AJ Agazarm - 2nd-Degree BJJ Black Belt & MMA Fighter

AJ Agazarm is a BJJ black belt under Eduardo de Lima and Carlos Gracie Jr. Despite initially not having an interest in BJJ, Agazarm would become a renowned American grappler. It was his submission techniques that contributed to his successful grappler career in no time. Agazarm’s talent was recognized by Gracie the moment he laid eyes on him. He is the first American to win the Brazilian National Championship held in Brazil.

Agazarm was born on July 26, 1990, in Hollywood, Florida, United States.

Ever since he was a child,l Agazarm was an athletic child who participated in various sports. He was a teenager when he first learned about wrestling. Agazarm was an active football player at the time. Noticing Agazarm’s potential, his school friend persuaded him to join the wrestling team. He attended wrestling classes for a while but didn’t pursue wrestling due to a lack of interest.

Agazarm was enrolled in a public school by his parents during 10th grade. Changing schools affects his interest in athletics. Agazarm joined the school swim and cross-country teams.

During high school, Agazarm found a renewed interest in wrestling and joined the wrestling team. Little did he know that this was the start of his martial art journey.

Agazarm won several wrestling championships during high school. His consecutive success helped him earn a scholarship to the University of Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky from 2005 to 2007. There, he was able to continue his studies and focus on his athletic career.

The reason behind Agazarm’s success was his athletic background. His father Armen Agazarm was a former professional wrestler. His older brother Armen Jr. is a mixed martial artist.

Agazarm told his father, Armen Agazarm about his MMA success. His father advised him to pursue jiu-jitsu as Agazarm already had experience using submission techniques. In 2006, Agazarm’s father enrolled him at Gracie Barra Clearwater. Eduardo Lima was the head instructor at the academy. Agazarm loved BJJ and attended two classes per day six days each week. He attended all of Lima’s classes and gave his instructor his full attention.

During Agazarm’s time at Gracie Barra Clearwater, he got the chance to meet the legendary Master Carlos Gracie Jr. During his stay at the academy, Gracie noticed Agazarm. Carlos paid special attention to Agazarm’s fighting style and concluded that he had the potential to become a world champion.

Gracie offered Agazarm a chance to come with him to Brazil to be trained personally. However, Agazarm had different goals at the time. He wanted to study finance at Ohio State University and pursue a career in wrestling by competing in the NCC D1 Wrestling Championships. Agazarm refused the offer and stayed in the United States.

Agazarm moved to Ohio to enroll in Ohio State University and continue his studies. Rather than abandoning BJJ, he instead enrolled in Relson Gracie Academy run by Robin Gieseler. Later, Agazarm decided to compete in the IBJJF World Championship and prepared by training hard at the academy with Aaron Fly.

After becoming World Champion in 2007 as a blue belt, Agazarm was asked to leave Team Gracie Barra if he wanted to train at Relson Gracie Clearwater. Relson Gracie saw Agazarm’s potential and asked him to join his team. However, Agazarm had spent a long time at Gracie Barra and was conflicted in his decision. He eventually decided to stay off the mats for a while. Later, when Agazarm returned, he went back to Team Gracie Barra.

In 2011, Agazarm received his degree in finance from Ohio State University.

After getting his degree, Agazarm dedicated his full time to BJJ. Kayron Gracie offered him a teaching job at his BJJ academy in California. Agazarm accepted the offer, to train and teach BJJ at Kayron Gracie’s Academy. This also gave him the chance to travel worldwide and compete in different tournaments.

Agazarm has filmed some instructional videos with famous grapplers such as Bernardo Faria. These videos are specifically for his fans and other grapplers who want to succeed in BJJ. Agazarm’s fighting style looks a little tricky but he has broken down many techniques into smaller parts for the sole understanding of his students. His most youtube videos are with BJJ Fanatics and Bernardo Faria BJJ Fanatics. Following are listed some of his instructional videos in which Agazarm shows defensive and offensive techniques:

How to Perfect Your Single Leg by AJ Agazarm

Kimura from Knee Shield by AJ Agazarm

Kimura Defenses by AJ Agazarm 1

The Key to Escaping Submissions by AJ Agazarm

The main reason behind Agazarm’s success is the training environment at Gracie Barra Clearwater. All the practitioners were friendly and offered guidance every step of the way. He was treated like family by the instructors and other practitioners.

In 2007, Agazarm received his blue belt after three months of training. As a blue belt, he competed in local and in-house tournaments.

As a blue belt, AJ Agazarm won a gold medal in the 2007 IBJJF Pan American Championship. This was just within the first year of Agazarm’s BJJ training and he had already won an IBJJF championship.

Agazarm trained in preparation for his first world championship at the Relson Gracie Academy. It was Agazarm’s first international tournament but he wasn’t tense or anything. It was because he knew he was going to win. He won the 2007 IBJJF World Championship as a blue belt.

Agazarm aimed to compete at the 2008 World Championship as a blue belt. However, Lima decided to promote Agazarm to the next belt rank since he had already competed in last year’s championship as a blue belt. The federation contacted Lima and gave its consent for Agazarm to be promoted to purple belt.

Agazarm received his brown belt from Eduardo Lima and Master Carlos Gracie in 2011.

In 2012, Agazarm became the IBJJF American National Champion in the brown belt division.

Agazarm received his black belt from Eduardo Lima and Carlos Gracie in 2013.

In 2013, Agazarm competed and won the Brazilian National No-Gi Championship.

Agazarm got the chance to train under the legendary MMA fighter Nate Diaz. Agazarm credited his success to Diaz. Agazaram even said that because of Diaz, he finds himself ready for every challenge.

