History of CMJJ
Carlos Machado is one of the pioneers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the United States of America. Currently an 8th degree Coral Belt, Carlos Machado came to the USA in the early 1990's with his brothers. After many years of leadership and growth, Master Carlos has formed the Carlos Machado Jiu-Jitsu Association: one of the strongest and fastest growing BJJ organizations in the world today.
Carlos has dominated the BJJ tournament scene for decades compiling an impressive career of victories:
- State & National BJJ Champion from 1982 to 1993
- Pan American of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 1997 & 1998
- U.S Open 1998 & 1999
- World Master’s Championships 2000 (two weight divisions)
- Middle weight and open class
- Multi ADCC Qualifier and 3rd place champion
- Winner of the Rickson Gracie Cup Superfight
The Full Story of Master Carlos
Beginnings in Brazil
Master Carlos Machado was born on the 9th of November, 1963 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is the eldest of the Machado brothers (cousins to the Gracie's from Carlos Gracie Senior’s sister in law, Luiza Machado).
The legendary Gracie family fighting tradition was introduced to the Machado Brothers at a very early age, and Master Carlos was no different from the rest of the Gracies, with whom he grew up with, trained with, and learned from.
After moving to the southern part of Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana, Master Carlos Machado was taught and mentored directly by the legendary Rolls Gracie. Master Carlos was very close with Rolls, and trained with him until Rolls' sudden and untimely death, which came as a tremendous shock and blow to the Gracie and Machado families and especially to a young and impressionable Carlos Machado (who was a blue belt at the time). After this family tragedy, Master Carlos and his brothers continued to train with the Gracie family.
In 1988, Master Carlos’s brother, Master Rigan Machado, moved to the United States to start teaching BJJ with the Gracie's out of their now legendary "Gracie Garage". Two years later in 1990, Carlos and John Machado joined Rigan and also moved to Southern California. The original idea was to help Rorion Gracie and the Gracie family build and establish their academy (where Rorion and Rickson Gracie were the head instructors along with Royce Gracie).
After all five Machado brothers arrived in the USA they decided that it was best for them to part ways from the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu banner to build their own legacy. The Machado's moved from Torrance, Ca. to nearby Redondo Beach and were teaching privates out of their own garage when a very special future student walked through their door, Hollywood and Martial Arts Legend, Mr. Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris had always been a martial arts enthusiast and wanted to learn Jiu-Jitsu from the source so he began training Jiu-Jitsu with the Machado brothers to add to his existing martial arts knowledge. Since Chuck Norris was an actor, and therefore earned a handsome living from TV and Movies, he was able to film for only half a year, and then he had time to train full time the other half of the year when he was not working.
Chuck Norris and the Machado brothers became very close friends on and off the mats. Chuck Norris's celebrity brought a huge amount of promotion, notoriety and good fortune not only to the Machado Brothers, but also to the growing martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
In 1995 Carlos Machado had an amazing opportunity with Chuck Norris and decided to move to Dallas, Texas to start filming Walker - Texas Ranger. Chuck invited Carlos to relocate with him and Carlos decided that it was time to spread Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to Texas and surrounding middle America areas.
In addition to teaching Jiu-Jitsu to Chuck and acting on the TV show, Carlos started teaching Jiu-Jitsu from the actual studio where “Walker - Texas Ranger” was being filmed. Later, Carlos Machado moved off set and opened a bigger academy of his own.
Today, Carlos Machado is a Hall of Fame instructor of Jiu-Jitsu and known in Texas and the Southwest region of The United States as the "Godfather of Jiu-Jitsu". Before Carlos Machado relocated to the Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas area, nobody there was teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Today most of the BJJ lineage in the Southwest can be traced back to Master Carlos Machado.
Master Carlos Machado's legendary academy is located in North Dallas, Farmers Branch, Texas where he teaches all of his students from kids and teens, to women and men. Master Carlos actively trains with all of his students, especially his black belts who are always developing and progressing under the direct supervision and tutelage of their Master who is known as a true legend of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
In addition to founding one most successful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Master Carlos has also been extremely successful as a coach of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes who compete and fight professionally.
He has also promoted to Black Belt some high profile BJJ practitioners such as Rafael Lovato Junior (Current 8/2019 Bellator Champion), Travis Lutter (Winner of The Ultimate Fighter and UFC Veteran) Anthony Perosh and Elvis Sinosic (both UFC Veterans and IBJJF World Champions) and dozens of others black belts who not only have had a great deal of success in MMA and competitive BJJ, but also own and operate very successful academies.
A proud father of 4 awesome children, and a husband to his wife Lindsay, Carlos Machado is currently an 8th degree Coral Belt and is the head of one of the largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu organizations in the world: the Carlos Machado Jiu-Jitsu Association.
One of the main goals of Master Carlos Machado is to simply make the "Average Student, Above Average". His mission is also to teach his instructors to be the best they can be by mentoring them and instilling in them a solid foundation on many levels, which will greatly benefit not only their own students, but also themselves individually on and off the mats and will ultimately enable successful operation of the many premium Carlos Machado Jiu-Jitsu Academies in the United States and around the world.