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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art indigenous to Brazil. It was founded and developed by the Gracie family beginning with Carlos Gracie, who learned Jiu-Jitsu from an immigrant Japanese family gardener and judoka named Maeda. The art’s roots are derived from pre-war kodokan judo, western wrestling, and Maeda’s own insights into combat.
From the beginning this great art was modified and adapted by Helio Gracie, the brother of Carlos. Helio, who was smaller than his brothers, had to adapt the art to make better use of leverage and positioning. After 70 years of challenge matches and continuous refinement, Helio’s version of his family’s art proved to be the most effective.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stresses bringing an opponent to the ground and relying on grappling techniques to subdue the opponent. BJJ players utilize strikes, but also employ chokes, armlocks and leglocks. This strategy overcomes the advantage of an opponent who might have superior striking skills. It can also mitigate the advantage of a stronger and much larger opponent by relying on leverage, superior positioning and technique.
The sportive aspect of BJJ is embodied in BJJ tournaments. Competitors wear jiu jitsu “jackets” and pants called GI’s just like their judo counterparts but the rules favor strategies and techniques more oriented toward combat effectiveness.
A lot of martial artists and their instructors claim their art to be the most effective for street self-defense, but only BJJ has continuously proven that claim for over 70 years. After the overwhelming success of BJJ in the Ultimate Fighting Challenge (UFC) in the early 1990’s, alot of styles integrated BJJ techniques into their systems. The UFC was actually started by the Gracie family to help bring the effectiveness of their Brazilian art to the rest of the world. The Gracie family has undoubtedy succeeded in doing this, with an impact on the martial arts world unlike any other style or individual before them.
Paulo Sergio Gazze Junior was born on the 12th of July, 1976 in São Paulo, Brazil. He entered the world of martial arts, like many others before him, through Judo starting when he was 4 years old at the AABB, a sports club restricted to workers of the Banco do Brasil, one of the oldest banking institutions in Latin America where his family worked. Gazze Junior also picked up some Muay Thai training at the age of 14, before drastic circumstances made him change his focus to Jiu Jitsu.
When Paulo Gazze Junior was 16 years old he had a big fight with a one of his sister’s classmates, the boy (who was a Jiu Jitsu blue belt at the time) broke both of Paulo’s arms and left Gazze just as impressed as he was injured. As soon as he recovered, Paulo decided to learn BJJ, he found out where the boy that injured him trained and joined that same class. The Jiu Jitsu academy of choice was an affiliate of Cia Paulista led by Fernando Lopes, AKA “Fepa”.
“Fepa” awarded Gazze’ blue belt, but as time went by, his coach noticed the youngster’s potential and told him he should consider training with the competition team under Max Trombini’s guidance, an advice duly accepted by Junior. In a short amount of time, Gazze became one of Trombini’s best students competing everywhere, including regular trips abroad to fight in the international circuits. The time spent abroad led Gazze Jr to think about establishing himself in California, which he did, moving to Huntington Beach on September 1998.
Paulo Gazze Jr. Competed extensively in Jiu Jitsu beating some of the biggest names in the sport, including a submission victory (by choke) against the legendary BJ Penn while adding many other victorious matches to his cartel, always followed by the close eye of his instructor Maximiliano Trombini. On June 16th he was awarded the long awaited black belt by his master, becoming the first man to be graded as a black belt by Max Trombini, the ceremony took place at Joe Moreira’ school in the US.
MMA has also been a part of Paulo Gazze Jr. life, he competed (and defeated) big names in the sport, including UFC’s Christ Leben and killing the progress of former Olympian and MMA hopeful Dwayne Ortiz. He has also participated in several fight training camps with pros such as Mauricio Shogun (for his fight against Kevin Randleman), Tito Ortiz (for Ken Shamrock twice), Rico Rodriguez, Michael Bisping, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Cheick Kongo, Josh Barnett, Evan Tanner (R.I.P.), Brad Blackburn, Benji Radach, and many others.
Max Trombini was born on the 23rd of May 1968 in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He started training Judo when he was 13 as a way to exorcise his inner demons. He had lost his grandfather at the time, a figure that was of incredible influence in the life of young Maximiliano, and his mother thought it would do him some good to start practicing sports as a way to release the repressed anger. Trombini’s first coach was sensei Josino de Sousa in the city of Ubatuba. At a later stage Max Trombini had the opportunity to move to the city of Bastos where he trained under Sensei Uishiro Umakakeba, a man that would be of tremendous influence in his conduct inside and outside of the mats.
Though Trombini was not a top competitor, he did get invited on 2 occasions to be part of the National team for both the Olympics and the World Judo Championships, a mark he fell short of obtaining. Maximiliano’s understanding of both sports (Judo and BJJ) made him an exceptional coach having helped in the development of many champions which led to over 35 medals at the World Championships (BJJ) and 200 podiums at the “Paulista” (Sao Paulo State JJ Championships). This led the head coach of the Brazilian Judo Team, Luis Shinohara, to invite Max to become the ground coach of the team, a project that also bore fruits and opened the door to several other invitations from other Important Judo federations such as Russia, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia.
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