JT Torres has just received the fourth degree on his BJJ black belt in a promotion ceremony led by ATOS founder and head coach Andre Galvao. Torres has been competing at the highest levels of the sport for longer than the majority of black belts ever manage to do, dating all the way back to 2009 when he was first promoted to black belt by Lloyd Irvin. He left Team Lloyd Irvin in 2013 and joined ATOS to train under Galvao before opening up his own academy called Essential Jiu-Jitsu, although Galvao is still the man who promotes him today.
Throughout the course of his career, Torres has won an IBJJF no gi World Championship and several other major IBJJF events. The achievement he has become known best for is his incredible run of success on the ADCC stage though, where he has been competing for over a decade. He made his ADCC debut back in 2011 and after some close attempts, he managed to win the 77kg division in both 2017 and 2019. Torres has become known for his fantastic wrestling and crushing top-pressure, registering wins against elite competitors like Garry Tonon, Lucas Lepri, and Gilbert Burns.
Torres wasn’t alone in receiving a new rank at the ATOS headquarters though. Several promotions were handed out shortly after the team took to the mats at the IBJJF World Championship 2023 and while Torres was the highest-ranked competitor honoured at the ATOS promotion ceremony, Ronaldo Junior also received the very first degree on his black belt. There were several young prospects who received the next coloured belt in their journey through the ranking system, and both Nicholas Maglicic and Matheus Menezes were promoted to black belt.
Andre Galvao announced the news that he had promoted JT Torres to fourth degree BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
