Giancarlo Bodoni - The Alliance Coach, and The World Champion

Giancarlo is a Black Belt under Lucas Lepri and represents Alliance Team. He has an exceptionally privileged lineage which includes big names like Rillion Gracie, Gutemberg Pereira, and Lucas Lepri. He is one of the quick-rising names in the grappling World of his generation.   

Giancarlo joined martial arts when he was 5 years old. He started his journey in martial arts with karate. Later on, he was also interested in Taekwondo. Before getting into BJJ, Giancarlo was involved in both sports and adopted these martial arts as extracurricular activities. 

Giancarlo was introduced to BJJ in his early teens because there was a gym near his school. He started to go to the gym to get the initial training in BJJ. After taking a few classes, Giancarlo was very much involved in BJJ. 

Around the age of 12, Giancarlo started his BJJ practices with Rillion Gracie, a big name in BJJ and a member of the Gracies family. Until his twenties, he was training under Rillion Gracie.

To achieve his dream, Giancarlo relocated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A city in Brazil where Jiu-Jitsu was initiated. In Brazil, he met with Gutemberg Pereira of the GF Team.

After meeting Gutemberg Pereira in Brazil, Giancarlo made a strong bond with him. He became a part of the GF Team in a few months. But his affiliation with the GF Team was a short journey.

Gutemberg left the GF Team and moved to the USA to join Toledo and also invited Giancarlo. Before completing one year of training, Giancarlo had to leave GF and moved to the USA again to join Toledo.   

Giancarlo joined the Toledo workgroup and a strong bond was built. But this affiliation also proved temporary. After some time, Giancarlo moved to Charlotte, North Carolina along with his father.   

In Charlotte, Giancarlo got the opportunity to join Alliance Team. In Alliance, he got a chance to train with another big name in the grappling world, Lucas Lepri.    

Bernardo Faria who is a multiple times world champion was running his academy in Massachusetts. He invited Giancarlo to join his academy as a coach. Giancarlo accepted this offer and joined Bernardo’s Alliance Academy situated in Bedford.

During his stay in Massachusetts, Giancarlo met with John Danaher who was making instructional videos. John Danaher mentioned that Giancarlo was a great competitor in Gi fights. But he was trying to become good at No-Gi.

He further mentioned that Giancarlo Bodoni is a very hard worker, polite, and well-spoken person. Giancarlo Bodoni was very committed to his work in the gym. He worked on every aspect of his fight.     

When John Danaher ended up in Puerto Rico with his team, Giancarlo found it as a golden chance and started training in Austin. He did great work overcoming his weaknesses.    

John Danaher mentioned in his interview that Giancarlo was weak in guard passing, leg lock defense, and lower torso attacks. He reinvented himself in 10 months and all his struggles made a noise in 2022 ADCC.   

In ADCC 2022, Giancarlo submitted almost all his opponents. His final match was against Lucas (Hulk) Barbosa who defeated Giancarlo various times in the past. It was a difficult competition for Giancarlo as he can lose confidence in front of a person who defeated him various times.

Giancarlo submitted Luca (Hulk) Barbosa with RNC and became ADCC Champion. 

One of his big achievements was Giancarlo Bodoni’s win against all his opponents in ADCC North American Trials.   

Like other martial arts, BJJ competitors are susceptible to various injuries. Giancarlo also got injured a few times. Among other injuries, a fracture of L5 vertebrae with dislocation of two discs was the worst one.

Giancarlo was also lucky he did not need any surgery and his injury healed with time. After the recovery period and healing, Giancarlo resumed BJJ training with a renewed spirit after the recovery process.   

Giancarlo won his Black Belt by defeating various legends. He shared the mat with Lucas Barbosa, Bruno Matias, Yuri Santos, Francisco Cuneo, and Felipe Costa.  

Giancarlo is currently working with Faria Bernardo who is the founder of BJJ Fanatics. Along with teaching at Alliance Academy, Giancarlo also used BJJ Fanatics as a platform to provide coaching assistance through his instructional videos.  

Rillion Gracie was Giancarlo’s first BJJ coach who promoted Bodoni to the Purple belt.

Lucas Lepri promoted Giancarlo with his Brown Belt in June 2018 when he was training in Alliance local gym.

After achieving gold medals in the 2019 World No-Gi and 2020 American Gi, Giancarlo was promoted to Black Belt on October 18, 2020. He was Promoted by Lucas Lepri in a ceremony organized in Charlotte, NC.

In the 2021 Pan No-Gi, Giancarlo Bodoni faced Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa. Both competitors showcased great sportsmanship.

At the start of the match, Bododni tried to take down Hulk but failed. It took almost 5 minutes to Bodoni to get the back of Hulk. But Hulk actively escaped from the grip. Bodoni did not lose balance and simultaneously applied Triangle Choke. But Hulk escaped and tried to mount Bodoni.

Both competitors were equally strong and tried hard to submit each other. Bodoni managed to apply full guard but Barbosa escaped by applying a deadly Heel Hook. Bodoni fluently moved to get his heel free.

At the end of the match, Bodoni acted smartly and did not let Hulk apply any move in the last few minutes. Bodoni won the match by Referee’s decision.

This fight was between Giancarlo Bodoni vs Benji Silva in the 2020 No-Gi Championship.

Both competitors fought with high compassion. In the first three minutes, both competitors failed to score any points. After three minutes, Bodoni took down Benji by double leg takedown. But Benji escaped before Bodoni scored.

Bodoni managed to strangle Benji from his back and then again took him down to score two points.

Giancarlo failed to balance this position and was taken down by Benji for two points.

Giancarlo countered by strangling Benji from the back and got four points for back control. At the end of the match, he submitted Benji to the RNC.

This match was between Giancarlo Bodoni and Felipe Rocha in the 2020 IBJJF Pan Championship.
 
At the start of the match, Giancarlo managed to apply full guard. With his firm grip on Felipe’s groin, he started moving toward his back. Giancarlo managed to take his back and scored four points for back control.

Giancarlo tried to grab his lapel of Felipe and applied a Collar choke but Felipe put down Giancarlo from his back. Giancarlo did not let him escape and applied a triangle choke. Giancarlo won the match by Triangle Choke submission. 

Giancarlo Bodoni v Lucas "Hulk" Barbosa / Pan No-Gi 2021

Giancarlo Bodoni VS Benji Silva / Pan NoGi Championship 2020

Giancarlo Bodoni VS Felipe Rocha / Pan Championship 2020

Giancarlo Bodoni snipes returning ADCC Champ Matheus Diniz

Photo credit: @giancarlobodoni