10x IBJJF Black Belt World Champion, Caio Terra is a legend of our sport. The Multiple world champion was promoted to black belt by Reyson Gracie and Paulo Strauch after just 3 years of training and having won everything on the local Brazilian scene. He went to become one of the most dominating fighters in rooster weight history. In addition to all of this, he also overcame bullying with bjj.
Caio Terra’s brother Kim recently wrote about him:
“When I started training Jiu-Jitsu, it was just me and @caioterrabjj in his bedroom, which didn’t even have a bed: only a mattress that he layed over the mats after training.
He was a blue belt at the time and had just left the academy where he used to train because it wasn’t a good environment.
I don’t know where or how he was learning Jiu-Jitsu (there wasn’t even youtube back then) but he would teach me something new everyday.
As he moved up in ranks, more people started coming to our house to train, so we decided to tear down the wall that divided his bedroom from the living room to have more mat space.
That was the beggining of CTA, and nowadays we are one of the fastest growing teams in the world!
People used to laugh at us because we didn’t have an actual black belt teacher.
That didn’t stop him from winning world titles in every belt color, and also to produce world champions from his own apartment.
Two years later, we came to the US and he became a black belt world champion for the first time in 2008.
This happenned merely 5 years after he started training.
What is funny about this is that I witnessed how everyone used to laugh at him for thinking he could make it on his own, and then I witnessed how everyone started looking up to him after he made it.
It would have never happenned had he stopped believing in himself and started believing in others.
How about you? Are you going to let other people tell you what you are capable of or will you control your own destiny?”
Currently, Caio Terra is more focused on being a coach. He prepared his student Yuri Simoes for ADCC this year, and the results paid as Yuri was once again champion in the category up to 99 kg after conquering the 88 kg two years beforehand.
Terra stated:
I like teaching these days, more than competing. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to compete, because there are some things I still want to win. It’s just different, I’m in a different place in my life. I also have my online training, I really want to develop. I believe that Jiu Jitsu is bigger than one person or an association, and my online training allows me to reach a wider audience. I want to upgrade it and really build a community.
He stated on Instagram from Jiu-Jitsu that he was retiring but only from the No Gi worlds. Could this mean that 2018 would be his last year competing? Now aged 31, Caio Terra has never competed in ADCC worlds which is the premiere submission grappling competition:
As 2017 ends and we are ready to start 2018, a new chapter in my life will begin. Today I competed and won my 10th and last no gi world title at the black belt level.
This post is so hard to write because I have so many people who have made all this possible. First to my family, thank you for always believing in me and supporting me. When I was at my lowest you guys were by my side. You are the reason I work so hard and inspire me to be a better person.
To my students and my team this has been an amazing ride. Over the years every time I competed I thought of you. I hoped that I’d make you as proud as I am of all of you. From the world champions to those who earned their first stripe, I love seeing your growth as jiu jitsu players and people. In the end this is what jiu jitsu is all about.
I’d like to say thank you to everyone who plays jiu jitsu. You might be from a different team, wear a different patch or even cheered against me. It doesn’t matter, we are all doing the same thing and we are all brothers and sisters.
Lastly I have to thank Comprido, Felipe Costa, Paulo Mauricio Strauch, Helio Gracie, Carlos Gracie, and all those who came before me. If there were none of you I dont know what I would be doing today.
Obrigado.
