Fábio Clemente

Fábio Clemente was born in 1965 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into a household where sport was a way of life. His father — a football coach who also practiced jiu-jitsu — instilled a competitive mindset in Clemente from an early age. He began his athletic journey at nine years old, taking up judo and pursuing rowing, a multi-sport foundation that would serve him well throughout his martial arts career.

Around 1983, a conversation with a friend who held a BJJ brown belt convinced Clemente to step onto the mat for the first time. That first class took place at the Gracie Academy in Copacabana — originally founded by Rolls Gracie and later taken over by Carlos Gracie Junior following Rolls' death in 1982. Training under a firmly established Carlos Gracie Junior operation, Clemente took his first steps into the art that would define his life.

Rigan Machado served as Clemente's first instructor and the most formative influence on his technical development, operating as a central figure within Carlos Gracie Junior's academy. As the team relocated from Copacabana to Barra da Tijuca — marking the birth of what would become Gracie Barra — Rigan Machado remained Clemente's primary coach throughout the transition.

Life, however, interrupted training. Clemente relocated to Paris with his wife for approximately four years, and with no jiu-jitsu available in France at the time, he returned to judo and sharpened his ground work through randori. The next move proved pivotal: when his wife, a model, secured a work visa for California, Clemente followed — and the relocation allowed him to rejoin the Machado brothers and resume his BJJ training in earnest.

Rigan Machado ultimately promoted Clemente to black belt through demonstrated competitive excellence. The promotion came after Clemente secured two consecutive victories at the Pan American Championships in the brown belt adult division — a merit-based pathway that reflected the standards the Machados upheld.

In 1995, Clemente moved from California to New York City and established his own BJJ academy, planting a flag for the art on the East Coast. He held a brown belt at the time of opening — a detail that speaks to just how scarce qualified BJJ instructors were in New York during that era. The city's grappling community had virtually no access to authentic Brazilian jiu-jitsu instruction, and Clemente stepped directly into that void.

The Renzo Gracie Academy, often cited alongside Clemente's school as one of New York's pioneering BJJ institutions, was officially founded in 1996. Clemente's academy predates that establishment, cementing its place as one of the earliest BJJ schools in the city. Both academies would go on to play foundational roles in shaping New York's grappling culture, but Clemente's was among the very first to open its doors.

Around 1998, Clemente parted ways with the Machado Jiu-Jitsu Association, the affiliation he had maintained through his training years. Shortly after, Fabio Gurgel personally invited Clemente to join Alliance — a recognition of both his standing in the community and the strategic value of establishing an Alliance presence in New York City. Clemente accepted, and his academy became the original Alliance headquarters in New York, a landmark moment in the team's North American expansion.

The Alliance partnership endured for nearly two decades, lasting until 2017. During that span, Clemente's gym — which operated for a period under the Studio-X banner before continuing as Alliance New York City — served as a hub for serious practitioners on the East Coast. After departing Alliance in 2017, Clemente aligned with Checkmat, the affiliation he carries to this day. Through each chapter, his academy has remained a cornerstone of the New York BJJ community.

One of the most consequential chapters in Clemente's coaching career came in 2006, when he sponsored Marcelo Garcia's visa and brought the rising superstar to train at his Studio-X gym in New York. Garcia was already regarded as one of the most technically gifted and exciting competitors in the sport, and his arrival significantly elevated the academy's profile within the global BJJ community.

The arrangement benefited both parties. Clemente's students gained rare, close-contact access to an elite competitor training in their gym daily, while Garcia secured a structured training environment and a base in the United States. The partnership came to a contentious end in 2007, however. According to community accounts from that period, pressure from Clemente's business partner at Studio-X contributed to the split — a turn of events that reportedly led Clemente to leave Studio-X and establish his own independent gym. Garcia departed New York at that time but eventually returned to the area and opened the Marcelo Garcia Academy, which grew into one of the most celebrated BJJ schools in the world.

Even as Clemente built and managed one of New York's most prominent BJJ academies, he never stepped away from competition. Competing in the Pesado (heavyweight) and Pesadissimo (super heavyweight) divisions, he pursued an active career on the IBJJF master circuit that spanned well over a decade.

His results on the masters stage were consistent and impressive. At the IBJJF Pan American Championship, Clemente reached the podium multiple times across the Master 2 and Master 3 divisions — earning gold in 2006 and 2007 and silver in 2004. He also placed at the IBJJF International Masters and Seniors Championship in both 2003 and 2005. In 2010, he added a No-Gi Pan American Championship title in the Master 3 division, demonstrating that his competitive drive and physical capabilities remained at a high level well into the later stages of his career. For an athlete who devoted so much energy to building an institution, his record on the competition mats stands as a testament to a practitioner who never stopped testing himself.