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Bernardo Faria

“Bê”

Source: bjjheroes.com

Bernardo Faria decided he could never be good at all ten thousand techniques, so he picked a few and won four world titles with them.

Biography

Bernardo Faria's jiu-jitsu fit on a short list. There were ten thousand techniques in jiu-jitsu, he told an interviewer in 2017, and he was never going to be "good at all those" — so he settled on a few and built everything around them. Between 2010 and 2017 that short list took the Brazilian to four world titles at black belt, two of them won at the same championship, and then into a second working life spent explaining how it worked. He was born in 1987 in Juiz de Fora, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and is often called Bê, a short form of Bernardo. He started training in 2001, at fourteen, after a friend named Pedro Cid brought him along to the gym Ricardo Marques ran in the town. The household had other ideas. By his own account, given in a podcast interview and summarized on the website of the company he later co-founded, he had two older brothers who had already done well, and a father and a family who expected him to attend college and take a more conventional path. Living up to that was hard for him as a young man, and jiu-jitsu pulled the other way. The game he built there was narrow, and he has been unusually plain about why. The closed guard — fighting from the bottom with the legs locked around the opponent's waist — was his white and yellow belt game, until it stopped working: nobody, he says, would let him close his guard around them anymore. The usual replacements were closed off as well. He was not flexible enough for the spider guard, and the butterfly guard never worked for him. What was left was the half guard, in which the man underneath traps one of the top man's legs between his own, and of everything he tried it turned out to be the easiest. From purple belt he added the deep half guard, played from further beneath the opponent. Neither half of that game was his own invention, and it is the part he tells with the most care. His first teacher, Ricardo Marques — the man who gave him every one of his belts, and who he says was "like a brother or father" to him — built his own jiu-jitsu on the closed and open guard, but was not the kind of instructor who taught only what he himself did. Then one day Marques showed him a half guard sweep that ends in a single-leg takedown, and Faria kept it. The pass that became his other signature arrived the same way. A blue belt from his home town, nicknamed Coke after his work for the soft-drink company, showed him the over-under pass while Faria was still a yellow belt: over one leg, control the leg, control the hip, drop the leg and pass. Knee-cut passes never worked for him, he says, but the over-under fitted everything else, because finishing a half guard sweep tends to leave you in exactly that position. The results came slowly. His first significant competition was the CBJJO World Cup as a junior in 2003, and he lost it, his fighter record says, for lack of experience; he came back the next year to take silver at his own weight and bronze in the open division. Through the blue belt years up to 2005 he took two silvers and a bronze at the World Championship. Purple belt came in 2006, and with it the Brazilian National Cup and a world title in the absolute division, the one fought without weight categories. His brown belt followed in 2007. Then his body interrupted twice: surgery for appendicitis put him off the mats and out of the Brazilian Nationals that year, though he still placed second in his division at the Worlds, and a meniscus problem kept him out of the 2008 World Championship altogether. Marques promoted him to black belt. What Faria did next he did with his teacher's agreement rather than against it: he left Juiz de Fora for São Paulo to train at Alliance's headquarters there, drawn by his admiration for Fábio Gurgel, and Marques consented to the move and backed it. Alliance is the team he competed for from then on. The first world title took two attempts. In 2009 he reached the semi-final of the World Championship at 100 kg and met Roger Gracie, who caught him with an ezekiel choke, a strangle applied with the sleeve of the gi. The following year, at 94 kg, he went a round further and won the heavy division outright: Rafael Lovato Jr. beaten in the semi-final, Alexandre Ribeiro beaten 2–0 on points in the final, with Lovato and Alexandre de Souza joint third. What followed was several seasons spent next to the top step. In 2011 he took silver in the heavy division and silver in the open class — the same no-weight-limit division he had won as a purple belt — and Rodolfo Vieira beat him for both. In 2012, moved up to super heavyweight at 215 lb, it was silver behind Leonardo Nogueira and joint third in an open class won by Marcus Almeida. 2013 broke the pattern: gold at super heavyweight ahead of João Gabriel Rocha, and one more joint third in Almeida's open class. Then 2014 restored it — silver behind Vieira again, joint third behind Almeida again. Read year by year, the middle of his career is a run of podiums with a single championship on top of it. Then 2015. He won the super heavyweight division again, ahead of João Gabriel Rocha again, and he won the open class, ahead of Alexander Trans, with Leandro Lo and Ricardo Evangelista joint third. Two world titles at a single championship — though the second never came to a final. Trans had hurt his knee escaping a footlock in the ultra-heavyweight semi-final, and could not use the absolute semi-final place Evangelista had stepped aside to give him; with no open weight final fought, the division went to Faria. FloGrappling reported that a torn pectoral muscle had sidelined him at the 2016 Worlds; the federation's archive has him joint third in the open class that year and in no weight division at all. He came back in 2017 and took silver at super heavyweight, now 222 lb, behind Erberth Santos, with Luiz Panza and Mahamed Aly joint third. Once that championship was over he published a statement on his own website, unprompted, and in it he refused both endings. It was not a retirement statement, he wrote, but he was not sure when, or if, he would compete again. What he was sure about was that the time had come to share what he had learned instead of thinking only about his own training and career. He has not appeared at the World Championship since; the 2018 results carry no entry for him. The sharing had been arranged for months. He was living in New York by then and teaching at Marcelo Garcia's academy, and by June 2017 he had stopped coaching there and was finishing plans for a gym of his own. The date had been set back in February: the school would open in Bedford, in the Boston area, as soon as the Worlds were done. The timing was deliberate: summer is the worst season to open a school, so it was either train hard in New York with Marcelo and open afterwards, or open first and spoil the preparation. He picked the Worlds. What he teaches he had described in that same February interview, months before the school existed. Self-defense goes in the warm-up: he does not have students punch each other, but he asks them to make it "as real as possible", because a man who wants to fight you in the street will not pull guard, he will try to punch you in the face. The instruction that matters to him is about distance — when the punches are coming, the goal is to close the distance — and he says he works more on the concepts than on the individual techniques. Two things carry his name in Massachusetts now. BJJ Fanatics, the company he started with a fellow black belt, Michael Zenga, and runs out of Beverly, is described by BJJ Heroes as one of the grappling industry's most successful online stores. BJJ Eastern Europe, writing in 2022, put his work off the mat more precisely: the YouTube videos in which he brings elite grapplers on to demonstrate techniques, and the instructional films he makes with the same athletes, which it judged to have been of value to practitioners internationally. His own gym, Bernardo Faria Academy, is in Bedford; by its own account he leads it together with Marcos Tinoco, and it teaches children, teenagers and adults, with a separate track for private training. In May 2022 a letter arrived from the IBJJF telling him he was going into its Hall of Fame. He said so publicly: after more than twenty-one years of living and breathing the sport, it was a good feeling to be placed in "this selected group of people", and being recognized for the best moments of his life was "something priceless". The induction itself took place at that year's World Championship. Writing about him the following year, the federation called him a four-time world champion and set those titles alongside the ones he won at the Pans, the Brasileiros and the Europeans across an eight-year black belt career. Asked in the same piece what the key to training was, he said that training even infrequently is much better than not training at all.

