David Raab

Born on February 26, 1984, in São Paulo, Brazil — the country's most populous city and a long-established hub for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — David Raab spent his early athletic years immersed in football (soccer) and swimming. Around age 15, he added weightlifting to his routine, a decision that would unexpectedly redirect his sporting identity altogether.

It was inside that same lifting gym that Raab first encountered BJJ. Grappling classes were held in the building, and Raab — never drawn to traditional cardio — began attending them as a substitute for aerobic conditioning. What started as a practical cross-training choice evolved into something far deeper. Over time, BJJ displaced every other sport in his life, becoming the central focus of his athletic career and a defining pillar of his identity.

Eduardo Santoro, widely known within the BJJ community as "Português," served as David Raab's first and only formal instructor. Under Santoro's guidance, Raab progressed through every rank on the belt ladder — white to black — without ever changing coaches, a relatively uncommon trajectory that speaks to the depth of trust and consistency in their relationship. In 2011, Santoro awarded Raab his black belt, marking the formal completion of a decade-long apprenticeship.

Competing throughout those formative years as a member of Cia Paulista, the respected São Paulo–based organization with which Santoro was affiliated, Raab's colored belt record signaled early that he possessed the tools to perform at the sport's highest levels. At purple belt, he earned a bronze medal at the IBJJF World Championship in 2008. He returned to the World Championship podium at brown belt in 2009 (bronze), 2010, and 2011 (silver), demonstrating remarkable consistency at the sport's most prestigious annual event. A brown belt bronze medal at the 2010 IBJJF European Open Championship further confirmed that his competitive reach extended well beyond Brazil.

The defining shift in David Raab's career identity came in mid-2014, when Eduardo Santoro relocated from São Paulo to the United States. With his longtime coach no longer present, Raab faced a crossroads familiar to many competitors: find a new formal affiliation or forge an independent path. He chose the latter, embracing what the BJJ community calls the "ronin" lifestyle — competing and training without representing any specific team, academy, or flag.

Rather than anchoring himself to a new organization, Raab spent the bulk of his training time between 2014 and 2018 within the workgroup led by Leandro Lo in São Paulo. That environment provided elite-level sparring and competition preparation without imposing a formal affiliation, aligning perfectly with the independent ethos Raab had adopted. The ronin identity became more than a logistical circumstance — it earned him genuine respect within the broader BJJ community, where he came to be regarded as a self-reliant competitor who earned every result on his own terms. Throughout his most decorated black-belt years, he remained listed as unaffiliated, a distinction that set him apart in a sport where team banners carry significant weight.

As a black belt competitor in the middleweight division (82.30 kg / 181.5 lbs), David Raab built a record that established him as one of the most consistent performers of his generation at that weight class. Competing largely without institutional support, he accumulated titles and podium finishes across both domestic Brazilian circuits and international IBJJF events.

Gold Medal Performances

The 2018 IBJJF Pan Championship gold medal in the Master 1 division stands as a career highlight — the Pan ranks among the two or three most prestigious events on the IBJJF calendar, making that victory a landmark result. That same year, Raab captured the CBJJ Brazilian National Championship title in the Master 1 division and claimed gold at the 2018 IBJJF Curitiba Fall Open, reflecting a sustained peak of performance throughout 2018. A year earlier, in 2017, he had won the CBJJE World Championship, adding a title from a separate major federation to his résumé.

Silver and Bronze Medal Finishes

Beyond his gold medal performances, Raab's runner-up and bronze medal finishes illustrated his reliability across multiple international stops. He reached the final at the IBJJF São Paulo Open in 2012, the IBJJF Seattle Open in 2018, the IBJJF Salvador Spring Open in 2018, the IBJJF New York Summer Open in 2017, and the IBJJF Chicago Summer Open in 2017. Additional bronze medals came at the IBJJF South American Championship in 2018, the 2019 IBJJF European Open Championship in the Master 1 division, the IBJJF Atlanta Summer Open in 2017, the IBJJF Rio Winter Open in 2017, and the IBJJF Austin Open in 2017. Taken together, this body of results across multiple continents and competition formats marks a competitor who was consistently among the last athletes standing in his division.

Running concurrently with his most active black-belt BJJ competition period, David Raab also pursued a career in mixed martial arts. During the years spanning his time with the Leandro Lo workgroup, Raab entered the professional MMA arena and compiled an undefeated record of four wins against zero losses — a perfect 4-0-0 mark achieved by 2019. Despite that unblemished record, MMA functioned as a secondary pursuit rather than a full-time focus. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition remained his primary sporting commitment, and the MMA venture served as a complementary expression of his grappling skill set rather than a redirection of his competitive identity.