About Us
João Paulo Oliveira was born in Rio de Janeiro, in the Botafogo neighborhood on the 18th of June, 1980. He began practicing martial arts at the age of 12 years through Capoeira, later moving to Thai Boxing (Muay Thai), however, at the time the coaching methods were, by his own admission, too ’hard-core’ for him. Sparring was always done at 100% without protection. For this reason ‘Jones’ decided to quit and moved to Jiu Jitsu. That was in 1994 and John Paul was 14.
‘Jones ‘ began his training un Jiu Jitsu with João Luiz, better known as ‘Frango’ (Chicken), a former student of Master Ricardo De La Riva, but after 2 years of training ‘Frango’ closed the gym and stopped coaching BJJ which led João Paulo to stop train for a long period of time, only returning to Jiu Jitsu in 2002.
His return was made at the academy of Master Paulo Mauricio Strauch and there he was graded from blue to black belt. Within the Jiu Jitsu Strauch team Oliveira fell in love again with the gentle art, becoming a regular competitor. His dedication earned him a place as responsible for the competition team and a spot as the head coach of the social project in Vila Militar in Copacabana .