Sources for this profile

  • BJJ Heroes, "Bernardo Faria", fighter database entry (undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Bernardo Faria is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt promoted by Ricardo Marques, worked extensively with Fabio Gurgel, and competed internationally for Alliance.

      Where in the source: Opening paragraph, phrase "black belt under Ricardo Marques who worked extensively with Fabio Gurgel"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes gives Faria’s birth as 26 January 1987 in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

      Where in the source: Section "Bernardo Faria Biography", first sentence, phrase "born on the 26th of January, 1987"

      Accessed:

    • Faria began training jiu-jitsu in 2001, aged 14, after a friend named Pedro Cid invited him to the gym Ricardo Marques ran.

      Where in the source: Section "Bernardo Faria Biography", phrase "started training Jiu Jitsu in 2001 when he was 14 years old"

      Accessed:

    • After receiving his black belt, Faria moved to Sao Paulo to join Alliance with Ricardo Marques’ consent and support, drawn by his admiration for Fabio Gurgel at the team’s Sao Paulo headquarters.

      Where in the source: Section "Bernardo Faria Biography", final paragraph, phrase "with his master Ricardo Marques’ consent and full support"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes lists Faria’s favourite techniques as the wheel sweep, half guard and Miragaia passing, and his divisions as super-heavyweight or heavyweight.

      Where in the source: Data block, row "Favorite Position/Technique: Wheel Sweep, Half Guard , Miragaia Passing"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes records Faria as nicknamed "Bê", a short form of Bernardo.

      Where in the source: Data block, row "Nickname", phrase "often called “Bê”"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes’ fight history records that Faria lost the 2009 World Championship semi-final at 100kg to Roger Gracie by ezekiel choke, and that at the 2010 Worlds at 94kg he beat Rafael Lovato in the semi-final and Alexandre Ribeiro 2-0 on points in the final.

      Where in the source: Table "BERNARDO FARIA FIGHT HISTORY", rows for World Champ. 2009 SF and World Champ. 2010 SF and F

      Accessed:

    • Faria competed for Alliance Jiu-Jitsu.

