Elder Cruz
Address
Honduras, La Habra, California, USA
Phone
About Us
Elder Cruz was born on May 18, 1994, in Honduras, but relocated with his family to La Habra, California, USA, in 1998, at the age of 4.
The world of combat sports entered Cruz’s life at 12, as a freshman at the La Habra High School, when he joined the institution’s wrestling team. Elder spent 4 years competing for the Highlanders, making the team’s varsity squad and the CIF State tournament in his senior year after taking the Freeway League crown, a CIF-Southern Section Southern Division championship, and a second-place finish at the CIF-SS Masters Meet.
After finishing high school, Elder Cruz set his sights on mixed martial arts, joining Jeff Nolasco’s UFC gym in La Mirada in March 2018. It was through this relationship with MMA and in his attempt to improve all areas of cage-fighting that Cruz started paying more attention to jiu-jitsu and the competitive opportunities available in that sport.
While trying to further develop his ground skills, Cruz discovered Lucas Leite and his Checkmat La Habra gym, one of the top grappling academies in the country. After his early interaction with coach Leite, Elder became more focused on jiu-jitsu’s competitive scene and slowly faded away from his MMA ambitions to pursue BJJ.
Elder Cruz quickly gained notoriety at an international level as one of the rising stars of the sport earning all belts under Leite, who also promoted Elder to the black belt rank in July 2022.
