About Us
Fabio Caloi was born on the 10th of January, 1989 in São Paulo Brazil. He became interested in martial arts at a young age, influenced by Jean Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and other Hollywood action heroes. Fabio’s introduction to combat sports came by way of Judo at the age of 7. The experience was short-lived and he moved on the Karate at 9 and later Kung Fu.
Caloi enjoyed Kung Fu but felt that without real-life sparring the techniques were untested and could not be taken seriously, for that reason he gradually lost interest in the activity. In 2003 (shortly after his 14th birthday) Fabinho’s cousin (Bob) and his brother Ricardo decided to do a Jiu-Jitsu trial class at Macaco Gold Team academy, influenced by Caloi’s father who was a grappling enthusiast. Fabio went along with the intent of checking the gym to join the Thai Boxing there. After seeing the BJJ class he decided he wanted to try that as well. He enjoyed grappling from the start and trained both disciplines (Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu) for one year, after which he opted to dedicate his full attention to Jiu-Jitsu and dropped the striking sport altogether.
Diego Latorre was Caloi’s first coach who awarded Fabio’s blue and purple belts. In 2008, however, Latorre stopped coaching Jiu-Jitsu, this caused Caloi to seek for another gym to train with. Being a huge fan of Marcelo Garcia he chose to accept an invitation from a friend to visit the Alliance academy. There he met Fabio Gurgel and a world-class training regime.
The professional environment found at Alliance boosted Caloi’s competitive record which earned him his brown belt by Master Gurgel in 2011, it also earned him a spot as a BJJ instructor at the Be Fit sports academy.
Early in 2012, Fabio suffered an injury that put him out of any Jiu-Jitsu related training for 3 months, he returned to the academy with only one week remaining until the World Championship but decided to try his luck at the toughest tournament in the world. Though out of shape for such a high demand competition, Caloi’s talent shined through, earning the Sao Paulo native a bronze medal. After a near-miss at the Mundial in 2013, and a gold medal at the Pan American Championship and the Brazilian Nationals in 2014, Caloi was awarded his black belt (July 2014).