      Where in the source: Data block, row "Association/Team: Alliance Jiu-Jitsu"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes records that Faria’s first major competition was the CBJJO World Cup as a junior in 2003, which he lost "due to lack of experience"; that he returned the next year for silver in his weight class and bronze in the open weight; that he reached blue belt that year and stayed there until 2005, taking two silvers and a bronze at the World Championships in the meantime; that he earned his purple belt in 2006 and won the Brazilian National Cup and a World Championship in the absolute division that same year; and that he was awarded his brown belt in 2007.

      Where in the source: Section "Bernardo Faria Biography", second and third paragraphs

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes records two injuries that cost Faria competitions as a brown belt: an appendicitis operation kept him off the mats and out of the 2007 Brazilian Nationals, though he still took second place in his division at that year’s World Championship, and a meniscus problem kept him out of the 2008 World Championship altogether.

      Where in the source: Section "Bernardo Faria Biography", third paragraph

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes describes Faria as co-founder of the BJJ Fanatics site, calling it one of the most successful online retail stores in the grappling industry.

      Where in the source: Opening paragraph, final sentence

      Accessed:

  • Wikipedia, "Bernardo Faria" (English), read 2026-09-20.(opens in a new tab)

    • Wikipedia gives Faria’s birth as 20 January 1987 in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and his full name as Bernardo Augusto Rocha de Faria.

      Where in the source: Infobox, row "Born", rendered value "20 January 1987 (age 39)" and "Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil"; the full name "Bernardo Augusto Rocha de Faria" opens the article body, not the infobox

      Accessed:

    • Conflicting accounts

      Wikipedia states Faria received his black belt from Ricardo Marques in 2008 and began training with Fabio Gurgel at Alliance Sao Paulo in 2009.

      Where in the source: Article body, first paragraph, phrase "received his black belt from instructor Ricardo Marques in 2008"

      Accessed:

    • Faria is Brazilian, born in Juiz de Fora in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

      Where in the source: Article body, first sentence, "is a Brazilian submission grappler and instructor"; medal record header "Representing Brazil"; infobox row "Born ... Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil"

      Accessed:

    • Faria was born in 1987.

      Where in the source: Infobox, row "Born", year component of the rendered value "20 January 1987 (age 39)"

      Accessed:

    • Wikipedia’s medal record table for Faria marks exactly four World Championship golds - 2010 at -94kg, 2013 at -100kg, and 2015 at both -100kg and Absolute - together with silver in 2011 at -94kg and Absolute, 2012 at -100kg, 2014 at -100kg and 2017 at -100kg, and bronze in 2012 and 2014 in the Absolute.

      Where in the source: Section "Medal record", the IBJJF World Championship rows read as a block

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship 2010.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2010 World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship, Faria won the adult black belt male heavy division, ahead of Alexandre Ribeiro in second and Rafael Lovato Jr. and Alexandre de Souza joint third.

      Where in the source: Division block "ADULT / BLACK / MALE / HEAVY", places 1 to 3 read in full

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship 2011.(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2011 Worlds, Faria took second in the adult black belt male heavy division behind Rodolfo Vieira, and second in the open class, again behind Vieira.

      Where in the source: Division blocks "ADULT / BLACK / MALE / HEAVY" and "ADULT / BLACK / MALE / OPEN CLASS"

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2012 (event 114).(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2012 Worlds, Faria took second in the adult black belt male super heavy division (215.00LB) behind Leonardo Nogueira, and joint third in the open class won by Marcus Almeida. The archive registers him as "Bernardo Augusto Rocha de Faria", Alliance.

      Where in the source: Division blocks "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / SUPER HEAVY (215.00LB)" and "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / OPEN CLASS"

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2013 (event 177).(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2013 Worlds, Faria won the adult black belt male super heavy division (215.00LB) ahead of Joao Gabriel Rocha, and took joint third in the open class won by Marcus Almeida.

      Where in the source: Division blocks "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / SUPER HEAVY (215.00LB)" and "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / OPEN CLASS"

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2014 (event 272).(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2014 Worlds, Faria took second in the adult black belt male super heavy division behind Rodolfo Vieira, and joint third in the open class won by Marcus Almeida.

      Where in the source: Division blocks "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / SUPER HEAVY (215.00LB)" and "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / OPEN CLASS"

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2015 (event 415).(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2015 Worlds, Faria won both the adult black belt male super heavy division (215.00LB), ahead of Joao Gabriel Rocha, and the open class, ahead of Alexander Trans, with Leandro Lo and Ricardo Evangelista joint third in the open class.

