Eduardo Telles

Eduardo Telles first encountered martial arts through Karate as a teenager in São Paulo, Brazil — a foundation that would inform one of the most distinctive careers in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu history. His transition to BJJ came as a direct result of the sport's explosive growth in Brazil following the early UFC events, where Royce Gracie's dominant performances brought widespread attention to the Gracie family and Jiu-Jitsu as a whole. Riding that wave of enthusiasm through São Paulo, the Karate gym where Telles trained opened a dedicated BJJ class, and it was there that he met his first Jiu-Jitsu instructor, Fernando Yamasaki.

As Telles progressed through the ranks, he received his purple belt from Mr. Valente before relocating back to São Paulo to join Fabio Gurgel's Alliance academy. Training at Alliance placed him alongside some of the most talented grapplers of his generation — including Fernando Terere, Demian Maia, and other future BJJ personalities — all developing under Gurgel's guidance. That environment proved instrumental in cultivating the experimental mindset that would come to define his career.

The Alliance academy functioned as a genuine laboratory for Telles's grappling experiments, offering both the space and the high-level training partners necessary to test ideas that ran contrary to conventional BJJ wisdom. Adapting techniques to suit his naturally scrappy attributes, Telles explored positions and setups that most practitioners had dismissed or overlooked entirely.

Reimagining the Turtle Position

His most significant contribution to the sport came through his radical reimagining of the turtle position. Before Telles's work, the turtle was widely regarded as a purely defensive, reactionary posture — a weak position to escape rather than one to embrace. Telles systematically dismantled that assumption by constructing an array of attacks and transitions from the turtle, transforming it into an offensive platform recognized as the Turtle Guard. This innovation directly challenged the foundational assumptions of how BJJ practitioners read positional hierarchy on the mat.

The Octopus Guard and 'Esquijitsu'

Building on the same creative philosophy, Telles developed the Octopus Guard, a distinctive positional system defined by unique trademark setups that further expanded the vocabulary of unorthodox Jiu-Jitsu. The cumulative effect of these innovations prompted the broader BJJ community to coin the term 'Esquijitsu' — translating roughly to 'weird Jiu-Jitsu' — a label Telles embraced as a reflection of his commitment to forging an entirely independent technical identity.

Telles's competitive record demonstrates that his unorthodox style was far from purely theoretical — it translated into sustained results at the highest levels of sport BJJ across multiple weight divisions, including Pesado, Super Pesado, and Pesadissimo.

Early Results Through the Ranks

At the 1999 World Championship (Mundial) as a purple belt, Telles earned a Silver Medal — a notable result at the sport's most prestigious event. He followed that performance with a Bronze Medal at the 2000 World Championship as a brown belt, maintaining his momentum through consecutive belt levels. The consistency of those results reflected well on both Telles and Fabio Gurgel, who awarded him his black belt the following year.

Black Belt Achievements

At the black belt level, Telles continued to accumulate significant results. He claimed the Pan American Championship title in 2007 and the Brazilian National Championship under the CBJJE banner in 2008, cementing his status among the elite of his generation. Multiple additional podium finishes across Pan American and Brazilian National events throughout the 2000s further illustrated his ability to compete against the deepest fields in the sport. The pinnacle of his competitive career arrived in 2013 when he captured the World No-Gi Championship title — his most prestigious individual honor and a clear validation of his technical approach on the no-gi stage.

Telles's journey through BJJ's institutional landscape mirrors the broader story of the sport's organizational evolution in the early 2000s. His foundational development took place at Alliance under Fabio Gurgel, one of the most decorated and influential teams in BJJ history, where he trained alongside a generation of athletes who would go on to shape the sport.

In 2002, a significant split within the Alliance organization prompted Telles to follow the path of the dissidents. Together with other departing members, he played a role in establishing the Master Team — a new organizational home for those charting an independent course. He subsequently co-founded the TT Team alongside his close friend and longtime training partner Fernando Terere, a collaboration that reflected the deep bond forged during their years together at Alliance.

Telles eventually took the further step of establishing his own independent academy, Nine Nine, over which he presides. The founding of Nine Nine represents the fullest expression of his desire to build a BJJ institution shaped entirely by his own philosophy — a space where the principles of 'Esquijitsu' are taught, developed, and passed on to the next generation of practitioners.

After establishing Nine Nine academy, Telles extended his competitive ambitions into Mixed Martial Arts, bringing his highly unorthodox grappling system into the cage environment. His debut was a promising one — a quick submission victory over Rubens Xavier demonstrated that his submission-oriented game could translate effectively beyond the sport BJJ circuit.

That result earned him a second opportunity, this time against Rafael 'Sapo' of Gracie Barra, an experienced competitor who entered the contest as a heavy favorite. Telles delivered one of the more striking results of his early MMA career, finishing 'Sapo' in the first round with a powerful head kick and announcing himself as a serious prospect in the sport.

His first professional defeat came at the hands of Landro Silva 'Batata', an experienced BJJ practitioner whose performance exposed the gaps in Telles's MMA preparation at that stage. Rather than dismissing the loss, Telles treated it as a clarifying moment — recognizing the necessity of immersing himself in a dedicated, professional MMA training environment. That recognition led him to join the renowned X-Gym in Rio de Janeiro, a facility with an established track record of preparing combat sports athletes for the rigors of professional competition.