Andy Murasaki has just been awarded the first degree on his BJJ black belt by Andre Galvao, his long-time coach and the founder of ATOS. Murasaki was already a fantastic competitor during his journey through the colored belt ranks, winning multiple major IBJJF events at different levels over the years, but he really came into his own after being promoted to black belt in 2020. It was then that he joined the ranks of the best grapplers on the planet, and he established himself very quickly with wins over some of the biggest names in the sport.
He made his black belt debut at the first Evolve Ur Game event and he submitted both Gianni Grippo and Kennedy Maciel on the way to winning the tournament. He continued having success on the mats throughout 2022 and he finished the year with the biggest title of his career to date, winning a gold medal at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship 2022. He hasn’t added the corresponding gi title to his collection just yet, but he’s come within one match of doing so in two different weight classes.
Murasaki won his first IBJJF World Championship silver medal at medium-heavyweight in 2022, marking a fantastic competitive year for him in total. He returned to the event again the following year and dropped down to middleweight, adding another silver to his resume in the end. Murasaki has established himself as one of the best competitors in the sport between lightweight and medium-heavyweight, and he is a top contender in any tournament he enters. These first few years are likely just the start of his time on the podium of major events and it’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here.
Andre Galvao announced the news that he had promoted Andy Murasaki to first degree BJJ black belt during the ATOS grading ceremony in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