      Where in the source: Division blocks "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / SUPER HEAVY (215.00LB)" and "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / OPEN CLASS"

      Accessed:

    • Read year by year across every World Championship from 2010 to 2018, the IBJJF archive gives Faria four adult black belt world titles: the 2010 heavy division, the 2013 super heavy division, and both the super heavy and open class divisions in 2015.

      Where in the source: Counted across the division blocks recorded in c10 and c12 to c17

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship 2016 (event 535).(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2016 Worlds, Faria placed joint third in the adult black belt male open class won by Marcus Almeida, and appears in no weight division that year.

      Where in the source: Division block "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / OPEN CLASS"; whole rendered page then searched for the registered full name

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF official results archive, World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2017 (event 730).(opens in a new tab)

    • At the 2017 Worlds, Faria took second in the adult black belt male super heavy division (222.00LB) behind Erberth Santos, with Luiz Panza and Mahamed Aly joint third.

      Where in the source: Division block "MALE / ADULT / BLACK / SUPER HEAVY (222.00LB)"

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, "IBJJF Hall of Famer Bernardo Faria Q&A", 21 December 2023.(opens in a new tab)

    • The IBJJF describes Faria as a Hall of Famer and "4X World Champion" who accumulated titles at the Worlds, Pans, Brasileiros and Europeans across an eight-year black belt career, and quotes him saying that even infrequent training is much better than none.

      Where in the source: Deck line under the headline, "The 4X World Champion talks about the benefits of the jiu-jitsu lifestyle."; body, "Throughout his eight year competitive black belt career ... titles at the Worlds, Pans, Brasileiros, and Europeans"; quoted answer "even infrequent training is much better than none"

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Eastern Europe, "Bernardo Faria Inducted Into The IBJJF Hall Of Fame", 2022.(opens in a new tab)

    • BJJ Eastern Europe reported on 15 May 2022 that Faria had received his IBJJF Hall of Fame induction letter, quoting the letter in full and Faria’s own response to it, and stated that the 2022 Hall of Fame induction ceremony would take place on 5 June.

      Where in the source: Dateline "MAY 15, 2022"; body, quoted induction letter and Faria’s response; closing line "The 2022 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on June 5."

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Eastern Europe describes Faria’s contribution off the mat as his YouTube videos, in which he brings elite jiu-jitsu athletes on to demonstrate techniques, and the instructional videos he films with the same athletes, and says these have been of great value to practitioners internationally.

      Where in the source: Article body, opening paragraph

      Accessed:

    • Responding to the induction letter, Faria said: "Just got this letter from the IBJJF, inducting me to the Jiu-Jitsu Hall Of Fame... After living and breathing this sport for over 21 years, it feels great to be inserted in this selected group of people. I lived the best moments of my life on those mats, and being recognized for it is something priceless."

      Where in the source: Article body, block quotation following the induction letter, introduced by "Bernardo didn’t contain his excitement about the success"

      Accessed:

  • Grapplearts, Stephan Kesting interview with Bernardo Faria, 3 February 2017.(opens in a new tab)

    • Faria says he built a deliberately narrow game because breadth was out of reach, telling Grapplearts that "there were 10,000 techniques in Jiu-Jitsu, but I would never be able to be good at all those".

      Where in the source: Interview body, quoted answer on technique selection

      Accessed:

    • Faria describes his game as having accumulated belt by belt: "I have my white belt and my yellow belt game (the closed guard), my blue belt game (the half guard), and then the deep half guard started at purple belt".

      Where in the source: Interview body, quoted answer on how his guard developed

      Accessed:

    • Faria has said the closed guard stopped working for him: "at some point I couldn’t do the closed guard anymore. Nobody let me close the guard around them." He then found the alternatives closed off too - "for spider guard I was not flexible. Butterfly guard never worked for me" - before settling on half guard: "Then the half sweep was it! ... So the half guard was the easiest type of guard that I found."

      Where in the source: Interview body, his answer to the question on why the half guard rather than de la Riva or spider guard

      Accessed:

    • Faria traces the half guard to a single lesson from his first teacher: "My first teacher, the one who gave me all my belts and was like a brother or father for me, was that type of guy that he would not teach only his game." He says the teacher’s own game was built on the closed and open guard, "But he was also that type of guy that he would show everything when he was teaching. So one day he showed the half way sweep that leads into a single leg takedown."

