RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A long partnership between Brazilian MMA teams Nova Uniao and Kimura has come to an end after 20 years.
Kimura is a popular MMA and jiu-jitsu team in Natal, where talents like Renan Barao, Claudia Gadelha, Jussier Formiga and Ronny Markes trained under Jair Lourenco, and constantly traveled between Natal and Rio de Janeiro to prepare for their MMA fights.
In a surprising turn of events, Nova Uniao announced on Nov. 16 that it will no longer be affiliated with Kimura. Studio Jiu-Jitsu, Trend Fit Academia and Unisports are no longer part of the Nova Uniao group as well.