Marcus Aurelio vs Hermes Franca: The Feud

American Top Team member Marcus Aurelio is facing off against his former student Hermes Franca who left ATT a while back. To say its not pretty is an understatement.

Aurelio's side of the story from Sherdog:

"I think it will be awesome, because there will be both guys trying to kill each other," Aurelio said. "He’s got to hate me, and I got to hate him. He’s not my teammate anymore. He’s not my student anymore. He’s not with us anymore. He got kicked out of ATT."

Hermes has a different take:

"I think my weakness is I’m so nice with everybody. For this fight, I’m not going to be nice. I can say we have [a] beef. I’m angry. I’m pissed. I want to kick his ass."

Inside Fighting has more background on the feud:

Both fighters grew up in the city Fortaleza, Brazil. The two became acquainted through Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Aurelio teaching Franca - is his junior by one year.

Eventually, both moved to the U.S. and found a home at American Top Team in Florida. The nature of this move, however, is disputed as Aurelio has said that he brought Franca over while Franca contends that he came by himself and that it was fellow UFC fighter Wilson Gouveia who gave him the idea.

Whatever the truth is, the two remained in close contact with Aurelio being one of the four Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts present when Franca was awarded his own black belt.

It was the awarding of another black belt, however, that helped lead to the end of their relationship.

While still with ATT, Hermes awarded current UFC fighter Kurt Pellegrino his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some of Franca’s ATT teammates did not feel the promotion was deserved. The divide was wide enough that Franca left to form his own team with Pellegrino at The Armory in Jupiter Florida.

“When I gave Kurt his black belt I was four years into my black belt,” Franca tells Inside Fighting.

“And I know exactly when a guy deserves a black belt. He wasn’t just a good fighter but Kurt’s a good teacher and a great fighter.”