Haisam Rida is one of the top competitors around and he’s just made the decision to leave his current home of Assembly Jiu-Jitsu in order to join B-Team Jiu-Jitsu instead. Those that are fans of the B-Team YouTube channel have likely noticed that Rida has been spending a fair bit of time training there already, but now he’s going to make the move official. As a veteran competitor and one of only a handful of true heavyweights with athleticism at that size, Rida will no doubt be a valuable addition to the team and a partnership with Nicky Rodriguez could see both men reaching new levels of success.
Rida has been a highly-regarded competitor for quite some time now, and started training in the sport all the way back in 2011. He rose through the ranks quickly and was promoted to brown belt in 2016, before moving to one of the most well-respected gyms in Japan; Carpe Diem. It was there that Rida received his black belt from head coach Yuki Ishikawa in 2018 and he began to compete at a higher level on the international stage. With initial success, Rida decided to move to the US to facilitate his development in 2020 and he started to train at Assembly Jiu-Jitsu instead.
This is when Rida started to break into the highest levels of the sport and put in great performances on major shows, including setting the record for fastest submission at a Who’s Number One event. That success didn’t go unnoticed by those in charge either, as he was one of the lucky few chosen to receive an invite to compete at ADCC 2022. He took full advantage of the opportunity as well, submitting Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu in the opening round of the over 99kg division and creating one of the most-replayed moments of the entire tournament in the process.
With a move to B-Team Jiu-Jitsu, Haisam Rida will no doubt be looking to build on the success that he’s already found in the sport. With a training partner like Nicky Rodriguez and great minds like Craig Jones and Nicky Ryan behind him, this could be just the thing he needs. He’s not far away from reaching the podium of a major event like ADCC 2024 already anyway and if he either wins a spot at the tournament at one of the ADCC trials or gets a second invite, it’ll be very interesting to see the effect that this transition has had on his career.
The news that Haisam Rida was leaving his current gym to join B-Team Jiu-Jitsu instead was announced in a post to the official Instagram account of his former team, Assembly Jiu-Jitsu. To their credit, the team had nothing but kind words and well wishes for Rida as he makes the next step in his professional grappling career:
