BIO Rafael Dias

I was born on October 20th, 1979 in Rio de Janeiro – Brazil, and started training jiu-jitsu when I was 16 years old, in 1996, with instructor Marcos “parrumpinha” Damatta, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. At that time Parrumpinha was still a purple belt from the great master Carlson Gracie. From then on I fell in love with jiu-jitsu and couldn’t stop training anymore. When I got my blue belt I also started training at Carlson Gracie’s school. Being a blue belt I was 1998 National’s runner-up, 1998 Copa Rio champion, and 1997 and 1998 State runner-up in Rio.

 

I got my purple belt in 1998 from my coach Parrumpinha, and training was only getting harder. That was when I started taking classes at Brazilian Top Team (BTT). At that time they had the best Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters in the world, like the Nogueira brothers, Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Liborio, Mario Sperry, among others. I learned a lot from all of them and kept on competing in jiu-jitsu tournaments. As a purple belt I was third place in the Worlds Jiu-jitsu championship, and State runner-up in Rio. In the year 2001 I got my brown belt, also from my coach Parrumpinha and was runner-up in the World’s Championship in 2002. At the end of that year Parrumpinha decided to move to the USA, and I started training only at BTT with coach Murilo Bustamante.

 

In 2003 I started training more focusing on MMA. In that same year I came to the USA vacationing and met the “unknown” American Top Team, at that time, and realized if I wanted to be a professional MMA fighter I would have to move to America. In December of 2003 I got my black belt from caoch Bustamante and Bebeo Duarte. With my black belt in hands (or better, on my waist) I saw that was the time to start fighting vale-tudo and in May of 2004 I had my debut in MMA.

 

In August of 2004 I graduated from college – I’m a Bachelor in Law Sciences – and in January of 2005 I moved to the US. From then on I fought in many shows as AFC, BodogFight, IFL and WEC, which I’m still under contract.