Mauricio Motta Gomes is a bjj veteran and a father of jiu-jitsu in the United Kingdom. Gomes had been doing bjj since he was about 5, as his own father was a fan of the martial art. But perhaps one of the things he’s most famous for to the contemporary generations is the fact that he is the father of Greatest Grappler Of All Time – Roger Gracie.

Gomes recently had a huge interview with Daniel Strauss aka Raspberry Ape on the podcast of the same name and there he shared quite a few interesting tidbits including the debunking of how bjj came to be.

As Strauss himself accounted, many believed that Gracie had met Maeda through his diplomatic connections however the truth is something quite different. The two met at circus. As Gomes told it:

For some reason that nobody in the world knows . Carlos’ grandfather went there. So Carlos’ father was already probably born there (Rio De Janeiro). And Carlos so yeah. Some Japanese fellow out of the blue landed in the same city. Went to a circus – and they started doing martial art on the floor and then Carlos said “Ooh that’s a good thing to know”

Carlos was reportedly a nightmare kid who wrecked havoc on the streat. Jiu Jitsu had calmed him.

Gomes also revealed one other common misconception. Maeda had never taught bjj to Helio – Helio just watched Maeda teach, never actually having learned from Maeda.

“Carlos taught the brothers. George was the main fighter and Helio was the tiny one and the youngest and he developed his jiu-jitsu”

And as for just how Gomes got his blue belt – he was instructed by Rolls to go buy a blue belt for competition:

“Every time he went I had to beat him up because Rolls said he didn’t want him back… He said there’s a state championship on Saturday.I said I haven’t been in competition since I was a yellow belt. Go to the shop, buy yourself a blue belt. You start wearing it tomorrow… So I came back the next day with a shiny new blue belt. “

As for the black belt, that Gomes got it was given to him by Rolls with no fanfare. He was just told to go tie it on and that was it!

As for the Gauntlet Gomes says he does not remember anyone getting whipped or hazed at Rolls’ academy.

You can hear all this and a whole lot more in a tremendous episode of the podcast attached below.