Top American BJJ competitor Gianni Grippo has just been promoted to black belt in Luta Livre by his coach in the sport, Jarbem Pacheco. Grippo is a veteran of professional grappling competition and he’s had hundreds of matches against the very best athletes in the sport over the last few years. Since he received his BJJ black belt over a decade ago in 2013, he has been a frequent face on the podium of several major IBJJF events all around the world and he has reached the very top of the sport on multiple occasions. His crowning achievements have come at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship, where he has won gold medals on two separate occasions.
Grippo still competes at the highest level of the sport to this day, and just last year he was able to win a silver medal in the featherweight division of the IBJJF No Gi World Championship. At the same time, he has also taken on another role alongside his elite competition career by becoming a coach to the next generation of grapplers as well. In fact, he actually gave out his very first black belt to Hunter Phares last year as well. Gianni Grippo has clearly remained a student throughout his career and has been spending some time practicing Luta Livre under Jarbem Pacheco, just like his old rival Joao Miyao did recently too.
News like this is also a great reminder of how far the sport has come since the very earliest days of training under the Gracie family in Brazil. There was a historic rivalry between BJJ and Luta Livre, and this was back at a time when students simply didn’t switch between coaches without friction. Fast forward to today though and the idea of cross-training in other grappling styles is something that the majority of coaches are happy with, or even recommend. It makes sense too, since all grappling styles have a good deal of crossover with each other and cross-training in different disciplines can be a huge benefit to a grappler’s development.
Jarbem Pacheco shared the news that he had promoted Gianni Grippo to black belt in Luta Livre in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
