Alex Paz

Alex Paz was born on February 8, 1975, in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and relocated to Belo Horizonte as a child. Long before stepping onto the jiu-jitsu mats, Paz demonstrated an exceptional aptitude for sport, training in volleyball, capoeira, and judo during his formative years. His volleyball career reached an elite level, earning him a place in Brazil's national junior squad — a mark of distinction that underscored his capacity for high-level competition and disciplined physical development.

At age 16, Paz discovered jiu-jitsu and began training at the Carlson Gracie Academy in Belo Horizonte under coach Ruy Menezes. The Carlson Gracie school was renowned for its emphasis on hard sparring and technical rigor — a formative environment that would shape the young athlete's competitive identity. Carlson Gracie himself awarded Paz both his blue and purple belts, establishing a prestigious lineage that anchored his place within the broader Gracie family tree.

As Paz's technical development deepened, he transitioned to training under Murilo Bustamante and Ricardo Libório, two of the most accomplished practitioners within the Carlson Gracie lineage. This move placed him at the center of one of the most competitive training environments in Brazil during the late 1990s and early 2000s — and it was Bustamante and Libório who ultimately promoted Paz to black belt, cementing his standing within this storied tradition.

Paz became an early member and trainer at Brazilian Top Team (BTT), the organization founded in April 2000 by Bustamante, Libório, Mário Sperry, and Luis Roberto Duarte. Training alongside some of the sport's most decorated competitors, he carved out a reputation as one of Rodrigo Nogueira's toughest sparring partners — a distinction that speaks directly to the caliber of his game during BTT's formative years. The density of talent within the team provided an accelerated proving ground that sharpened Paz's competitive instincts and broadened his technical range.

His black belt promotion followed directly from a standout performance at the 2001 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, where he delivered one of the defining performances of his amateur career at brown belt.

Alex Paz built a methodical and consistent competitive record across multiple belt divisions throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. His early career was shaped by appearances at the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals, where he accumulated medals across the blue and purple belt divisions, establishing himself as one of the more reliable tournament performers of his generation in Brazil.

At purple belt, Paz reached the podium at the IBJJF World Championship in 2000, demonstrating that his game translated effectively to the sport's most prestigious stage. That performance foreshadowed what would come the following year. At the 2001 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, competing at brown belt, Paz delivered a landmark double gold performance — capturing victory in both his weight category and the absolute division. The achievement reflected the technical and physical completeness of his game, and it served as the direct catalyst for his promotion to black belt by Bustamante and Libório.

His competitive trajectory across this period revealed a practitioner who combined athletic pedigree, elite training infrastructure, and a methodical technical approach — qualities that would later define his work as both a coach and an administrator.

Paz's career took a significant international turn when he relocated to Abu Dhabi to support a government-led initiative integrating jiu-jitsu into the UAE's national school system. This move placed him at the forefront of one of the most ambitious grassroots BJJ development programs in the world, tasked with building structured jiu-jitsu education pipelines for young practitioners across the country.

Beyond the school system initiative, Paz joined the UAE National Jiu-Jitsu Squad as a coach, contributing directly to the development of high-performance competitors on the international stage. Among the athletes he has guided, Taleb Saleh Al Kirbi and Faisal Al Kitbe stand out as two of the UAE's most prominent grapplers — competitors whose achievements at elite international events reflect the quality of the coaching infrastructure Paz helped build.

While his work forms part of a broader wave of Brazilian black belts who brought BJJ expertise to the Gulf region during the sport's global expansion, Paz's contribution extends beyond individual athlete development to encompass systemic institution-building. That distinction positions him as one of the more influential figures in the sport's growth across the Middle East.

Alongside his coaching responsibilities, Paz holds a senior administrative position as head of the refereeing board for the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation (UAEJJF), the Jiu-Jitsu Association of UAE (JJAU), and the Jiu-Jitsu International Federation (JJIF). This appointment extends his influence across both national and international governing structures, giving him a decisive role in shaping competition standards and officiating consistency at events affiliated with these bodies.

Leading refereeing operations at this level demands deep technical mastery of the ruleset, as well as the organizational capacity to train, evaluate, and standardize officials across a diverse range of competitions. Paz's dual identity as an elite practitioner and senior administrator reflects the maturation of jiu-jitsu as an institutionalized sport in the UAE — a country that has invested heavily in positioning itself as a global hub for the discipline. His leadership in this domain reinforces the federation's standing within the global jiu-jitsu community and ensures that UAE-hosted and UAE-affiliated events meet internationally recognized standards.