Ross Nicholls
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London, England
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About Us
Ross Nicholls was born on March 09, 1990 in London, England, though he grew up in a steelworks town named Port Talbot, South Wales, United Kingdom.
Although he didn’t engage in many sporting activities as a child, Ross did pick up martial arts training from an early age, namely aikido, a combat system he practiced from the ages of 6 to 14.
While growing up, among Nicholls’ best friends, were the Kox brothers: Kevin, Rob, Gareth and Richard, all of who started grappling before Ross. It was through them that Nicholls gained an interest in jiu-jitsu and eventually joined a class under Kevin Kox, who was then a purple belt just starting his coaching career (2007).
Kevin taught in Port Talbot under the guidance of Brazilian black belt, and Wales BJJ pioneer, Pedro Bessa. Although Ross moved to London one year into his training, he continued training and was graded all the way up to purple belt by this coalition, Bessa, Cox.
Following his relocation to study biomedical science at the University College London (UCL) in 2008, Nicholls’ training schedule was split between the aforementioned Kox (when at home [P.T.]) and the Roger Gracie Academy in England’s capital. With time, particularly after Nicholls graduated and started making London his permanent residence, RGA coach César Lima, and Roger Gracie himself took a more permanent control of Ross’ tuition.
After ending his degree, Ross spent some time working outside his academic field of expertise, just to fund his BJJ training and competition schedule. In 2014 he started coaching on a regular basis which set him up to become a full-time athlete/coach in jiu-jitsu. It was also in 2014 (November), that Ross Nicholls was promoted to black belt. A ceremony led by Roger and Lima.
