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Two training partners meeting on the mat.Drawn in cream, forest green, and muted terracotta. People and objects are symbolic illustrations.
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Roberto Magalhaes

“Roleta”

Source: bjjheroes.com

Roberto Magalhães made inverting a first choice instead of a last resort, won four world titles from underneath it, and left his nickname on the guard.

Biography

Roberto Magalhães won four World Championship titles from underneath. Grapplers had gone upside down before him — rolling onto the shoulders and turning under the man trying to pass — but they did it as a way of stopping a pass, not as a first choice. He made it the position he went looking for and built a whole set of attacks on top of it, and jiu-jitsu still calls it the Roleta guard, after him. Roleta is Portuguese for roulette; how he came by the name is not documented. His coach gave him a black belt three days before the first World Championship so that he could enter it, and he won the tournament. A native of Aracaju, in the state of Sergipe, Magalhães came to jiu-jitsu at seventeen, and only after resisting it for years. One reference work, BJJ Heroes, carries almost everything known about that time: five years of karate from his pre-teens, older brothers who already trained jiu-jitsu, and a teenager convinced that the striking art was the better answer in a street fight. What changed his mind was watching a class and seeing the instructor demonstrate something that would have been useful in a fight he had been in. Joe Moreira coached him to purple belt. He kept karate going alongside grappling through those years and won a run of local tournaments, then dropped striking at purple, moved to Rio de Janeiro and joined Carlos Gracie Junior at Gracie Barra. Gracie Barra is where the engineering student took over. In the reference work's account, he reasoned that he was not an explosive athlete and that if everyone learned the same techniques, every match would be settled by whoever was the better athlete — so he began inventing positions of his own instead. The same source says he wrote on his own website in 2010 that a position would come to him in the small hours and that he would get it down on paper there and then. What he built answered a particular problem. A passer who works with pressure bears down until the man underneath is flat and out of room; inverting takes that away from him, because the man underneath stops meeting the weight and turns beneath it instead. From there it was an attacking position rather than a defensive one: omoplatas — a shoulder lock applied with the legs — triangles, right way up and inverted, leg locks, and sweeps that put the bottom man on top. The helicopter sweep came out of the same position and became the technique he is known for; Graciemag names it his signature, and he teaches it himself in a video the magazine filmed at its old Rio studio. BJJ Heroes puts the fit down to a lanky frame and flexibility. Others built on the position later. Ryan Hall took it up, and Roberto Abreu built a variant of his own, the tornado guard: he pins both shoulder blades to the mat and normally arrives there out of half guard, while Magalhães moved through the position far more freely and could enter it from a range of open-guard positions, or from turtle. The promotion that put him in the 1996 World Championship was a deliberate move, and the two accounts of it give different reasons. Marcelo Alonso, who covered the tournament and photographed it, describes Carlinhos Gracie springing a surprise on the rival Carlson Gracie camp three days before the event, and ties it to the team nationals shortly before, where Magalhães had come close to catching Fábio Gurgel with the helicopter sweep. BJJ Heroes points elsewhere: the inverted guard was already fully formed at brown belt, and Carlinhos saw in it the answer to Wallid Ismail's passing game. Ismail was the favorite. He was returning to the gi after a year spent in no-holds-barred fighting, and, needled by the Gracie Barra supporters, he promised in public that he would commit harakiri if the newcomer beat him. When the semifinal was announced the tournament practically stopped; in Alonso's telling the Tijuca Tênis Clube in Rio sounded like a football stadium, the Carlson and Barra sections singing against each other. Magalhães pulled guard and went for the sweep, and the sweep did not come. Ismail, an excellent passer, spent almost the whole match attacking the guard, and with the clock running down he looked like winning it on aggressiveness. Then Magalhães got hold of his right trouser cuff and his right arm. Rather than be swept, Ismail turned to all fours; Magalhães went straight to his back, put the hooks in and scored four points inside the last twenty seconds. It finished 4–0. In the final he met another Carlson Gracie representative, Bebeo Duarte, who had eliminated Ricardo Americano in the other semifinal, and finished him with a triangle. It was his first tournament as a black belt. Alonso wrote that the debut established his “esqui-jitsu,” a word the Brazilian press used for the way he fought. He kept the title in 1997. In 1998 he moved up to super heavyweight and won there as well, and in 2000 he took a fourth World title back at medium heavyweight. He won the Pan American Championship four times, from 1996 to 1999, and the Brazilian nationals in 1996. Three World finals went the other way. In 1998 he lost the final of the open class, which is contested without weight limits, to Mario Sperry; in 1999 he lost two more, his own weight class to Saulo Ribeiro and the open class to Rodrigo Comprido, who caught him in a toe hold. The names around the results say more than the count does. He beat Saulo Ribeiro twice in 1996 finals, by armbar at the Brazilian nationals and on a referee's decision at the Pans; Mario Sperry in the 1998 World quarter-finals, on the way to the super heavyweight title; Murilo Bustamante in the open semifinal the same year; Amaury Bitetti 2–0 and Minotauro Nogueira in the 1999 semifinals, the second of them in the open class; and Fernando Margarida 4–0 in the 2000 final. Graciemag put the difficulty plainly: his opponents knew what he could do from underneath, and few of them could avoid the acrobatic throws and sweeps anyway. He finished a master's degree in industrial engineering while he was still competing. BJJ Heroes carries what came after: he retired from competition and turned to teaching, in Brazil and in the United States, and opened an academy under his own name, Roleta BJJ. He is an inductee of the hall of fame run by the sport's international federation, the IBJJF. In February 2009, nine years after his last World title, Graciemag made the guard its cover story. The report gave him an epithet — “o engenheiro das raspagens,” the engineer of sweeps — credited him with influencing a generation through new techniques and improbable traps, and pointed to the men those techniques had beaten at the World Championship, from Wallid Ismail in 1996 to Fernando Margarida in 2000. Its strongest claim was about his peers: it held that the three most admired guard players of the day — Rubens Charles (Cobrinha), Bráulio Estima and Roger Gracie — regarded him as the best they had ever seen compete. The same report set him alongside Antonio Schembri, known as Nino, as Gracie Barra's two aces, both long-limbed with strong, flexible legs. The two of them, in its account, had helped harden a belief it then set out to knock down: that a good guard has to be elastic and very nearly magical. Eighteen years after that first World Championship, Graciemag went to him to have the berimbolo, the guard position of the moment, taken apart.

