Gianni Grippo
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New York, United States of America
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About Us
Gianni Grippo was born on March 21, 1992, growing up in the New York area. From a very young age, Grippo was signed on to numerous sports in a competitive environment – actions strongly influenced by his father, a former triathlete. Before discovering Jiu-Jitsu, Grippo was an accomplished junior swimmer with a great track record, making it to the Junior Olympics for his team three years in a row, he also made it to his team’s varsity roster in his freshman year of high school. But Grippo’s athletic prowess did not stop at ‘pure sports’, he also competed in boxing with several amateur bouts under his gloves.
Jiu-Jitsu appeared in Gianni’s life through his father, who first heard about Renzo Gracie‘s gym through a friend. The novelty factor of Jiu-Jitsu lit some fire under Gianni, who fell in love with grappling from his first class, a class led by Magno Gama of RGA.
The Grippo family was very supportive of Gianni’s Jiu-Jitsu activity and commuted daily to Manhattan so their son could have the best training possible in the area. Grappling remained as a secondary hobby (swimming being the first) until the family traveled to Brazil, for the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship of 2004. There, after watching Ronaldo Souza beat Roger Gracie in one of the most epic open weight finals of that year, Grippo decided he wanted to become a professional fighter and relinquished swimming.
With a very competitive personality, a hard-working mentality, and genetic sporting ability, Grippo quickly became a big name in the US national circuit at the lower belts, carrying the RGA flag high, winning almost every major competition in Jiu Jitsu’s calendar. But as Gianni advanced in the belt system, he started seeking more sport-specific training. training that (arguably) the Renzo Gracie Academy – an academy with a strong MMA/No Gi focus, could not provide. This ultimately led Grippo to move to the Alliance Academy of Marcelo Garcia. The spit at the time was taken very harshly by many in the Jiu-Jitsu community, especially those close to Renzo Gracie such as Rafael Correa and Garry Tonon who voiced their opinion. It was also mentioned that Gianni announced the switch via social media and no one at the gym knew of the decision, this happened during March 2012.
Controversy aside, Gianni’s choice to move to a more Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sporting-orientated academy raised his profile and the wins continued happening for Gianni who received his black belt on the 1st of October 2013. His victory at the Pan American Championship in 2014, only a few months after receiving the rank, cemented his name as one of the top competitors of his generation.
