is a great competitor — Not a great fighter, but a great competitor,” Langhi said, "The main aspect of Isaque’s game is physical ability. He’s a very explosive and strong guy. But what we realize is that this physical ability ends up diminishing year over year. That’s what we’ve noticed in his latest matches. It’s completely normal, it comes with age. I’ve felt it myself. So it’s normal to lose physical abilities. But Isaque, without those powers of explosion and strength, is just a common athlete with nothing special.”

Langhi added, “I think what’s more important than a photo on a wall is that Isaque trains and makes weight,” in an apparent dig at Bahiense’s diet and discipline.

Bahiense was quick to respond in turn:

“I should have learned from him and built a career on steroids but I preferred to be natural and chubby.”

The spat between the team leads shows no signs of slowing down, but it will naturally come to a head in the superfight between Isaque Bahiense and Alliance representative Matuesz Spirandelli at BJJ Stars 11: Gladiators on Sept. 9.

Watch the full event on FloGrappling (in all countries outside of Brazil) on on bjjstars.tv in Brazil.