Sources for this profile

  • BJJ Heroes, "Roberto 'Roleta' Magalhães", undated profile page (read 2026-09-13).(opens in a new tab)

    • Roberto Magalhães was born in Aracaju, in the Brazilian state of Sergipe.

      Where in the source: Section 'Roberto Roleta Magalhães Biography', opening sentence — 'was born in Aracajú'

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    • Magalhães took up karate in his pre-teens and trained it for five years, even though his older brothers practised jiu-jitsu; he resisted grappling because he believed karate was the better self-defence art. At 17, watching a jiu-jitsu class, he saw the instructor show a move that would have helped him in an earlier street fight, and he began training jiu-jitsu alongside karate.

      Where in the source: Biography, second paragraph — from 'During his pre-teens' to the street-brawl sentence

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    • Joe Moreira was Magalhães's coach until he reached purple belt, a period in which he won several local tournaments while still training karate. After purple belt he gave up striking to pursue grappling, and moved to Rio de Janeiro to train with Carlos Gracie Junior at Gracie Barra.

      Where in the source: Biography, third paragraph — 'Moreira remained Roleta's coach up until the student's purple belt'

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    • At Gracie Barra Magalhães concluded that learning the same techniques as everyone else would not be enough, because he was not explosive and the most athletic man would then always have the advantage. An engineering student, he began inventing positions instead, and stated on his own website in 2010 that he would think of a position in the middle of the night and write it down so he would not forget it.

      Where in the source: Biography, fourth paragraph — 'He wasn't an explosive guy' and 'grab a piece of paper to write it down'

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    • Magalhães earned his black belt training under Carlos Gracie Junior (Carlinhos) at the Gracie Barra academy in Rio de Janeiro. BJJ Heroes gives his lineage as Carlos Gracie Sr. > Carlos Gracie Junior > Roberto Magalhaes.

      Where in the source: Intro paragraph plus the 'Lineage:' line in the fact box

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    • Carlos Gracie Junior awarded Magalhães his black belt in 1996 with the intent that he compete in that year's World Championship.

      Where in the source: Biography, fifth paragraph — 'In 1996 Roleta was given his black belt with the intent of fighting in the World Championships'

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    • BJJ Heroes' achievements box credits Magalhães with first place at the IBJJF World Championship in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000; first place at the IBJJF Pan Championship in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999; first place at the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals in 1996; and second place at the IBJJF World Championship in 1998 and 1999. His listed weight division is meio-pesado (88 kg) and his listed team is Roleta Jiu-Jitsu.

