Gesias Cavalcante

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 Hero's
4 DREAM
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Gesias "JZ Calvan" Cavalcante (born July 6, 1983) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist training out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida.

He stands 5 ft. 8 in. (173 cm) tall and fights in the lightweight division (155 lbs.).

Cavalcante is a Brazilian jiu jitsu purple belt and is a veteran of the Shooto and K-1: Hero's promotions. He currently fights as a lightweight for DREAM.

Early Career

Gesias Cavalcante made his professional mixed martial arts debut on February 27, 2004 for the Absolute Fighting Championships. He defeated his opponent, Justin Wisniewski via guillotine choke in the first round.

After submitting Brad Mohler at a HOOKnSHOOT event one month later, JZ suffered his first professional defeat on July 16, 2004. He was defeated by majority decision by Joachim Hansen at a Shooto event.

JZ bounced back from the loss a bit over a month later when he submitted Sebastian Korschilgen with a kimura at a Shooto event held in Switzerland.

He submitted his next two opponents via guillotine choke, which included future IFL and WEC competitor, Bart Palaszewski, and followed that up with a unanimous decision victory over Henry Matamoros in April of 2005 to push his record to 6-1.

In July of 2005, JZ fought to a three round draw with future IFL lightweight champion, Ryan Schultz. Just under five months later, JZ picked up his seventh victory when he knocked out Michihiro Omigawa in 49 seconds at Cage Rage 14.

Hero's

On May 3, 2006, JZ entered the K-1: Hero's promotion. He faced Hidetaka Monma in the first round of the Hero's 2006 middleweight (70 kg) tournament at K-1: Hero's 5. He defeated Monma via TKO at 2:08 of round 1.

In the second round of the tournament at K-1: Hero's 6, JZ earned his place in the semi finals when he knocked Hiroyuki Takaya cold with a flying knee and follow up punches at just 30 seconds of round 1.

The semi finals and final were held on the same night on October 9, 2006 at K-1: Hero's 7. JZ made his way into the final after submitting highly decorated Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, Rani Yahya with a guillotine choke in 39 seconds.

Later that night, JZ faced former UFC lightweight title challenger, Caol Uno in the final. After two tough rounds, JZ was announced the victor by majority decision.

After demolishing Nam Phan in just 26 seconds at K-1 Hero's: Dynamite!! USA in June of 2007, JZ entered the 2007 Hero's Middleweight tournament. He defeated Vitor Ribeiro in just 35 seconds to earn his place in the final. He then proceeded to win the title by submitting opponent, Andre Amade with an armbar at 4:48 of round 1.

At Yarennoka! on New Year's Eve 2007 - an event arranged by former Dream Stage Entertainment staff as a "farewell to PRIDE fans" - JZ was matched up against Japanese grappling phenomenon, Shinya Aoki. The bout was nixed however after JZ had to pull out with a knee injury.

DREAM

Following Yarennoka!, K-1 staff did away with Hero's in order to create the new DREAM organization with former Dream Stage Entertainment staff. JZ signed on with the new promotion and made his debut at their inaugural event, DREAM 1 as part of their 15-man lightweight Grand Prix. He faced Shinya Aoki in the main event and the controversial bout ended in a no contest after JZ landed some dubious elbow strikes to Aoki's back that made him crumple. The strikes were ruled as illegal yet accidental and the bout was ruled a no contest.

The two were matched up again at DREAM 2 in order to see who would progress in the tournament. The bout was a different story this time around though as JZ was stifled by Aoki's ground game for the duration of the bout, eventually losing a unanimous decision which knocked him out of the tournament.

JZ decided to rehabilitate his injured knees after the Aoki loss and after an eight month lay off was set to make his return at K-1 Dynamite!! Power of Courage 2008 on New Year's Eve against DREAM tournament and lightweight champion, Joachim Hansen. However the day before the bout Hansen was scratched from the bout due to a failure in the pre-fight medicals and JZ was left without an opponent.

Cavalcante is expected to make his return to MMA competition at DREAM 9 against former Shooto champion, Tatsuya Kawajiri.