Adam Benayoun
From major brown-belt titles to coaching at Fifty/50 and Black Cat, Adam Benayoun's career connects competition with teaching.
Biography
Sources for this profile
BJJ Heroes, ‘Adam Benayoun’, biography section, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
BJJ Heroes reports that Adam Benayoun was born in New York City in 1990.
Where in the source: Adam Benayoun Biography — birth sentence naming New York City and 1990.
Accessed:
Benayoun began jiu-jitsu in 2008 at Fábio Clemente's Alliance NYC, trained under Clemente, Lucas Lepri and Babs Olusanmokun through purple belt, then joined Marcelo Garcia's academy and received his brown belt from Garcia.
Where in the source: Adam Benayoun Biography — ‘progressed up to purple belt’.
Accessed:
BJJ Heroes reports that Benayoun developed a training relationship with Ryan Hall, joined the Fifty/50 staff as a coach and was promoted to black belt by Hall in Virginia on 20 December 2017.
Where in the source: Adam Benayoun Biography — ‘December 20, 2017’.
Accessed:
Black Cat Jiu Jitsu, ‘Instructors’, Adam Benayoun section, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Black Cat Jiu Jitsu's current instructor page identifies Benayoun as a second-degree black belt under Ryan Hall.
Where in the source: Adam Benayoun — ‘Second-degree black belt’.
Accessed:
Black Cat's current site identifies Benayoun as the academy's owner and head instructor in Springfield, Virginia.
Where in the source: Adam Benayoun — ‘Head Instructor and Owner’; Visit — Springfield, Virginia.
Accessed:
Black Cat says Benayoun expanded his teaching through instructional releases and an online platform, and its instructor roster identifies Ryan Clarke as his first black belt and Emma Reiter as his first brown belt in December 2024.
Where in the source: Adam Benayoun, Emma Reiter and Ryan Clarke — ‘multiple instructional releases’; ‘first brown belt’; ‘first black belt’.
Accessed:
BJJ Metrics, ‘Adam Benayoun’, competition profile, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
BJJ Metrics records Benayoun winning the 2016 IBJJF European and Pan championships as an adult brown belt for Alliance, the breakthrough results also summarized by BJJ Heroes.
Where in the source: Coloured Belt Major Titles; Competition Results — European 2016 and Pan 2016 rows.
Accessed:
BJJ Metrics shows Benayoun continuing to compete for Fifty 50 Jiu Jitsu through a 2026 Miami Winter No-Gi title at black-belt master-two light weight.
Where in the source: Competition Results — Miami Winter No-Gi 2026 row.
Accessed:
BJJ Metrics records Benayoun in second place in the 2022 Pan No-Gi adult black-belt featherweight division while representing Fifty 50 Jiu Jitsu.
Where in the source: Competition Results — Pan No-Gi 2022 row; Adult / Black / Feather, second place, Fifty 50 Jiu Jitsu.
Accessed:
IBJJF, ‘Athlete Results — Adam Benayoun’, accessed 10 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
IBJJF's current athlete page lists Benayoun as a Fifty/50 black belt and records third place in the 2023 master-one light World No-Gi division.
Where in the source: Athlete Results — Fifty/50 and black-belt header; expanded 2023 World No-Gi master-one light ranking division.
Accessed:
New Frontier Jiu Jitsu, ‘Affiliations’, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
New Frontier Jiu Jitsu's current affiliations page places Black Cat within Team Fifty/50 under Ryan Hall and describes the academy as run by second-degree black belt Adam Benayoun.
Where in the source: Affiliations — ‘Team Fifty/50’; Black Cat — ‘run by 2nd degree black belt’.
Accessed: