About me

I teach brazilian Jiu Jitsu and grappling martial arts since 1993. I discovered BJJ in 1990, but have practiced Capoeira since 1987.

I started to teach in S. Pedro da Aldeia, Rio de Janeiro, where I lived for a few years. In 95, I was invited by Renzo Gracie to start teaching in Rio de Janeiro.

In 97, I expanded to Juiz de Fora, another city in Brasil, and stayed there for 3 years. I returned to Rio in 2000 but instead of teaching my focus was on training. In 2003, I moved to Europa and started the Rio Grappling Club in England, inside SOAS University of London.

Now I travel around the world teaching and promoting BJJ and Grappling. To know more about me, you will find below my profile, stats and a brief biography written by Marcelo Dunlop from Gracie Magazine.

Roberto Atalla

Profile

Name: Roberto de Moraes Atalla
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 79 kg/175 lbs

Training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu since 1990;
Black belt given by Sergio Souza (black belt 5th degree under Carlson Gracie) in 1998;
First degree awarded by the IBJJF in 2004.

Stats

Jiu Jitsu

2007 European (1st place, black belt master, -79 kg)
2006 South American (2nd place, black belt master, -79 kg)
2000 Panamerican (2nd place, black belt, -73 kg)
99 World Championship (2nd, black belt, – 79 kg)
99 Panamerican (2nd, black belt, – 79 kg)
99 Brazilian (2nd, black belt, – 79 kg)
98 Rio de Janeiro State Championship (1st, brown belt, – 79 kg)
97 World Championship (1st, brown belt, – 73 kg)
97 Brazilian SuperLiga (1st, brown belt, – 73 kg)
97 Brazilian State Teams (1st, brown belt, – 73 kg)
97 Rio de Janeiro State Championship (1st, brown belt, – 73 kg)
96 World Championship (Most Technical Fighter, purple belt)
96 World Championship (1st, purple belt, – 97 kg)
96 World Championship (1st, purple belt, Absolute class)
96 Brazilian (2nd, purple belt, – 97 kg)
95 Brazilian Teams (2nd, purple belt, Absolute class)
95 First Brazilian National Team (1st, purple belt – 79 kg)
94 Brazilian (1st, blue belt, -79 kg)

Judo

99 Rio de Janeiro State Championship (2nd, green belt, -81 kg)
99 Rio de Janeiro Teams Championship (3rd, green belt, -81 kg)
99 51st. Budokan Cup (1st, green belt, – 80 kg)
99 Cup Beneméritos do Rio (1st, green belt, -81 kg)
98 Rio de Janeiro State Championship (1st, green belt, -81 kg)
98 Rio de Janeiro Teams Championship (1st, green belt, -81 kg)
98 Cup Beneméritos do Rio (1st, green belt, -81 kg)
97 Rio de Janeiro State Championship (3rd, green belt, -81 kg)
97 Rio de Janeiro Teams Championship (3rd, green belt, -81 kg)

Submission Wrestling

2009 I Rio Grappling Cup, Livorno, Italia (1st, -84 kg)
2005 Dutch Grappling Cup, Ede, Holland (1st, -82 kg)
2003 KSBO, Nottingham (2nd, -76 kg)
2003 British Grappling Championship, Worcester (1st, -76 kg)

Sambo

2003 British Sambo Championship, Bolton (1st, -74 kg, -82 kg)

MMA

2004 FCFN1 – Portsmouth, England (UFC rules, 3 x 10 min, Draw)

Complete Statistics (from 91 to 2009, updated in 05/2009)

160 wins, 1 draw and 32 losses (only four by submission).
52 golds, 12 silvers and 8 bronze medals.

Biography

Roberto Atalla was fascinated for sports since his childhood. Football, however, the favorite sport in Brasil, never atracted him. When he turned fourteen, he bought his first surfboard and got addicted right away. Two years later he discovered Capoeira and was drawn into the world of the martial arts. Living in Rio de Janeiro, Jiu-Jitsu was a natural choice, but only after turning nineteen he started in the mats. The discipline on training allied to his enthusiasm allowed Roberto to catch up as quickly as he got his nickname Risada from the friends in the gym.

