Heath Pedigo was born on August 16, 1983, in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Located in Jefferson County and home to just over 10 000 people, it’s a small city. Growing up in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Heath Pedigo was immersed in a sporting lifestyle largely due to his mother who supported and encouraged her sons’ participation in …
Lucas Barbosa, also known as “Hulk” in the grappling world is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under André Galvao. Lucas Hulk’s breakthrough came on Copa Podio’s The Team web series where he competed with Marcio Rodrigues’ team. Since 2014, Lucas has been dominant and cemented his talent by winning at IBJJF World Championships and Brazilian …
Known to be one of the greatest grapplers’ the world has ever seen, Rickson’s credentials are nothing to be sniffed at. Known for an unbelievable record of 400 wins and zero losses, Rickson is one of the most stoic and quotable martial artists around. Rickson brought the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the world with …
Bigger organizations in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu usually give birth to smaller teams after black belts decide to pave their own paths. This is the case with Checkmat. Checkmat was formed by the Viera Brothers, Leo Vieira and Rico Vieira. This happened when the brothers decided to split from Brasa Clube de Jiu-Jitsu. This happened in 2008 …
Alliance is one of the most successful teams in both competitions and in the number of affiliations worldwide. Alliance is known for winning the World Championship team trophy for 8 consecutive years from 2008 to 2015 and on top of that, they also had two World Championship team titles in the 1990s from 1998 to …
ATOS became one of the most dominant teams in BJJ’s competition scenes regardless if it’s in big tournaments held in the US or Asia. With a focus towards competition, ATOS in the 2010s was a force with the likes of Mendes brothers, Bruno Frazato, Andre Galvao, and Claudio Calasans. The team was founded by Andre …
Dubbed by many as the most beautiful jiujitsu gym in the world, Art of Jiu-Jitsu (AOJ) managed to bring a level of new kind of aesthetics to jiujitsu gyms. With its all-white theme with their instructors and team members wearing white gis and black rashguards, the Mendes brothers along with RVCA founder and jiujitsu black …
Nathalia Santoro aka Sonny as she’s known by on Instagram is a fitness model, bodybuilder and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt under John Danaher. Aside from all of this, she is probably most known in the BJJ community as Gordon Ryan’s girlfriend. Santoro currently resides in Puerto Rico after moving from New Jersey with Gordon, …
Gracie Barra proved that it is possible to bring BJJ as a martial arts to everyone. As a team and a business, it proved that BJJ gyms can be family-oriented and have kids and working individuals enjoy the gentle art. Though Gracie Barra is one of the most popular teams in the BJJ world, it …
These days, you see a lot of non-Brazilian BJJ black belts all over the world. Big tournaments are conducted for days to accommodate practitioners. However, during the 90s and even during the 2000s, there weren’t a lot of non-Brazilian practitioners who reached the ranked of black belt. It was only after UFC 1 when BJJ …
