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| Est. | 2000 |
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| Website | braziliantopteam.net |
Brazilian Top Team (BTT) is an academy and team specialized in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and mixed martial arts. It was established in April 2000 by Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Libório, Mário Sperry and Luis Roberto Duarte, former members of the Carlson Gracie Academy, to develop and create new training techniques for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, submission grappling and mixed martial arts.[1]
Brazilian Top Team has its origins with Carlson Gracie and his academy. Gracie was an innovator in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he and his students had invented and refined many techniques and strategies in BJJ and fought in a very aggressive and physical style, achieving a lot of success in tournaments.[2] His academy was also a Mixed martial arts pioneer, one of the first academies to create a specialized MMA program and many of his students went to represent BJJ in many MMA events around the world.[3] However, there were disputes between Gracie and his students led to many branching off from his tutelage and founding their own academies. Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Libório, Mário Sperry and Luis Roberto Duarte went to found in 2000 Brazilian Top Team, with the objective of creating a world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym and to train in the nascent sport of Mixed martial arts.[4]
Around that era, BTT have produced some of the best Brazilian MMA fighters of all time. The team was compared to the Real Madrid soccer team around 2003 because of the number of good fighters the team had.[5]
In 2007 the Nogueira Brothers (Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Antônio Rogério Nogueira) founded their own team taking some BTT fighters with them. It split the power of the team at this time but BTT kept building young fighters. Ricardo Arona and Paulo Filho followed their own way but returned often to visit and train with the team at the BTT headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.
Ricardo Liborio left the team in 2002, moving to the US to found American Top Team (ATT) with American entrepreneur Dan Lambert and his fellow BTT and Carlson Gracie black belts Marcus "Conan" Silveira and Marcelo Silveira. While they share similar names and founders, ATT was not created as an American branch of BTT but as its own independent camp. ATT went to become one of the most successful MMA camps in the world.[6] In any case, Bustamante and Liborio kept their friendship since the beginning of the times in Carlson Gracie school until now.
The team is growing with affiliates in Brazil, Canada, United States, Austria, Estonia, Malta, Australia and Thailand.[7] One of the biggest Muay Thai camps in Thailand, Tiger Muay Thai, is affiliated with BTT to represent the team in Asia. It enables BTT fighters to learn Muay Thai from the roots of Thailand, and Thai fighters learn the BJJ and MMA from one of the best teams of all time.
BTT maintains an intense rivalry with Brazilian mixed martial arts stable Chute Boxe, which is descended from a Muay Thai lineage. BTT traces its lineage to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu of Carlson Gracie. The most storied chapter of this rivalry was reached at the apex of each team's success in PRIDE FC. Chute Boxe was comprised, at the time, of such fighters as Wanderlei Silva and Shogun Rua, and former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.
BTT consisted of top fighters such as Ricardo Arona, former UFC Middleweight Championship holder Murilo Bustamante, the Nogueira Brothers, Vitor Belfort, Allan Goes, Mario Sperry, and former WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho. Competition between the two teams was not limited to Pride FC matches. Bouts between fighters of the two camps took place in Brazil, Portugal, the U.S., and other parts of the world on a regular basis.
In April 2000 BTT inaugurated a new center in Brazil for training professional fighters in mixed martial arts. It provides teachers of Muay Thai, boxing, wrestling mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Other locations are: