Gonzaga won the heavyweight BJJ Black Belt Grand Prix in 2004 as well as the ADCC Trials Brazil Champion and took second place in ADCC 2005.
In the 2005 ADCC tournament, Gonzaga defeated Mustapha al-Turk in the elimination round, former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) in the quarter finals, UFC heavyweight Marcio Cruz (Pictures) in the semifinals and lost to UFC veteran Jeff Monson (Pictures) in the title bout. In the Absolute Division, Gonzaga bested Eduardo Telles in the elimination round but lost to Xande Ribeiro in the quarterfinals.
Gonzaga began fighting MMA in 2003 in Brazil and submitted Hammer House fighter Brandon Lee Hinkle at Meca Vale Tudo 9. He suffered his only loss that same year at the hands of Fabricio Werdum (Pictures) in Jungle Fight 1.
Gabriel won his bout at Jungle Fight 2 and took out Walter Farias at the SHOOTO Brazil “Never Shake” card in October of ’04.
In his Octagon debut last November, Gonzaga knocked out Kevin Jordan (Pictures). Sadly, one of Gonzaga’s twin daughters lost her life during that time. He was scheduled to face The Ultimate Fighter season two contestant Brad Imes (Pictures) but visa problems kept him out of the fight.
SCHERNER: Fabiano Scherner is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and owner of numerous world titles during a career that has seen him become a six-time Brazilian National Champion. Some of those titles are Jiu-Jitsu World Champion (absolute division), Copa RFT Champion, Copa America (absolute division), ADCC Brazilian Trials 2003 runner-up and winner of the ADCC Brazilian Trials 2005.
In MMA he has won the IFC North American heavyweight belt. His nickname “Pega Leve” is loosely translated to “take it easy” and was given to him by the Brazilian Top Team after a “light” training session with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures).
Scherner had trained in Brazil at Ataque-Duplo with Murilo Rupp, Tonicao, Ze Marcello, Alexandre Lobinho and Gesias Calvancanti (Pictures), but he currently trains in Holland where he studies Muay Thai with Melvin Manhoef (Pictures), Lloyd Van Dams, Badr Hari and “Drago.”
He also keeps sharp in jiu-jitsu by studying with Thiago Goncalves (Pictures), Thiago Tavares, Marcello Salazar and his brother Cristiano Scherner.
Scherner is 5-2-0 (1 NC) and began fighting professionally in 2003 on a HOOKnSHOOT card in Florida. He scored a win via strikes and had a No Contest with former Chute Boxe fighter Assuerio Silva (Pictures) at Meca Vale Tudo 9. Both fighters fell out the ring and Scherner was injured on impact. The pair fought again at Jungle Fight 2 in the Amazon and Silva scored the win in the second round with a guillotine choke.
“Pega Leve” traveled to Wisconsin to submit Demian Decorah with an armbar at FFC 19 and submitted Sebastian Rordiguez at SportFight 10 just two weeks later.
He returned to SportFight 11 and guillotined Brian Stromberg (Pictures) before making his IFC debut, doing the same to Aaron Brink (Pictures). Fabiano’s UFC debut came last October on Spike TV’s Ultimate Fight Night 2 against rising star Brandon Vera (Pictures). Scherner ate some heavy knees late in the second round and the bout was stopped.
Recently he was scheduled to fight in Croatia at an Ultimate Nokaute event but the deal fell through and this is his first chance to get back in the cage.
MY PICK: This is an interesting match-up of BJJ black belt versus BJJ black belt and Chute Boxe versus ATT. They’ve met before, not in MMA but in submission grappling at the ADCC Brazilian Trials. We recently saw ADCC veterans Jeff Monson (Pictures) and Marcio Cruz (Pictures) meet so maybe this is a trend. Anyway, Gonzaga won that bout. He has a chance to show he can beat “Pege Leve” anywhere or Scherner can show the first meeting was just grappling and this is a fight. I give the edge to Gonzaga. His only loss is to Werdum (who was almost a member of Chute Boxe) and he already has a win in the UFC. Gonzaga by TKO in the second round.