      Where in the source: Interview body, same answer, the passage immediately before the account of the closed guard failing

      Accessed:

    • Faria says the over-under pass came the same way, from a blue belt in his home town nicknamed Coke, who showed it to him when Faria was a yellow belt: "You’ve got to go over one leg. You’ve got to control the leg. You’ve got to control the hip. You’ve got to drop the leg and you pass the guard." He adds that knee-cut passes never worked for him and that the over-under matched his half guard, because finishing a half guard sweep often leaves you in the over-under position.

      Where in the source: Interview body, his answer to the question on what drew him to the over-under pass

      Accessed:

    • Describing his own teaching, Faria says he puts self-defence into the warm-up: he does not have students punch each other but asks them to "make it as real as possible", because "if someone tried to fight you on the street he’s not going to pull guard, he is going to try to punch your face." His core instruction is distance: "if someone tries to fight you and he’s trying to punch you, the goal here is to close the distance", and "We focus more on the concepts and what you should do with it."

      Where in the source: Interview body, his answer on what he teaches in the warm-up

      Accessed:

    • In February 2017 Faria said he would open his school "in the Boston area in Bedford, right after the Worlds", and explained the timing as a deliberate choice: the summer months are the worst time to open a school, so he chose between training hard in New York with Marcelo and opening afterwards, or opening first and spoiling his preparation, and picked the Worlds. He put the drive from Bedford to downtown Boston at 20 to 25 minutes.

      Where in the source: Interview body, his answer to the question on whether he would compete at ADCC that year

      Accessed:

  • FloGrappling, "Bernardo Faria Hints At Retirement, Plans To Open His Own Gym", 9 June 2017.(opens in a new tab)

    • After taking silver at the 2017 Worlds, having been sidelined by a torn pectoral muscle at the 2016 Worlds, Faria said "This not an retirement statement, but I’m also not sure when or if I’m going to compete again", and that he believed it was time to start sharing what he had learned instead of just thinking about his own training and career.

      Where in the source: Article body, quoted statement following the 2017 super heavyweight final

      Accessed:

    • FloGrappling reported in June 2017 that Faria was based in New York, where he had taught classes at the Marcelo Garcia academy, that he had stopped coaching there, and that he was finalising plans to open his own jiu-jitsu gym in Boston.

      Where in the source: Article body, paragraph beginning "Based in New York where he taught classes at the Marcelo Garcia academy"

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Fanatics, "About Us: The BJJ Fanatics Story", company page, read 2026-09-20.(opens in a new tab)

    • BJJ Fanatics was started by two black belts, Bernardo Faria and Michael Zenga, and is headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts.

      Where in the source: Section "About BJJ Fanatics", phrase "started by a pair of black belts, Bernardo Faria and Michael Zenga"; footer address, Beverly MA

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Fanatics, "Obsessed For Success", blog post (undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • A BJJ Fanatics blog post summarising episode 6 of Gustavo Dantas’ BJJ Mental Coach Podcast says Faria struggled as a young man to live up to his father’s and his family’s expectations about his career, that with two highly successful older brothers he was expected to attend college and take a more traditional path, and that his love of jiu-jitsu steered him instead to Sao Paulo and to Fabio Gurgel.

      Where in the source: Article body, paragraph beginning "In episode 6"

      Accessed:

  • Bernardo Faria Academy official site, read 2026-09-20.(opens in a new tab)

    • Bernardo Faria Academy is in Bedford, Massachusetts, and is led by Bernardo Faria and Marcos Tinoco, with programmes for children, teenagers and adults and a separate private-training track.

      Where in the source: Home page, phrases "At Bernardo Faria Academy in Bedford, MA" and "Led by World Champions Bernardo Faria and Marcos Tinoco"

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Heroes, "Jiu Jitsu World Championship 2015 Results", event report (undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • No open weight final was contested at the 2015 World Championship. BJJ Heroes’ report of the event states that Alexander Trans injured his knee escaping a footlock in the semi-final of the ultra-heavyweight division and could not compete, and that Ricardo Evangelista had earlier relinquished his own semi-final place in the absolute to let Trans advance. The report concludes that this left Bernardo Faria as champion of the absolute division.

      Where in the source: Section on the absolute division: "Unfortunately there was no open weight final as Alexander Trans injured his knee"; and the earlier paragraph beginning "Evangelista would relinquish his position in the semi finals of the absolute"

      Accessed:

Competition results

Recorded tournament results, newest first
YearEventResultDivision
2015IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.orgAbsoluteGiVerified1st placeAbsoluteGiVerified
2015IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-100 kgGiVerified1st place-100 kgGiVerified
2013IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-100 kgGiVerified1st place-100 kgGiVerified
2010IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-94 kgGiVerified1st place-94 kgGiVerified

Lineage

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