Jordanian raised in Brazil, Zaid Mirza is a BJJ black belt under World Champion Cassio Werneck. He is the man who has developed BJJ and MMA in the kingdom of Jordan for the past 10 years. He has a chain of successful BJJ/MMA schools, homegrown black belts, a succesful MMA promotion called Desert Force, and has succeeded in including BJJ in Jordan’s police and army. Zaid Mirza is married to Princess Iman bin Hussein, who is the sister of His Majesty King Abdallah II who is a big fan of MMA and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and is a key player in the peace process and stabilization policy in the troubled region. After Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, Jiu-Jitsu now has a prince in Zaid Mirza!
-Please tell us about you started training BJJ. You were living in Brazil at the time?
Like most children i grew up training in traditional Martial Arts such as Judo, Karate, Tae Kwon Do at a very young age. I really didn’t get attached to any of them. I started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA in 1993-1994 in Brasilia, Brazil under World Champion Master Cassio Werneck and never stopped.
-How were the beginings of BJJ in Jordan?
It was very hard. We had to build everything from scratch. Besides Abu Dhabi, BJJ didn’t exist in the entire Middle East. There was different styles of Jujitsu (Japanese, Amercian.. etc) but not the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu we all know. After moving back to the Middle East i went ahead and set up the first ever Braziian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts Federation of its kind in the World under the Olympic Committee umbrella. This gave the sport a lot of weight and support in the country.
-How is the BJJ scene in Jordan nowadays?
BJJ is still relatively new and will keep on growing in Jordan as the rest of the world. The Federation is doing a great job in organizing multiple local tourneys throughout the year as well as sponsoring a Jordanian National Team to compete abroad. Most importantly we have BJJ centers outside the capital city. This was His Majesties’ King Abdullah II vision to diffuse and introduce Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA in the Kingdom. Today we have world class competitors in all categories for Children, Adult, Masters and Senior, both male and female. I hope that soon we will have the first ever Arab World Champion in the Black Belt Division Adult category.
In an exclusive interview with FightlifesyleUAE, Zaid talked about his BJJ story from Brazil to Jordan, how he developed BJJ in Jordan, the growth of Desert Force and much more:
