Bernardo Faria

Bernardo Augusto Rocha de Faria was born January 20, 1987, in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, and began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at age fourteen. He rose through the belts under Ricardo Marques, receiving his black belt in 2008, and the following year relocated to Sao Paulo to train alongside Fabio Gurgel at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu, the team with which he became most closely associated as a black-belt competitor. Faria was never the most athletic heavyweight on the circuit, and he has been candid in interviews about compensating for that with obsessive technical repetition, particularly around a single guard pass he began drilling as a yellow belt: the over-under pass, worked against every conceivable guard variant until it became the backbone of his entire top game.

His competitive peak ran through the early-to-mid 2010s, when he was a fixture in the super-heavyweight and open-weight brackets at the biggest IBJJF events. He won the World Championship (Mundials) at black belt on multiple occasions, with victories in 2010, 2013, and 2015 among his headline results, plus a run of Pan American and European titles and stretches as the top-ranked competitor in the IBJJF world rankings, including a number-one ranking across all divisions in early 2013. He was voted the sport's top competitor for 2015. Beyond the podium, Faria became known for a distinctive competitive philosophy: rather than chasing spectacular submissions, he built his game around suffocating top pressure, methodical guard passing, and racking up points through control, a style that made him a frustrating opponent for far more explosive athletes.

Faria retired from regular competition around 2017-2018 to focus on teaching and business, relocating to the Boston area to open his own academy. That transition proved consequential for the sport well beyond his own medal count: he co-founded BJJ Fanatics, which grew into one of the largest instructional video platforms in grappling, turning Faria into one of the most visible instructors in BJJ regardless of competitive record. Through BJJ Fanatics and his own YouTube channel, he has produced an enormous catalogue of instructionals, most centered on his signature over-under pressure pass and his deep half guard system, material that is now studied by hobbyists and competitors alike as some of the most detailed guard-passing instruction available.

In 2022 the IBJJF inducted Faria into its Hall of Fame, recognizing both his competitive record and his broader contribution to how the art is taught and consumed. His legacy sits at an unusual intersection for the sport: a multiple-time world champion who is arguably better known today as an educator and media entrepreneur than as a competitor, and whose pressure-passing method has become a standard reference point for anyone learning to pass the guard methodically rather than athletically. He continues to run his own academy and occasionally appears in seminars and superfights, but his primary role in BJJ today is as a teacher and content creator rather than an active competitor.

Pressure-passing specialist built around the over-under pass and a deep half guard