      Where in the source: Fact box 'Main Achievements' plus the 'Weight Division' and 'Team/Association' lines

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    • BJJ Heroes' fight-history table for Magalhães records 21 wins and 8 losses. It includes wins over Saulo Ribeiro in the 1996 Pan final (referee decision) and the 1996 Brazilian Nationals final (armbar); Wallid Ismail 4-0 in the 1996 World semifinal and Luiz Duarte by triangle in the 1996 World final; Mario Sperry on points in the 1998 World quarter-final at 100 kg; Murilo Bustamante on an advantage in the 1998 World absolute semifinal; Amaury Bitetti 2-0 in the 1999 World semifinal at 88 kg; Minotauro Nogueira by referee decision in the 1999 World absolute semifinal; and Fernando Margarida 4-0 in the 2000 World final at 88 kg. Recorded losses include Mario Sperry in the 1998 World absolute final, Saulo Ribeiro in the 1999 World final at 88 kg, Rodrigo Comprido by toe hold in the 1999 World absolute final, and two ADCC 2000 defeats, to Ricardo Liborio and Rodrigo Comprido.

      Where in the source: Section 'Roberto Roleta Fight History' — table columns ID, Opponent, W/L, Method, Competition, Weight, Stage, Year

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    • Through the late 1990s and early 2000s Magalhães earned a reputation as the best guard in jiu-jitsu of that period. In the same years he completed a master's degree in industrial engineering. After his competitive career he retired and devoted himself to teaching jiu-jitsu in both Brazil and the United States.

      Where in the source: Biography, final paragraph — 'the best guard in Jiu-Jitsu during that period' and 'his masters in Industrial Engineering'

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    • BJJ Heroes lists Roleta Jiu-Jitsu as Magalhães's team and association, and says he later opened his own academy, Roleta BJJ.

      Where in the source: Fact box 'Team/Association:' line, and the intro's 'later opening his own academy, Roleta BJJ'

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    • Magalhães is known throughout jiu-jitsu by the nickname Roleta, which translates from Portuguese as roulette. BJJ Heroes states that there is no data on the origin of the nickname.

      Where in the source: Fact box 'Nickname:' line — 'Roleta translates to Roulette from Portuguese'

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  • BJJ Heroes, "Inverted Guard and Tornado Guard", undated technique page (read 2026-09-13).(opens in a new tab)

    • The inverted guard — also called the Roleta guard, the tornado guard or the upside down guard — is a position developed in the 1990s by Roberto Magalhães. Going upside down to stop a guard pass existed in grappling before him, but he was the one who turned it into a go-to move and built several positions out of it. BJJ Heroes attributes the fit to his lanky frame and flexibility.

      Where in the source: Opening paragraph and section 'The Inverted Guard History' — 'it was him who incorporated this movement into a "go-to" move'

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    • The inverted guard is an answer to heavy pressure passing, and from underneath it the bottom player can attack in several directions — omoplata, triangle, inverted triangle, leg locks and reversals, of which the helicopter sweep is the one seen most often. Later grapplers built on the position: Ryan Hall, and Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu, who named his own variant the tornado guard. The two differ in how the position is entered and held. Abreu keeps both shoulder blades in contact with the mat and normally arrives there out of half guard, whereas Magalhães moved through his version far more freely and could enter it from a range of open-guard positions, and from turtle.

      Where in the source: Opening paragraph and the 'Roberto Abreu and the Tornado Guard' section

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    • BJJ Heroes writes that Magalhães's inverted guard already looked finished when he was a brown belt, and that this was why his coach Carlinhos Gracie promoted him to black belt before the 1996 World Championship — he saw the position as the answer to Wallid Ismail's strong passing game, Ismail being the heavy favourite for the title.

      Where in the source: Section 'The Inverted Guard History', third paragraph — 'promoted him to black belt before the 1996 World Jiu Jitsu Championships'

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  • Lindsey Plotkin, "Every IBJJF World Champion From 1996 To 2024", FloGrappling, 23 May 2025.(opens in a new tab)

    • FloGrappling's year-by-year list of IBJJF World Championship winners records Roberto Magalhaes as champion at medium heavyweight in 1996, at medium heavyweight in 1997, at super heavyweight in 1998 and at medium heavyweight in 2000. He is not listed for 1999, where medium heavyweight is credited to Saulo Ribeiro.

