Junior Fernandes
Junior, born and raised in the United Kingdom, started his martial arts journey at the age of 7 with Muay Thai through his father who’s a former world champion. Under his coach & fathers tutelage training Thai boxing in London for 7 years fighting domestically in the UK gained experience & knowledge for the sport.
Soon in 2013 his father changed gyms to become a head Muay Thai instructor at Fightzone London held in the heart of East London, where Junior met his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu professor to be, Marco Canha, who managed to persuade a young Jr at the time to try out a BJJ session. Marco, a 4th degree BJJ black belt awarded all of Junior’s belts from kids belts to his adult black belt.
At 13, he found a new passion & challenge that BJJ brought as he instantly became hooked onto, traveling around the world teaching and competing throughout his early teens to fighting at the biggest tournaments as an adult such as IBJJF World Championships (winning 3 times) all of this being done through his educational years too!
In order to progress further in his career & follow his dreams he moved to Long Beach California from London England to train and compete for amongst great athletes and Leo Vieira at Checkmat HQ.
Today, with his: charisma, good energy & passion for the sport gives back his knowledge coaching at Praia Brazilian Jiu Jitsu creating a safe, fun & family-friendly environment community welcoming everyone. As well as coaching he looks to keep building his name in the martial arts world that he set out to do so in the States.
Achievements:
- 2X IBJJF World Champion
- 1X IBJJF NoGi World Champion
- 1X IBJJF Pan American Champion
- IBJJF European Medalist
- 3X UAEJJF Grand Slam Champion
- F2W Winner