For the first time in 20 years, Mauricio Gomes will step back onto the mat to take part in a jiu-jitsu competition. 

The eighth-degree red and white belt will compete at the 2018 IBJJF World Master Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Las Vegas, a tournament only for competitors over the age of 30. 

The event, which takes place August 22-25, is streaming live in its entirety, exclusively on FloGrappling.

Gomes has not competed since 1998 when he took part in a tournament in Hawaii. In an interview with Jiu-Jitsu Style, he explains his reasons for wanting to make a “comeback.”

“It’s one last deep breath before the final push! I’ve been working out. I lost the weight I needed to throughout these months I’ve been training a little bit more. 

"It’s just one of these things where you want to have another go. And I want to have another go. It’s been exactly 20 years since I last did it, and I want that adrenaline kicking in.”

Gomes is the father of Roger Gracie and is a lifelong practitioner of jiu-jitsu. An original student of the late Rolls Gracie, Gomes was instrumental in the development of jiu-jitsu in the United Kingdom, where his son lives. 

Last year, he attended the IBJJF World Master Jiu-Jitsu Championship to teach a seminar and to receive his eighth-degree red and white belt.

“It was really cool to be there last year doing the seminar with Renzo and getting my belt and that. It’s a bunch of people we’ve known my entire life. Some of them are friends and I just want to feel part of that. 

“I’m not going to do it again next year—it’s just a one-time go. I don’t care about the results. I don’t have anything to prove to anybody. I just want to have fun.

“I’ll try not to, but I’ll be nervous because all my friends and a lot of people I know will be there. You don’t want to do badly, but hopefully I won’t. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Let’s see how my jiu-jitsu goes in a competition. It’ll be nice to see, nice to have that feel and to see what I can do.”