Having been a 7th ranked NCAA wrestler in the United States back in his youth, Babak Alimoradian started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Draculino Team Marbella just over a year ago. He picked up the sport fast, earning his Blue Belt in January of 2011.
For his first BJJ competition, Babak traveled in January 2011 with the team to Lisbon, Portugal, where he crushed his way through five fights to win the gold medal at the European Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship, in the Masters Category (age 30 to 34).
With the taste of competition (and winning!) fresh in his mind, he immediately got to work training for the World Championships, in Abu Dhabi. This time, however, there would be no age categories, and Babak would be up against much younger opponents.
After many mornings of privates with Thelmo, many hards nights of training at class, many afternoons of cardio work on the paseo, and having left behind an entire team of banged-up training partners (including seven stitches in my forehead), Babak completed his preparation, and left last week for Abu Dhabi.
Well, the competition is now over, and we’ve got some amazing news to report — Babak won seven fights leading to a gold medal. He is now the blue belt World Champion! Just after the fight, coach Thelmo Calmon gave Babak his well-deserved purple belt.
Here’s the video of his gold medal fight, against a black belt judoka who last participated in the Olympics.