Veteran BJJ competitor Max Gimenis has just signed a contract with the UFC and will be making his promotional debut shortly. Gimenis was promoted to black belt back in 2016 after winning the IBJJF World Championship as a brown belt and he immediately started facing the best grapplers in the world. He shared the mats with the biggest names in the sport in the years that followed but he started competing less often in 2022, as he was preparing to make the move to MMA. With the necessary physicality to succeed in heavyweight MMA and a level of grappling that not many people have, it was clear that Gimenis was going to make an impact on the sport.
That’s exactly what happened too, as Gimenis made his MMA debut shortly before competing at ADCC 2022 and finished the fight in the very first round. He won his second fight too and although he was on the receiving end of a knockout in his third fight, he has been flawless since then. Gimenis has racked up another 4 wins over increasingly difficult opponents on the regional MMA circuit and currently holds an impressive 6-1 professional record that includes 5 finishes. Gimenis has kept dipping his toes back into the grappling world throughout that time though, putting on some impressive performances while still developing his MMA skills.
His biggest win during this time came in the very first Pit Submission Series event, where he was able to win a decision over Dan Manasoiu. That showed that he still has what it takes to compete with the very best in the world, even though he’s not focusing exclusively on Jiu-Jitsu any more. He also made an appearance at the inaugural CJI last year too, losing out to the eventual winner in the opening round in what was his last grappling match. That may well be the last time fans see Gimenis in that format for quite some time, as he’ll likely want to spend even more time on MMA now he’s working his way up the UFC rankings.
Max Gimenis announced the news that he had signed a UFC contract in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
