Hey Guys,

  Several weeks ago, when my manager, Jason Genet, called me with the fight offer for 153, I had a rush of thoughts about how far and fast my career had come. I was grateful for the opportunity and told my manager how I felt. He said something that stuck with me: “The best thing to do with gratitude, is to pass it along.” This is great advice, so we decided right then to do just that.

  After doing some research (actually the Ingrained Media team did a lot of the research) we decided to do three things: I will donate a portion of my fight purse to Instituto Reacao in Rio de Janeiro. We will auction off my fight-worn gloves and shorts; 100% of the proceeds will go to Instituto Reacao. And since the fight is so far from my friends and family we are looking into using some of my tickets to give some young people in Brazil an opportunity to attend the event as my guests.

  This is a description of the Instituto Reacao:

 Instituto Reacao, founded by Judo Olympian Flavio Canto in 2003, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the care and development of approximately one thousand children and young people ages four to twenty-five in Rio de Janeiro. Its philosophy is based on teachings of Judo, and enabled through the power of sport as a tool for human development. The organization aims to inspire in children and adolescents development in the cognitive, productive, social and personal dimensions. To do this the institute emphasizes the fundamental principles of Judo: discipline, respect and non-violence.

  Without the martial arts contributions of Brazil, MMA as we know it could not exist. The Instituto Reacao provides support and guidance to young people in Rio’s slums. The martial arts born in Brazil gave the same guidance to me and to many fighters. Even though helping me was not a direct aim of the teachings, it would be wrong of me to not acknowledge and honor the debt.

http://institutoreacao.org.br/reacaoen.html