The first Black Belt under Master Renzo Gracie and a decorated grappling and MMA competitor, Professor Almeida joins the show to talk about the early days of Team Renzo Gracie, finding your motivation and why talent isn’t everything. He also gives an in-depth breakdown of Jiu-Jitsu for MMA. Click “read more” for show notes!

SHOW NOTES:

His origins

His ability to quickly adapt to Jiu-Jitsu

Starting Jiu-Jitsu early vs later in life

Finding your reason for training / staying motivated

Talent vs Drive

His motivation to keep training after retirement

How Jiu-Jitsu has helped him in life

Learning from Master Renzo Gracie

The early days of Master Renzo’s team in NYC

Challenge matches at Renzo’s

Ryan Gracie

The “fighter’s switch”

The Tom Deblass Walmart incident / The responsibility of self control

The expectations of a competitor

The value of not creating a mold of yourself for your students

The sharing of knowledge in Jiu-Jitsu

His feelings on cross-training

Training with Buchecha

What Jiu-Jitsu did for his MMA career

Getting the fight to the ground in MMA

Applying Demian Maia’s Jiu-Jitsu

Striking for Jiu-Jitsu

Adapting boxing for MMA and combining it with Jiu-Jitsu

Fighting in Japan for Pride FC

Crazy behind the scenes stories from Pride

How Joe Rogan has educated the general public on Grappling

His favorite promotion to fight for

When he knew it was time to retire from fighting

His defining MMA moment

[powerpress]