      Where in the source: Year blocks 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 — the 'MHW:' and 'SHW:' lines under each year

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  • Wikipedia, "1996 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship" (read 2026-09-13).(opens in a new tab)

    • The 1996 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship was held on 3–4 February 1996 at the Tijuca Tênis Clube in Rio de Janeiro. In the medium heavyweight division (88.3 kg) the gold went to Roberto Magalhães of Gracie Barra and the silver to Luis Roberto Duarte of Carlson Gracie. The absolute division was won by Amauri Bitetti of Carlson Gracie, with Ricardo Liborio second.

      Where in the source: Results tables — medium heavyweight (88.3 kg) and absolute rows

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  • Marcelo Alonso (text and photographs), "25 anos do 1º Mundial: A grande revolução do Jiu-Jitsu", Portal do Vale Tudo, January 2021, in the 'Baú do Alonso' archive series.(opens in a new tab)

    • Three days before the first World Championship, Carlinhos Gracie made a surprise of it and promoted Roberto Roleta Magalhães to black belt. At the Brazilian team championship shortly before, Magalhães had come close to catching Fábio Gurgel with his helicopter sweep.

      Where in the source: Section on the medium heavyweight division — 'a 3 dias da competição graduando à faixa preta' and 'quase havia surpreendido Fábio Gurgel com sua raspagem helicóptero'

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    • In the medium heavyweight semifinal Magalhães pulled guard and tried to sweep the Carlson Gracie fighter without success, and Wallid Ismail — known as an excellent passer — attacked the newcomer's guard for almost the whole match. In the final minute, with Ismail apparently closing on a win on aggressiveness, Magalhães got control of Ismail's right trouser cuff and right arm; rather than be swept, Ismail turned to all fours, and Magalhães immediately took his back, put in the hooks and scored the four points. A photo caption on the same page places the back-take in the last twenty seconds of the match.

      Where in the source: Semifinal passage — 'Roleta imediatamente pegou suas costas, colocando os ganchos' and the caption 'nos últimos 20 segundos de luta'

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    • In the final Magalhães took the gold and, in Alonso's words, established his "esqui-jitsu" on his black belt debut, finishing another Carlson Gracie representative, Bebeo Duarte, with a triangle. Duarte had eliminated Ricardo Americano in the other semifinal.

      Where in the source: Paragraph after the semifinal — 'consagrou seu esqui-jitsu em sua estréia na faixa preta'

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    • Wallid Ismail came into the 1996 tournament as the outright favourite, returning to gi competition after a year focused on no-holds-barred fighting, and — faced with the expectation and the taunting of the Gracie Barra supporters — publicly promised he would commit harakiri if the newcomer beat him. When the semifinal was announced the event practically stopped, and the Tijuca Tênis Clube resembled a football stadium, with the Carlson and Barra crowds chanting for their fighters. Alonso frames the division as Carlinhos Gracie surprising Carlson Gracie by promoting Magalhães in order to beat Ismail.

      Where in the source: Paragraphs before and after the bracket draw — 'chegou a prometer que cometeria Harakiri' and 'o evento praticamente parou'

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  • Instagram, @roleta.bjj profile bio (read 2026-09-13).(opens in a new tab)

    • Magalhães's own Instagram account, under the name Roberto "ROLETA" Magalhaes, describes him as a four-time World Champion (96, 97, 98, 00), a three-time World silver medallist (98, and 99 in weight and open) and a four-time Pan American Champion (96, 97, 98, 99). The bio's last line reads "Aula Cond. Atlântico Sul", and it links to a book page at clubedeautores.com.br.

      Where in the source: Profile bio, expanded with the 'more' control; the four bio lines above the link

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  • Graciemag Newsroom, "Afiando a guarda: Roberto Roleta ensina como fazer a raspagem helicóptero", Graciemag, 9 January 2022.(opens in a new tab)

    • Graciemag describes Magalhães as a four-time black belt World champion in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000, who won with a creative and unpredictable guard game: his opponents knew what he could do from the bottom, but few could avoid his acrobatic throws and sweeps. It names the helicopter sweep as his signature attack, and lists Wallid Ismail, Saulo Ribeiro, Amaury Bitetti, Fernando Margarida, Rodrigo Minotauro, Murilo and Zé Mario among the elite opponents he faced. The article carries a video, filmed at Graciemag's old Rio de Janeiro studio, in which he teaches the sweep himself.

