Mauricio Motta Gomes

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Maurição Motta Gomes is a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, one of the six people (most commonly known as the "Famous Five") to have been promoted to Black Belt by the famous Rolls Gracie prior to his untimely death. He has been training and teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for over 25 years and at present holds the rank of 7th degree black belt. He is the father of Roger Gracie.

1 Biography
2 The Famous Five
3 Other Facts
4 Students
- 4.1 Black Belt Students
- 4.2 Brown belt Students
5 References

[edit] Biography

At the age of four, Mauricio was taken to BJJ academies by his father before he started training with Joao Alberto. In 1977, he began training with Rolls Gracie and was awarded his black belt in 1981. He married Reila Gracie in 1979, who is the daughter of Carlos Gracie Sr. He is the father of the current BJJ and ADCC World Champion Roger Gracie.

In 1998 he moved to England and set up Gracie Barra UK, teaching in Birmingham and then in London, Edinburgh and Belfast. He was instrumental in bringing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the UK and also bringing Felipe Souza, his son Roger and Braulio Estima to the UK to teach. Other Gracie Barra World Champions who subsequently came over included Carlos Lemos, Victor Estima and Lucio Rodrigues. Mauricio promoted his first UK students to black belt in 2005, which includes Jude Samuel, Rick Young and Marc Walder.

Mauricio now divides his time between Brazil and the UK to teach at the Roger Gracie Academy in London.

"It is will, power, and then wanting to do things in life. There is no age limit. There is nothing but will power." - Mauricio Gomes^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The Famous Five

The Famous Five was a nickname for the black belt students of Rolls Gracie. In fact, it is somewhat of a misnomer since Rolls promoted 6 men to Black Belt