Fabio Clemente is an important jiu-jitsu player and coach, particularly for New York's grappling circuit, as he founded one of the very first Brazilian jiu-jitsu academies in the area, a workgroup he's successfully run since the mid-1990s. Fabio Clemente earned his black belt from Jean Jacques Machado and was a member of the Machado Association before joining the Alliance team in 1998, a partnership that lasted until 2017 when he joined Checkmat. Clemente was also responsible for bringing Marcelo Garcia to the US during the mid-2000s.