During Agazarm’s time at college, he made a friend interested in MMA. His friend wanted to compete in an MMA match and Agazarm accompanied him. At the event, one of the fighters failed to show up. The promoter of the tournament was aware of Agazarm's background in wrestling, so he asked Agazarm to take the place of the absent fighter.

Agazarm, being a confident person, accepted the offer and won the fight during the first round via rear naked choke. The audience, as well as Agazarm, was thrilled by his performance. In the post-fight interview, he said, “I didn’t even know what that was at the time.”

Agazarm made his professional MMA debut at Bellator 214 in 2019. After winning his first MMA fight, he developed an interest in learning MMA. After becoming a big name in BJJ, Agazarm decided to pursue a career in MMA. At Bellator 214, Agazarm lost against Jesse Roberts via split decision.

After Agazarm’s first loss, he trained hard for the next one. In July 2019 at Bellator 224, Agazarm won against Jacob Landin via rear naked choke during the first round. At Bellator 228, Agazarm defeated Jonathan Quiroz via unanimous decision. At Bellator 238, Agazarm won the fight against Adel Altamimi via triangle choke.

At Bellator 243, Agazarm lost against Cris Lencioni via unanimous decision on August 7, 2020. His loss was due to suffering a knee injury during the first round. He tried to dominate over Lencioni but his injury didn’t let him. Agazarm accused one of the judges of being biased and requested an honest result. But later, he accepted the decision and didn’t create a fuss. He even made a tweet apologizing for his behavior.

After this defeat, Bellator MMA released Agazarm from promotional fights in October, 2020. However, it was announced that he would return to MMA. It was Agazarm’s injury that led to the end of his contract with Bellator.

In the post-fight interview, Agazarm talked about his opponent that he unintentionally head-butted him.

Adel Altamimi is an Iraqi MMA fighter and a BJJ black belt. At Bellator 238, Agazarm competed against Altamimi ferociously. Altamimi landed a few punches on Agazarm, but Agazarm managed to defend himself. The shin bone strike by Altamimi landed a solid hit but Agazarm managed to grab his leg and take Altamimi to the ground. In the first round, Altamimi displayed superior technique.

In the second round, Altamimi pounded on Agazarm and kept him from escaping the flurry of punches and jabs. Agazarm tried to defend himself by grabbing Altamimi’s leg and pushing him to the ground. Altamimi, known for his submissions, tried to apply an armbar but Agazarm managed to get on top of Altamimi and freed his hand. Agazarm got close to finishing the kimura but Altamimi managed to grab his ankle to stop Agazarm from applying the submission. Agazram quickly transitioned from a kimura to a back mount and began punching Altamimi in the face. From the full-mount position, Agazarm continued to rain punches on Altamimi.

In the third round, both fighters fought aggressively. But in the end, Agazarm grabbed Altamimi’s arm and submitted him via triangle choke.

Jonathan Quiroz is an MMA fighter famous for being an underdog. During this match, he attempted a shin bone kick but Agazarm held his ground and counter-attacked by pounding on Quiroz. Agazarm got on top of Quiroz and began landing punches and elbow strikes on Quiroz. Quiroz eventually managed to stand up to defend himself. Later, Quiroz caught Agazarm off guard and punched him hard. Quiroz won the first round by one point.

In the second round, Agazarm managed to defend himself, got into a dominant position, and landed several punches on Quiroz. When Agazarm went for the submission, he almost held down Quiroz, but Quiroz managed to hit Agazarm and escape the submission. Agazarm won the second round.

In the third round, Quiroz tried to put pressure on Agazarm with a flurry of punches. Luckily, Agazarm was able to defend himself from most of the damage. Eventually, Agazarm managed to restrict Quiroz’s movements and land punches on him. In the last 30 seconds, Agazarm got into a back mount and punched Quiroz’s head, helping him win the match.

Ikuhisa Minowa, also known as Minowaman, is a Japanese MMA fighter. The match started with both combatants testing each other to better evaluate one another’s fighting styles. Minowaman had professional wrestling experience, while Agazarm had D1 wrestling experience. Agazarm went for the single-leg takedown but Minowaman managed to escape. Minowaman tried to grab ahold of Agazarm’s head but Agazarm managed to evade. Agazarm got on top of Minowaman and submitted him via triangle choke after 5 minutes and 50 seconds.

Oliver Geddes is a 2nd-degree BJJ black belt under Roger Gracie, known for executing finishers from half guard and using the loop choke. Geddes went for Agazarm’s shin but Agazram quickly forced it to become an armbar submission. Escape by Geddes was very perfect or else he would have lost the match in the first two minutes. Geddes stood up and Agazarm went for the takedown. Later, Agazarm caught and submitted Geddes via a triangle armbar.

Nicholas Moraes is a BJJ black belt and an aggressive fighter. At the finals of the 2013 IBJJF No-Gi Pan American Championship, Agazarm competed against Moraes and was himself caught in a leglock situation by Moraes. Moraes applied the inside heel hook on Agazarm but Agazarm caught Moraes' ankle and submitted him via toe hold.

AJ Agazarm vs Richie Martinez ADCC Trials 2015

[OFFICIAL] AJ Agazarm​ vs Oliver Geddes​ - Full Fight HD - Polaris 1

Polaris 4: AJ Agazarm vs MINOWAMAN

Full Fight | AJ Agazarm vs. Adel Altamimi - Bellator 238

Jake Shields vs AJ Agazarm - OFFICIAL [HD] Polaris 3 FULL FIGHT

Max Gimenis v AJ Agazarm / World NoGi 2021

AJ Agazarm vs Nicholas Moraes | 2013 No Gi Pan

Photo Credit: @thefloridaboy