Raphael Abi-Rihan is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Luis “Manimal” who held some of the sport’s most prestigious titles, such as European Open Champion, Brazilian Nationals Champion and Rio Open Champion. Known for his aggressive passing style, Abi Rihan has submission victories over many top competitors such as Tarsis Humphreys and Victor Estima. Raphael is also a successful coach and organizers of the “Copa America” and many other important tournaments in the Brazilian circuit.

Rodrigo Totti is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 5th degree Black Belt and responsible for Carlson Gracie Leme. Also, Rodrigo Totti is a renowned ref and experienced teacher in Rio de Janeiro.

Ari Galo is a renowned teacher of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Black Belt of the legendary master Carlson Gracie. During his career, he traveled the whole world giving seminars and private lessons in his various branches. In 2014, he built the hostel Walk on the favela. A hostel/training center in the heart of Copacabana, where athletes and visitors around the world could eat, train and sleep in a family and respectable environment.

Due to the popularity of Ari Galo, the venture eventually became a reference in the community, becoming a meeting point for athletes and residents of the site. From then on, Ari decided to rescue his old dream to inaugurate a social project that served the needy children from the surroundings.

Rodrigo Lopes Martins, also known as Rodrigo “Tatu”, is a jiu-jitsu Black Belt under Leandro Escobar (also named Tatu) and a representative of the Double Five Academy in the sport’s international circuit. Rodrigo Lopes gained worldwide notoriety after winning double silver (gi and no-gi) at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) American National Championships in 2020.

Master Fernando “Pinduka” was one of BJJ’s most important fighters in the 1980’s golden era of Jiu Jitsu. A Black Belt under the late Carlson Gracie, he defended the Gracie Jiu Jitsu name and honor for many years against those who challenged the martial art. He was also one of the people responsible for BJJ’s development at the Gama Filho University, where he lectured, that later became GF Team. Pinduka received his Red Belt from the hands of Master Robson Gracie, being widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of the sport.

Ricardo de La Riva was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the year of 1965. He started training because of a dispute at the beach in Rio de Janeiro. This happened in January 1980 and Ricardo De La Riva was 15 at the time.

Ricardo’s father was a big fan of Carlson Gracie in the Vale Tudo days and so he chose the famous school in Copacabana for Ricardo to start his training. The Carlson Gracie Academy was famous for its powerful guard passers, a style of fighting for which it is still famous today. De La Riva was a small and flexible individual, who didn’t stand a chance against the power houses of the “Arrebentacao Team”, in order to survive, he started developing his guard a style in which he excelled. The fact that he had so many classy Guard Passers training with him on a daily basis admittedly helped his guard practice.

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De La Riva was awarded his black belt by Master Carlson Gracie in the year of 1986. The famous De La Riva guard came as Ricardo’s own solution to avoid being crushed constantly by his heavier opponents at the gym. At first the guard was called “Guarda Pudim” (Pudding Guard) because his opponents would be unbalanced going wobbly when he played the guard. It was only in 1985 after De La Riva beat the (until then) unbeaten Royler Gracie at the Copa Cantão, applying that guard to the highly decorated Gracie, that the media started calling that position the “De La Riva”.

In 1993 Ricardo De La Riva stopped competing to dedicate himself fully to teaching, but in 2002 when he was 37 years old, Ricardo decided to test himself against the very best at the World Championships. He lost in the semi finals to the champion and got the bronze medal, a tremendous achievement for the master. De La Riva also competed at the ADCC tournament in 2003 and had made some exhibition matches in 2004.

A Rio de Janeiro Native, Luiz Carlos Mateus Dias started his jiu jitsu training under the guidance of Carlos Gracie Junior with whom he stayed until his blue belt, though he already had a background in martial arts, namely Capoeira. It was then that Manimal would come to meet the man that would become his master and one of his closest friends, Master Carlson Gracie. He achieved all his belts from there on from Carlson including his black belt and was considered a true force when competing, always fighting (and winning) on the open weight divisions even though he was a lightweight. Manimal was so proud when he got his Carlson Gracie black belt that he took it to his graduation ceremony (graduated in Company Administration).

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Manimal coached at Carlson Gracie’s as an assistant at first and later opened an academy of his own – with his master’s consent. With time Manimal became one of Carlson Gracie’s closest friends and accompanied his master on many of his trips abroad.

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Carlson Gracie’s death in 2006 came as a tremendous shock to Manimal, who succumbed to the death of his master and decided to stop coaching for a while to recompose himself. This bad period was followed by a decrease in health of the black belt who had 3 kidney surgeries shortly after. He came back to coaching full time in 2009.