      Where in the source: Body text and the video introduction — 'raspagem helicóptero' as his main attack

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  • Redação Graciemag, "Monstros em colisão: Roleta x Wallid", Graciemag, 7 January 2010.(opens in a new tab)

    • Graciemag places the Ismail–Magalhães meeting in the medium heavyweight division at the first World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, held in February 1996 at the Tijuca Tênis Clube in Rio de Janeiro, refereed by Sergio Ignácio. It identifies Ismail as representing the Carlson Gracie academy and Magalhães as a newly promoted black belt from Gracie Barra, and calls the bout one of the most classic World Championship semifinals of all time.

      Where in the source: Article body — 'recém-faixa-preta da Gracie Barra' and the reference to the Tijuca Tênis Clube

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  • Redação Graciemag, "As lições de Jiu-Jitsu de um experiente raspador", Graciemag, 15 May 2014.(opens in a new tab)

    • In 2014 Graciemag described Magalhães as a fourth-degree black belt and a legendary figure among sweepers, whose opponents knew his game but few of whom could avoid his acrobatic throws. The article has him analysing the berimbolo, a then-current guard position.

      Where in the source: Article body — 'faixa-preta 4º grau' and the berimbolo segment

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  • Wikipedia, "List of IBJJF Hall of Fame inductees" (read 2026-09-13).(opens in a new tab)

    • Roberto Magalhães is listed among the male inductees of the IBJJF Hall of Fame, with the year 2014.

      Where in the source: Male inductees list — the entry 'Roberto Magalhães, (2014)'

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  • Jaime C. da Luz Jr, "História de Roberto Roleta Jiu Jitsu", muitomaisacaojiujitsu.com.br, 6 May 2020 (page states it was updated 8 September 2026).(opens in a new tab)

    • A Portuguese-language profile of Magalhães states that he was born in Aracaju, Sergipe, started martial arts at twelve, spent five years in karate before discovering jiu-jitsu at seventeen, reached purple belt at Joe Moreira's academy while combining karate and jiu-jitsu, then moved to Rio de Janeiro to train at Gracie Barra under Carlos Gracie Júnior, who promoted him to black belt in 1996. It describes the helicopter sweep as derived from his inverted guard and says his creativity compensated for a lack of physical strength.

      Where in the source: Sections on biographical details and trajectory — 'nasceu em Aracajú, Sergipe' and 'faixa roxa' under Joe Moreira

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  • Graciemag, "Tudo o que você sempre quis saber sobre a guarda no Jiu-Jitsu", republished 29 August 2021; the page states the report was Graciemag's cover story of February 2009. No byline shown on the page.(opens in a new tab)

    • In a Graciemag report on the guard, the three men then held to have the most admired guard games in the sport — Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles, Bráulio Estima and Roger Gracie — are said to regard Magalhães as the best they have ever seen compete. The report was the magazine's cover story in February 2009, so the assessment is a 2009 one.

      Where in the source: Section under the heading beginning «Perna dura?» — third sentence of its first paragraph, where the three names appear; the February 2009 provenance is in the page's own lead above the report

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    • The same Graciemag report says Magalhães influenced a generation with new techniques and improbable traps, and that at the World Championships these beat leading competitors across several generations: Wallid Ismail in 1996, Zé Mario Sperry in 1998, Amaury Bitetti in 1999 and Fernando Margarida in 2000.

      Where in the source: Section under the heading beginning «Perna dura?» — first paragraph, the run of four opponents with years in brackets

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    • Graciemag gives Magalhães the epithet "o engenheiro das raspagens" — the engineer of sweeps.

      Where in the source: Section under the heading beginning «Perna dura?» — the appositive directly after his name at the start of the first paragraph

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    • Naming Magalhães and Antonio "Nino" Schembri together as the two Gracie Barra aces, the Graciemag report describes the pair as long-limbed with strong, flexible legs, and says the two of them helped harden the belief that an effective guard has to be an elastic, almost magical one — a belief the report then sets out to contradict.

      Where in the source: Section under the heading beginning «Perna dura?» — opening sentence of the paragraph that follows the one naming Cobrinha, Estima and Roger Gracie

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Competition results

Recorded tournament results, newest first
YearEventResultDivision
2000IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-88 kgGiVerified1st place-88 kgGiVerified
1998IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-100 kgGiVerified1st place-100 kgGiVerified
1997IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-88 kgGiVerified1st place-88 kgGiVerified
1996IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-88 kgGiVerified1st place-88 kgGiVerified

Lineage

No teaching connections are shown on this page.

Open lineage