“I’m really impressed about the passion Cromado has for his style and for his profession,” Parsons said. “He’s more than a coach. He’s like a father for all these guys. I’m really glad we could come here on our last day. It’s really impressive that every day in Brazil is a new surprise.”

Even in his toughest day of sparring, Cummins was also excited.

“Instead of getting upset about taping out more on the last day than I did on the first day, I’m really excited to find out that I have a lot of new things to learn,” said Cummins. “It’ll make me train even more. I hope I have the opportunity to return to Brazil soon.”

After training, Cromado gave Parsons and Cummins two pairs of RFT shorts as a gift, and began explaining a bit about the history of Luta Livre.

“Many people don’t know, but besides Marco Ruas, guys like Renato ‘Babalu,’ Gesias Cavalcante, Milton Vieira, Alexandre Nogueira and Alexandre ‘Cacareco’ all came from Luta Livre,” said a proud Cromado, as he showed the visitors around the entire academy.

After two rounds of rolling, Cromado, “Besouro” and “Chocolate” spent about 40 minutes teaching Cummins how to apply the submissions, as well as how to escape from them and defend against triangle chokes.

“It was an awesome experience,” said a very happy Pat.

RFT leader Marcio Cromado, a black belt under the legendary Eugenio Tadeu, was thrilled to receive the Americans at his gym. After welcoming Patrick Durkin Cummins and Ryan Parsons, Cromado asked two of his best students -- Luis “Junior Besouro” Dutra (169 lbs.) and Leonardo “Chocolate” (205 lbs.) -- to partake in some submission training with Cummins. During the two sparring sessions, Parsons became quite impressed with what he was seeing.

“Man, these guys are really great,” remarked the trainer. “How come American people don’t know about Luta Livre? These guys have the best footlocks and leglocks I’ve ever seen. Pat tapped more today in two rounds than he has the whole entire trip.”

Jason Miller wasn’t feeling well this morning and decided to forego our “farewell training” with Renovacao Fight Team, the only top Luta Livre-slash-MMA team in Brazil.

Located in Botafogo, between the Downtown and Copacabana districts, the RFT training center is housed in an old three-story building. The first floor is a workout gym and a dormitory with six beds; the second floor is the dojo itself; and the third floor has a soccer court and a barbecue area, used by the team for recreation.