Professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist Melvin Manhoef is an avid BJJ practitioner and is even a BJJ brown belt! In kickboxing, he is a former It’s Showtime Champion, and in MMA he was the Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion. In mixed martial arts, he is currently competing in Bellator’s Middleweight division and has also formerly competed for Strikeforce, DREAM, RINGS, It’s Showtime, K-1, ONE FC, and KSW. As of 2 November 2015, he is ranked the #9 Middleweight in GLORY.28 of his 30 wins have come via knockout, the highest percentage of any MMA fighter with at least 15 wins.
On 20 July 2009 at Dream 10, he fought former WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho, a distinguished BJJ black belt. Despite early success on the feet with his striking offensive, Manhoef was taken down and submitted via armbar in the first round. It’s around this time that he decided to start training BJJ in the Gi.
With the Gi, I’ve been training like 8 years, like seriously.
Before I wasn’t training that much Jiu-Jitsu, because I was really just standing and fighting.
You can see the classic striker vs grappler fight here:
Manhoef has an MMA, Kickboxing and BJJ gym in Amsterdam where he recently hosted Caio Terra for a seminar.
About Caio Terra, Manhoef stated:
I’ve watched his competition and I can’t believe all the things he does. It’s like magic.
You can see Melvin Manhoef roll in the Gi in BJJ Pix’s VLOG:
