Arben Latifi
Arben Latifi developed a wrestling-based jiu-jitsu game in Malmö and later helped build Redline, combining coaching with youth work.
Biography
Sources for this profile
BJJ Eastern Europe, interview with Arben Latifi, August 24, 2012(opens in a new tab)
Arben Latifi was born in Sweden to Albanian parents from Kosovo.
Where in the source: Answer 1: birthplace and parents’ origins.
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Leonardo Vieira awarded Latifi his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in 2006.
Where in the source: Answers 1 and 2: teacher and promotion year.
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Latifi identified with Checkmat in Malmö in 2012.
Where in the source: Answer 1: contemporary team affiliation.
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Latifi came to jiu-jitsu with experience in boxing and judo, having begun competing in Swedish shootfighting in 1998. He described contacts with Leo Negao and Leo Neves, followed by training with Leonardo Vieira.
Where in the source: Answer 2: sporting background and training progression.
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After having children in 2007, Latifi said his priorities shifted from his own training toward his family. By 2012 he was coaching his brother Ilir.
Where in the source: Answer 2: family and change of priorities.
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Latifi credited Leonardo Vieira with the concepts and ideas that most influenced his understanding of jiu-jitsu.
Where in the source: Answer 6: technical influence.
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Latifi described wrestling as the basis of his pressure game. He preferred attacking from on top and passing by controlling the opponent’s feet, knees and hips rather than relying on a favourite submission or passing combination.
Where in the source: Answers 8–10: wrestling, top game and passing.
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In 2012 Latifi said his youth work grew from his own upbringing in an immigrant neighbourhood. He wanted to give back through positive role models and encouragement for young people.
Where in the source: Answer 5: motivation and stated approach to youth work.
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Latifi said family and friends took him back to Kosovo almost every year, while acknowledging limited knowledge of the region’s other jiu-jitsu practitioners.
Where in the source: Answer 7: relationship with Kosovo.
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Describing his club in 2012, Latifi named Peter Blackwell as the main BJJ instructor and referred to a BJJ-and-MMA membership of several hundred, with sister clubs elsewhere in Sweden.
Where in the source: Answer 4: academy and teaching context.
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MMA Viking, interview by Kaoru Tsukamoto with Arben Latifi, September 11, 2012(opens in a new tab)
Latifi recalled that a seminar by Omar Bouiche in Gothenburg drew him toward integrated fighting in the mid-1990s; he then travelled to study at Bouiche’s Stockholm academy.
Where in the source: First interview answer: seminar and Stockholm training.
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Latifi said he and Peter Blackwell began studying BJJ with Leo Negao after Negao started teaching in Malmö in 1999.
Where in the source: Answer about Waldo Zapata: beginning BJJ classes.
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Recalling a shootfighting meeting with Waldo Zapata, Latifi described taking him down, reaching mount and finishing with an armbar.
Where in the source: Answers about the Zapata match.
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At Finn Fight 5 in 2001, Latifi recalled defeating David Bielkheden on points and then losing a decision to Erkka Sahlström later in the same event.
Where in the source: Finn Fight 5 questions and two replies.
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By September 2012 Latifi was coaching Ilir and young MMA students in Malmö. He said he could continue teaching while recovering from operations on both elbows.
Where in the source: Answer on his contemporary role.
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Latifi remembered Scandinavian submission-wrestling experience and visiting Brazilian teachers as important foundations for the growth of BJJ in Sweden.
Where in the source: Answer following the question about becoming absorbed in BJJ.
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Fighter Magazine, report on Arben Latifi’s master/senior results in Rio, August 28, 2006(opens in a new tab)
At the August 2006 master/senior world event in Rio, Fighter Magazine reported that Latifi won the brown-belt open class and took silver at under 94 kilograms for Brasa Team in Malmö.
Where in the source: The article’s single report paragraph beneath the August 28 date.
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Fighter Magazine, Swedish MMA career survey, April 15, 2019(opens in a new tab)
Fighter Magazine reported that Latifi and Akira Corassani were among the people who started Redline in 2015, and described the pair as running the club in its 2019 survey.
Where in the source: Akira Corassani and Arben Latifi sections.
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Svenska Budo & Kampsportsförbundet, sustainability report 2024, pages 43–44(opens in a new tab)
The Swedish Budo and Martial Arts Federation’s 2024 sustainability report lists Arben Latifi as Redline’s treasurer alongside chairman Trym Dahl and board member Akira Corrassani.
Where in the source: Printed page 44, Redline facts panel.
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The 2024 report describes Redline as a club founded in 2015 that had grown beyond 1,000 members, combining professional and recreational training across BJJ, no-gi, MMA, boxing and Thai boxing.
Where in the source: Printed page 43, Redline background section.
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Redline’s youth committees were supported through the Hjärta i samhället initiative. The 2024 report describes training and workshops for young leaders, who then ran regular activities around Malmö.
Where in the source: Printed page 43, Redline goals and youth-leader paragraphs.
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The report says Redline’s young leaders helped children become familiar with the club through school and informal-sport activities, making the move into its regular sessions less intimidating.
Where in the source: Printed pages 43–44, continuation of the Redline account.
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Lineage
No teaching connections are shown on this page.
Open lineage