The start was in Gracie Barra. Roberto had classes with Jean Jacques Machado, Roberto “Gordo” Corrêa and Helio Moreira, aka Soneca. Duda, Leandro, Big Head and Vinícius Draculino were some of the good training partners he would never forget. In 1992, Roberto Atalla lived in California and grabbed the opportunity to train three months inside Rickson Gracie’s gym, without cutting his links with Gracie Barra. “Still today I remember how that was fundamental to change my vision of Jiu-Jitsu. Rickson is by any means the most complete fighter I ever trained with”, says Risada.

Back to Brasil, in 1993 Roberto started to get seriouly involved in competitions, encouraged by Renzo Gracie. He trained daily in Barra while going to all classes taught by Renzo. First in the club Hípica (Lagoa), and lately in his own club just opened, Gracie Ipanema. The results did not take long to show up. In 94, Roberto was brazilian champion in the blue belt, middle division, after winning the first Copa Akxe and tournaments in Niterói and within the state of Rio. In 1996, already a purple belt, he started to take Judo classes three times a week, and got his first two golds at the Mundials (World Tournament).

It was the first World Tournament of Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu. The reward for the sweat and determination were two gold medals and the title of most technical athlete in the purple belt. Weighing 76kg, Risada won the – 97kg and the Open weight (absoluto), overcoming famous athletes like Vítor “Shaolin” Ribeiro and José Mario McCord, aka Esfiha.

Just after that Roberto lost his focus for a while and a defeat made him comeback training even harder. “After getting my brown belt, I started to do physical training and Judo daily. Renzo had moved to New York and I was disqualified after reaching the final of the Brazilian tournament (October, 96) by Carlos Gracie Jr. without a chance to defend myself”, remember him. After this episode, he decided to cut his links with Gracie Barra.

Risada joined the Rio Jiu-Jitsu Club, an excellent team headed by Murilo Bustamante and Sérgio “Bolão” Souza. “Besides showing a technical level beyond questions, the competition team at that time had the best brown belts of all, like Pedro Duarte, Marcel Ferreira, Aron Roichman and a lot others”, says Roberto, mentioning a few but declaring that would be impossible to name one by one, since they were more than a dozen of the same level training and competing regularly.

Well adapted in 97, Atalla won the Brasileiro da Superliga, the Brasileiro de Seleções Estaduais in Brasília (DF), and showed incredible performances in Rio de Janeiro State Judo championships. In the 2nd Mundial, he was so fit that, after winning easily the semifinal, he just needed to shout for his teammate Pedro Duarte so they could celebrate togheter the – 73kg gold medal. The winning streak did not stop in 97, and more golds followed in the next year, both in Jiu-Jitsu and in Judo. In the 98’s Mundial, however, he could not reach his biggest goal, coming out after a first fight without points and convinced that the referee made wrong decisions in his judgement. But, later that year, he would be promoted to the black belt, and the training for the Brasileiro 1998 was setting Rio de Janeiro on fire, with fighters coming from all parts of Brasil.

His first challenge in the black belt was none other than Antonio “Nino” Schembri, considered one of the est BJJ fighters of the 90’s. His first fight in the Brasilian would be one of the toughest of his. “I set my mind to counter the fury of the ‘Twister’ and locked a kneebar that overstretched his leg so much that he did not come back to fight the semifinals. But Elvis Schembri is a warrior and did not tap, and later in the fight passed my guard, winning by 3 pts”, recalls him vividly. At that time Schembri used to score 15, 20 points in most of his opponents, when not tapping them out quickly, so the fight itself was a great achievement. “I was happy afterwards because I overcame myself, even though I did not win”. 1999 had come, and the hard training was bearing fruits.

Second places in all the three big tournaments (Mundial, Brasilian, and Panamerican of BJJ). Risada was also getting golds in Judo, but he was not satisfied, as he says: “I always wanted the gold, I aimed to be the best in my weight, and 2000 was promising to be my year”. Not really, because in July of 99, he had to face the death of his always supporting father, and in November the tearing of his ACL (knee ligaments), and the winning streak would be forcily interrupted. In 2000, Roberto kept fighting, wrongly postponing the surgery he would not be able to dodge. His knee could not support the intensity of the fights, and in August of 2000 Roberto finally got his knee mended. In 2003, more focused on teaching, he went to Europe looking for new horizons and started a new club in SOAS University of London. After teaching there for almost two years, Roberto decided to keep on traveling around the world to expand his network.

Text By Marcelo Dunlop