Marcelo Garcia is an outstanding competitor. There are many who consider him best pound-for-pound Jiu-Jitsu practitioner on the planet today. His athletic accomplishments are paired with a positive friendly outlook as well as serious teaching credits.

He recently made a very rare exception – he opted to appear on a Grappling Central Podcast which is quite out of character given that Garcia does not make public statements.

Garcia addressed the split in Alliance that happened a while back. After training for a long time with much more less skillful opponents Garcia relocated to Sao Paolo to train with the big names however rather

“After 3 months, all those big names, they weren’t training there any more. I end up not having the competition team training any more. But I just got there 3 months ago and for me.  For me to train under Fabio (Gurgel) to come from where I came from was a big deal. For me it was a very big deal. Everybody left, I was still a brown belt. I admire Fabio so much and from before already so to leave as I just got there I felt wasn’t right. I didn’t know what the consequences would be – that one day I’ll be fighting all those guys. “

The most successful Jiu Jitsu team in recent history, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu has 6 successive World team titles (from 2008 to 2013) as well as in 1990’s (98 & 99). in the early 2000’s the team suffered from internal turmoil as most of it’s competitors left to form rival smaller teams. Brasa and TT were born which later led to further break ups with the forming of Atos and Checkmat. Alliance had some hard times in the next few years but with the guidance of the “General” Fabio Gurgel in Sao Paulo, Alexandre Paiva in Rio de Janeiro and Romero Cavalcanti in the US they were able to rise from the ashes.

Garcia also reflected on what it feels to lose a student:

“There’s many different ways we lose a student. It’s not something that should be tragic. A lot of people come to New York to stay their entire life so thank god I have a big gym today. I see a lot of people who come and go every day… If (those who leave) are gonna be happy I’m fine with that . I wish them the best. I don’t wish anything bad for none because I don’t want anyone wishing that for me.”

On Asking Dillon Danis to leave and what he’d advise to instructors who are having similar experiences:

“I’ve been at this a long time. I’ve been trying to learn a lot from (my instructor). Unfortunately not everybody enjoys jiu-jitsu like I enjoy. Maybe not everybody has the same goals that I have and I respect that. But I really wish everybody would focus on the good in jiu-jitsu not on rivals or enemies or hurt or to be mean or any other stuff. So if anybody could just be positive like that no one would have to leave or be kicked out. None will be suspended or anything like that but everything kinda like has the limit. When you see someone begin to be a irresponsible on the mat or not passing good energy I think the instructor has to try to see to that from the beginning. “