Varun Mehrotra, 2021 IBJJF Worlds | Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast - 122

Welcome to ‘The Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals. Tune in each week, Wednesdays at 2pm CST, on our ‘Bloody Elbow Presents Podcast Network’, for interviews, current events, and analysis of everything going on in the world of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling!

Your host is Danny O’Donnell. In addition to hosting this podcast, he is an MMA journalist contributing here at Bloody Elbow, as well as at Black Belt Mag. O’Donnell himself is a BJJ black belt who trains at Marcio Andre Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Phoenix, AZ.

We debuted the show last week at ‘Episode 121’, since we are picking up the pod off of Libsyn Directory, as its been running awhile now under its own steam. Over time, we will have all previous 120 episodes uploaded into our Bloody Elbow Presents Playlist for the show, for your listening pleasure. O’Donnell’s goal is to turn this podcast into the biggest Jiu-Jitsu Podcast out there and we intend to help him get as far as he can, so be sure to join us and check it out!

This week, Danny’s guest is Professional Jiu-Jitsu Athlete, Australian Varun Mehrotra, who competes in the Blue Belt Rooster Weight Division, and recently won at the IBJJF Worlds 2021. He trains under Murilo Santana at Unity Jiu-Jitsu in New York City, NY. They discussed the 2021 Worlds, training at Unity, gi and no-gi competition, and his plans for 2022.

Enjoy the interview! Here is a run down of the questions, be sure to listen in…

At 1:01 — Q1: Can you talk about what it was like training in NYC for the Worlds 2021?

At 4:04 — Q2: Besides training M-Th at the gym, were you doing any type of training on your own that was really beneficial, maybe strength training and conditioning, or just extra drilling?

At 5:48 — Q3: What kind of solo drills do you do and how do you find them to be beneficial?

At 8:19 — Q4: Another thing you do is break down matches online. Is that another big part of your training?

At 9:40 — Q5: You won the Blue Belt Division – Rooster weight at the 2021 Worlds… Can you talk about what it was like when you got there and talk us through some of your matches?

At 11:52 — Q6: Going into it did you know you were going to have to play both top and bottom or did you have a more specific strategy but that’s just how the matches played out?

At 13:10 — Q7: Mendes is preparing all of his fighters to win in the Black Belt Division, regardless their current division… Do you study the black belts in your division, the light featherweights, or whoever you are going to be competing against?

At 14:44 — Q8: You mentioned ‘Pato’. Was there anyone else, any of the Black Belts, who really impressed you, who you think people should go back and watch… to either learn from or get inspiration from?

At 16:11 — Q9: Is there anyone at Unity Jiu-Jitsu who you think people don’t know about yet, outside yourself, we should know and that they are gonna know in a couple of years?

At 17:03 — Q10: When watching the blue belts recently, there was this one really tall Blue Belt Featherweight from Unity who was just killing it, do you know who that was?

At 17:54 — Q11: How do you manage training on different continents, do you have a completely different set up for training when you are in Australia vs when you are in New York?

At 22:40 — Q12: What’s Something about Murillo’s teaching style that you think people are gonna really resonate with, that’s really going to help them that they may not have seen from other coaches – on his new video?

At 24:52 — Q13: Can you talk us through how Murillo did at the Worlds this year?

At 26:40 — Q14: What was your overall opinion of the Worlds and how that fits into the current landscape of jiu-jitsu now?

At 28:10 — Q15: I have to ask you about the Nicholas Meregali situation… What was your opinion on that? What can you tell me?

At 30:30 — Q16: What were your favorite matches to watch?

At 36:46 — Q17: Do you see yourself transitioning to no-gi at some point or at least adding it to your training so you can add Super Fights and career progression by doing both gi and no-gi?

At 38:00 — Q18: What do you see yourself doing outside of jiu-jitsu that would be as fun and as fulfilling as jiu-jitsu?

At 41:14 — Q19: Do you think your outlook on jiu-jitsu would be different if you were a hobbies instead of going through some of these brutal training camps for competition?

At 43:30 — Q20: What are some of your main goals and your plans for 2022?

At 44:01 — Q21: Do you have any other topics you wanted to touch on before we head out?

At 44:26 — Q22: What are your thoughts on all of the Brazilian athletes Mo is sponsoring for the upcoming tournament in Brazil this month?

At 46:07 — Q23: Europeans are coming back for the first time since 2020, before the pandemic… are you planning to compete in the Europeans?

At 47:51 — Q24: Do you know of any good gyms in the UK?

At 51:01 — Wrap up & Shout outs.

You can follow Danny on his brand new twitter — @DannyOD_BJJ, or he can be found on instagram — @dannyod_bjj. The show’s instagram is @openguardcast, it can also be found on Facebook here. You can check in on this week’s guest, Varun Mehrotra, on his Instagram — @shortthicboi and his gym is @unityjiujitsu. His gi sponsor is @suave_kimonos.

Be sure to tune in for next week’s show and learn more about the world of jiu-jitsu, on Wednesday, February 9th, at 2:00pm CST. When Danny will have a guest co-host, Jake Watson, and their guest will be Josef Manuel, whose academy is found on instagram @cuttingedge_bjj or check out his website at chokelab.com, or on insta — @choke_lab.

Check out the show on our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel right here, complete with custom graphics to overlay the interview:

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