-Yes!
MURILO SANTANA: If you push me away, then you're going to
lose the hips and you're going to have to come
up on the leg grip.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: OK.
MURILO SANTANA: But it's better to stay close and come
up on the back.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: The joke around the house is my
daughter will come charging at me and suddenly punch me in
the stomach.
And I'll remind her that rule is not daddy--
go hit momma, she has abs.
IGOR GRACIE: She trains as hard as a
professional fighter.
She spends three, four hours a day in here.
And then as she goes somewhere else, she does conditioning,
she does yoga.
She does everything that a professional fighter would do
for a professional fight.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: I want this to be my livelihood.
It's what I want to do for the rest of my life.
I wish there were more women in Jiu-Jitsu with the fact
that women are now fighting in the UFC.
More women are going to come to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
And it's great, because it's never really stick when you
fight with a man and then you go compete with women.
Sometimes they try not to put too much strength on you, but
they don't realize how women actually, how tough they are.
I just love doing it.
I love the feeling of punching and kicking.
And I was pretty good at it.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: I think this arrived first, then the mats.
Then our little friend over here, the
moldering gis around.
She somewhere, somehow found time to go to the gym and stay
in remarkable shape.
But I started to notice that she was enjoying the gym.
She was enjoying kicking the shit out of guys at the gym
particularly.
And it just started an escalation into full MMA
training with an accent on Jiu-Jitsu, at which point it
was pretty much becoming a full-time job.
IGOR GRACIE: She's on the same level as any other blue belt
in the United States and the planet.
She went to Brazil as a white belt and she beat a pretty
seasoned competitor as a blue belt.
She at the time was a white belt, she beat a blue belt.
And then on her last open she won one and she lost one.
So she's getting up there.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: It's a never-ending learning.
When you do kickboxing, you learn how to punch, you learn
how to kick, throw knees and elbows, and then you
perfection that.
But with Jiu-Jitsu, there are new techniques
to learn every day.
You can make your own techniques.
It's really mental, it's what they say.
It's like chess for your body, you really have to think.
It's really intellect.
It's not just physical.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: I wrestled a little in high school.
I did Judo.
I took Judo classes for a couple of years when I was
like 13-14.
I get it.
I like watching it.
I understand why Ottavia does it.
But at this point in my life, I'm more about a life of
leisure during those moments when I'm not working.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: I could have been just taking my husband's
credit card and spend my days at Barney's and do my nails
and do my hair.
But no, I need to be busy.
If I'm not busy, I'm going insane.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: I very much like the idea that she can
pretty much beat the crap out of anybody in
any bar I walk into.
Or certainly submit them if they don't see it coming.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: I grew up in Italy, in a small town of
2,000 people--
Manerva del Garda.
When I was a kid, I played sports in school.
But I never done any kind of martial arts.
I fell in love with a Irish musician.
He got a contract in the US.
I decided to follow him here.
And my parents were like OK, you're not going to get any
more money from us and so you're on your own.
Do whatever you want, but you're on your own.
Some friends of my ex-boyfriend found me a job in
the restaurant business.
A couple of days after I got here, I was already working.
So I started out as a hostess, and I ended up
as a general manager.
The moment I started working as a general manager, it
became 13-16 hours a day.
I started working at La Bernard Inn, where I met Eric
Ripert who's the one who eventually, years later,
introduced me to my husband.
So basically he knew how much I was working.
He knew how much my husband was traveling.
And he thought we would be like the perfect match for a
one-night stand or here and there because we
were both so busy.
And he had no idea we were going to end up becoming
serious, getting married and having a child.
He actually warned him.
He was like, she's crazy.
And he's like hello, look at me.
But when Anthony went to Beirut to shoot a show when
the war started, and they bombed the airport and he was
stuck there and it was really dramatic.
And when he finally came back, that very same day that's when
we conceived our child.
Because we were like you know what, life is so short.
I worked until my contractions started, pretty much.
I was going around in my high heels, up
and down greasy stairs.
Giving heart attacks to everybody because I would fall
every five minutes.
I just couldn't stop.
So I had my baby shower at the restaurant, and a few days
after I was in labor.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: My daughter's already into this.
She loves going to Gracie Academy with her mom.
My daughter's six.
The day will come when little Timmy in the next desk is
going to pull her hair.
And I like the idea that she'll be able to fuck little
Timmy up pretty bad.
Jiu-Jitsu-wise, she's pretty familiar with a lot of
principles.
I mean, they work on arm bars together.
I'm very happy that my daughter will be able to
defend herself and not be inclined to take
any shit from boys.
And later, with that kind of background, not be inclined to
take any shit from men later in life.
So yeah, I'm very happy about that.
IGOR GRACIE: Being a Jiu-Jitsu instructor is the most
gratifying profession you can have because you change
people's lives.
You see a guy walk in here with no training and he's like
shy and no self-esteem.
And then after a few months of training the guy, just by the
way he walks into the door, he's a
totally different person.
NICK DIAZ: Do you live out here now?
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: No, I live in New York.
NICK DIAZ: OK, great.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: I actually did a seminar with your
brother a couple of weeks ago.
I started watching MMA fights, especially UFC fights on TV.
But I never thought about doing any wrestling or
Jiu-Jitsu, I just loved watching it.
And then I remember going to the Prudential Center for Gina
Carano's fight.
It was 2008.
And I was like whoa, girls can do that.
It's great, it was really inspiring, but I still was not
convinced about trying groundwork myself.
And I tried and I loved it.
Even for the Muay Thai, this is like my second house.
Although sometimes it feels like it's my first house,
because I spend more time here than my real house.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: I'm not afraid she's
going to get hurt.
A, because I'm confident that she won't.
B, she doesn't really care.
She kind of likes it.
If she came home with a big black eye I think she'd
complain, but she'd be walking around feeling pretty cool.
IGOR GRACIE: Her strength is definitely her athleticism.
She's very athletic, she's strong, her cardio's good, she
can roll for over an hour non-stop.
She's smart.
She picks up stuff really well.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: I like to be muscular.
My husband hates it.
But for me, a woman with a lot of muscle is beautiful.
I like to have definition.
I like to have a six pack.
I like to have big thunder thighs.
And I like to have a big neck, and my husband hates it.
Because for some reason, the first thing that
gets big is my neck.
And it's like, uh.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN: If I get in a tussle with somebody, it
better be over in three or four seconds or my prospects
are not good.
OTTAVIA BOURDAIN: Definitely [INAUDIBLE]
my final goal will be opening an academy affiliated,
obviously, with [INAUDIBLE]
Gracie, who is my inspiration and role model.
I wake up and I'm restless.
When I come here, I'm like bah, bah, bah!
And everybody's like OK, let's get ready for Ottavia.
And I roll, roll, roll until I can't take it anymore.