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It's pretty impressive finding out what young, talented kids can juggle in their lives these days. We know some argue otherwise, but trust us when we say that there are young people today who are the furthest away from being lazy. Bradley Chirino is definitely one of those kids, to say the least. He's currently a 15-year-old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu green belt of the elite team AOJ academy, under the Mendes brothers (Rafael and Gui). He began training martial arts at the age of 5, fro …

The IBJJF Pan Americans No Gi Championship took place at the Nat Holman Gym in New York City this past September , 2016. The tournament had plenty of great matches with enormous talent circulating the Jiu-Jitsu community, including our very own black belt Ian Sanders, brown belt Rehan Muttalib, and blue belt Lukas Matheus. This was the very first tournament Ian Sanders did as a black belt. He trains at the Rodrigo Freitas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy 2 times a day, …

Military men and women sacrifice a lot to fulfill their duties for this country. It's no secret that they dedicate a lot of their time, their bodies, and their entire being into their services, big or small. Our very own black belt, Sergio Machado, was one of these honorable beings who served in the Army. He unfortunately developed a back injury while serving, causing surgery in 2006 prior to his 3rd tour in Iraq. He was at the top 5% of all recovering back surgery patients, which ga …

The family who trains together, succeeds together. The Oranday family is a huge testament to that! Bambi, her 2 sons and daughter all manage their own academy together (Oranday Bros Jiu-Jitsu), train together, and most importantly, support each other. Bambi's children began training on September 21, 2009 when they Damion was just 11, Austin was just 10, and Camryn was 4. After training for 7 years, Damion is now a purple belt, Austin is blue, and Camryn is an orange/black belt. Al …

Believe in your work and others will believe in you too. That's exactly what Raul Jimenez did when he decided to run his own gym in 2009. It's called Jiu-Jitsu Studio 76 Team Gacho and it's located in Spring, Texas. They offer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes, Muay Thai, and wrestling. Years before this happened, back in 2001, his best friend, black belt Cristian Ledwon, introduced him to BJJ. Raul used to teach at Gracie Barra the Woodlands when he was a purple belt back in 2008, but felt like he di …

The IBJJF Masters Worlds happened not too long ago on August 25-27 in Las Vegas. It was a jammed-packed tournament that had some of the biggest names in the game including our very own black belt, Rodrigo Medeiros. He had 3 fights in the middle weight division, where he won the silver medal. He also did the Pan Americans this past March in the Master 4 Lightweight division, where he won the gold. What people might not know are the obstacles he had to face after Pan Ams, before heading for the Ma …

They say good things happen to those who go out and work for it. It's no wonder that even from facing adversity, our 28-year-old teammate Julio Cordova eventually found his way to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 9 years ago. This was his way to steer away from the bad influences surrounding him. Julio has actually been in the martial arts scene since he was a child, practicing judo and karate. He's currently training Jiu-Jitsu as a brown belt at the Renzo Gracie/Skrap Pack academy in Mexico City. From becom …

It's about time that we talk about our multi-talented rep, Tom Knox. He moved to Visalia, CA from Torrance and started training judo when he was just 4 years old. 21 years later, he earned his black belt in the sport. Within this time span, someone introduced him to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1998 and ever since then, he was hooked to the game. Tom received his blue and purple belts from Royce Gracie, then his brown and black belt from Cleber Luciano. He said, "I owe a lot to him for his technical g …

Our rising star Alyssa Wilson has always been a household name in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world. Her age never stopped her from putting on a show every time she competed. This year, she began a new journey when she did tournaments in the adult blue belt division. She's done 7 tournaments so far this year, winning the gold for 5 of them, 1 silver, and 1 bronze. This might seem a lot for the normal competitors, but for Alyssa, she thought this was taking a step back from the tournament scene. She …

When someone is born to do something, nothing will be able to stand in their way from doing it. Tatiana Padilla is one of those people born to be a fighter. She was just 3 and a half years old when she started wrestling. Her uncles and her older brother wrestled before her, so she followed their example. Also, having ADHD as a kid, she found that wrestling was the only activity she loved enough to pay attention to. Tatiana excelled in wrestling while attending school. One of the ma …