Martins Licis is a former World’s Strongest Man winner and he’s just added a BJJ blue belt to his incredible list of accomplishments. Licis was an elite Strongman competitor for many years, winning several major titles in the sport throughout his career. With a World’s Strongest Man title secured in 2017 and the Arnold Classic in 2022, Licis proved himself to be among the very best in the world several times over. Obviously anyone coming from that kind of background would be at a distinct advantage over other beginners in grappling sports, and Licis would outweigh the vast majority of ultra-heavyweights because he stands at 6’3 and weighs around 350lbs.
Despite his natural gifts and a lifetime of athletic training, Licis has dedicated himself to technical development rather of relying on those advantages. He actually started training in Jiu-Jitsu around two years ago, and has shown an increased fascination and willingness to learn. Like other celebrity BJJ enthusiasts, he also has relatively easy access to high-level instructors and training partners as well. In fact, he actually managed to get a training session in with Gordon Ryan while he was still pretty new to the sport. Ryan is one of the sharpest minds in the sport of course, so even a few hours with him is enough for someone to dramatically improve.
Licis hasn’t just kept himself to training either, he’s actually thrown himself fully into the sport and has even competed as well. He recently stepped on the mats in a beginner division at the ADCC San Diego Open 2025 and won gold in his weight class. He was able to demonstrate plenty of the technical improvements he’s made since discovering the sport too, and even won both his matches by submission. It was a pretty flawless performance by Martins Licis in his debut and no doubt contributed to him receiving his blue belt from his coach Thiago Rodrigues at Torse House BJJ.
Martins Licis shared the news that he had been promoted to blue belt in BJJ in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
