Gustavo Dantas - 6th Degree BJJ Black Belt

Gustavo Dantas is a 6th Degree black belt in BJJ under Andre Pederneiras, besides being a former World Jiu-Jitsu Champion, he also runs an NGO and his BJJ Mental Coach Podcast. Dantas has more than 20 years of teaching experience. He started training in Jiu-Jitsu in his early teens. He had only one dream to have his own Jiu-Jitsu academy where he could earn from his passion for Jiu-Jitsu.

He started teaching in Las Vegas at the John Lewis Academy. After teaching there for a while, he settled in Arizona and was lucky enough to open his academy.

Gustavo Dantas was born on the 23rd of December in the year 1974. He spent his childhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dantas was a 14-year-old teen when he started practicing Jiu-Jitsu, meanwhile, he had already trained Judo at that time.

Gustavo Dantas started his early training at a small academy in Vila Isabel, RJ. Dantas’s brother used to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and asked him to try a class, as soon as he joined Dantas instantly got his interest in the BJJ.

Gustavo Dantas’s first-ever coach was Jair Couto, Dantas remained under his training for two years and then left for a school where he could focus and get more exposure to competing grappling.

Dantas went to Fernando Cruz’s academy to get more knowledge about BJJ. Under Cruz’s guidance, Dantas was able to get his first bronze medal at the 1st World BJJ Championship in 1996 in the Purple Belt division. By managing an honorable 3rd place.

Gustavo Dantas’s career was getting underway under Cruz’s guidance, but due to some personal problems, he stopped teaching him after the Mundial.

But this didn’t stop Dantas, and he joined Andre Pederneiras at Nova Uniao. Andre Pederneiras was the one who awarded Dantas's brown belt. Dantas was considered one of the best lightweight teams to be competitive ever, as it was part of the golden generation of Nova Uniao fighters.

A half year before the conclusive move he had joined AZ Battle Sports, a Kickboxing rec center headed by Trevor Lally. Ari Zona Battle Sports was Dantas's home for quite some time, until Walk 6, 2012, when the Gustavo Dantas BJJ Foundation was established in Tempe, Arizona.

Dantas chose to move to Arizona in October 2000. Dantas had met Trevor's twin sibling, Todd, in Las Vegas and Todd had set up a course for Dantas at the rec center. From that point onward, they chose to unite and incorporate a BJJ program at their exercise center.

Gustavo Dantas was so fond of coaching as a BJJ instructor, which came true when he moved to Las Vegas. Dantas is nonetheless one of the best coaches of Jiu-Jitsu, he not only trained his students for the sport but also helped them to gain a higher self-confidence that will help them in their respective careers and lives.

Gustavo Dantas was undergoing some competition anxiety and decided to study mental skills and self-grooming. In 2014, after becoming a certified coach, he decided to open an institution by the name of The BJJ Mental Coach to help fighters deal with competition anxiety.

Dantas opened many NGOs to help children whose lives were at risk and young adults through BJJ. He opened these organizations first with the help of live jiu-jitsu and afterward with the help of tribal Jiu-Jitsu organizations.

In 2018, Gustavo Dantas quit teaching at his own Jiu-jitsu academy and started the business side of the gym.

In the same year, he launched his podcast. The reason behind this podcast was to help small business owners, entrepreneurs, and jiu-jitsu young entrepreneurs who want to think on and off the mat.

In this podcast, the experienced jiu-jitsu trainers will help them in their personal development and entrepreneurship and will share some valuable experiences that will help them in their BJJ career.

It was a great start by Gustavo Dantas he managed to get Baret Yoshida, Yoshida was trying to escape by pushing Dantas downwards and he successfully managed to free himself and grabbed Dantas, and defeat him through leglock under 65kgs weight.

The Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu championship held in 2014  was a great success for Gustavo Dantas, he played very well.

Dantas at the start of the game very strategically got Netto and used the triangle technique, Netto tried hard to get himself free but Dantas maintained his posture and won the 70kg featherweight competition.

Baret Yoshida vs Gustavo Dantas | ADCC | 2001

2014 Abu Dhabi World Pro/Gustavo Dantas vs Lauro Netto

Photo Credit: @gustavodantasbjj