Tinguinha History

The secret to BJJ success is a good foundation.

Mauricio "Tinguinha" Mariano

Mauricio "Tinguinha" Mariano  was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 11, following in his brother and friend's footsteps, with instructor Pitoco until the orange belt, as he developed into the sport and competitions he moved to  the Barra Gracie school, a bigger Academy conducted  by Jean Jaques Machado and Carlos Gracie Jr. at the time, until Jean Jaques moved to the US, and he started training full time under Master Carlos Gracie  Jr., son of the patriarch of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Carlos Gracie, under who Professor "Tinguinha” trained from the Blue to the Black belt.  Throughout his many years training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu "Tinguinha" achieved competitive success, winning many titles in all major Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments in Brazil and the US.

He had the privilege of training with some very skilled BJJ Athletes such as Renzo Gracie,Ralph Gracie, Ryan Gracie,  Roberto "Gordo", Helio “Soneca”, Alexandre "Soca", Nino Schembri, Ricardo "Cachorrao",  among many others which helped shape and refine his own Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills and technical approach to this art, culminating with the award of his Black Belt in 1996 at the age of 21, a privilege few had back at that time.

His dedication into learning, perfecting and teaching Brazilian Jiu jitsu evolved into his career path. He started teaching at an early age, in the purple belt and fully committed to following this path after being promoted the black belt, Mauricio is one of the pioneers in the expansion of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu martial art worldwide, having taught in his native Brazil, Japan and the US, contributing to the growth of this art around the world. He arrived in the United States in 2000 to continue his lifelong dream of spreading the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu art and sharing the benefits he was able to experience himself.

Today, he owns and operates the vastly successful Tinguinha Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Yorba Linda, California, which has produced an incredible Team of BJJ Black Belts, and very accomplished competitive Team, he also supports technically several National and International Tinguinha BJJ Affiliated schools, sharing his knowledge and effective techniques he learned in Brazil through seminars around the world, several instructional DVDS sold globally, his online training system, which is an extension of the Tinguinha BJJ Academy offered to students worldwide, plus articles, affiliations and more... His network continues to expand as he works on offering the best quality instruction and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu experience to BJJ practitioners worldwide.

Mauricio “Tinguinha” & the SPIDER GUARD

Mauricio”Tinguinha” is known worldwide for his dynamic Spider Guard skills and techniques. Tinguinha  is regarded as one of the great developers of the Spider Guard. Having started training BJJ as a kid but having to train in the adults classes due to a lack of kids classes. Because to his age and size, Tinguinha always ended up being in the bottom which led him to have to adapt, and to develop skills and techniques from the Spider Guard in order to “survive” in training. Later that was transitioned into competitions he participated where Tinguinha was able to use and test in many tournaments. 
In 2006 Tinguinha put all of those years spent developing and applying Spider Guard techniques into an instructional Spider Guard DVD, where he teaches a complete system for students to learn the Spider Guard. The DVD was extremely successful, selling worldwide and helping the popularity of the Spider Guard in the BJJ world. Today “Tinguinha’ has been teaching Spider Guard seminars all around the world and continues to spread this amazing BJJ Game and techniques around the Globe.

UFC GYM BJJ PROGRAM

As the former Global BJJ Director for the UFC Gym company Professor Mauricio “Tinguinha” worked at the UFC Gym for 10 years, where he built the entire UFC Gym BJJ program from the ground up, creating a well defined, Global, legitimate and well organized kids and adults BJJ program to serve all the UFC Gyms, Corporate and Franchises. “Tinguinha” built an incredible BJJ Team at the company,  not only by overseeing the entire BJJ program but selecting the BJJ instructors for the Gyms as well as training and certifying the BJJ team of instructors in the USA  and for the International UFC Gyms, making it a successful and well rounded certified program, and the most respected and recognized at the UFC Gyms, with over 300 BJJ instructors teaching and running well structured BJJ classes at the impressive network of over 10,000 BJJ students. 
In 2018 Tinguinha was inducted in the UFC Gym hall of the fame together with the legendary fitness industry icon Jim Rowley,  who is a co-founders of the UFC Gym company among other fitness company ventures. 
Professor Tinguinha’s work at the UFC Gyms has been one of his biggest contributions to the BJJ martial art, helping to spread the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu martial arts Worldwide, using a new platform to introduce BJJ to an array of brand new practitioners. 

RING BJJ TEAM 

As one of the founders and leaders behind the R1ng BJJ Team, a BJJ Team formed in 2019, Mauricio “Tinguinha” is at the forefront of this new and upcoming Elite BJJ Team bringing his expertise alongside his longtime Teammates and friends.
This Team is the unification of BJJ schools with a long history of friendship and common roots, who joined their forces and talent as one elite BJJ Team for all major BJJ tournaments. The R1NG BJJ Team today is already an international team with over 20 BJJ schools representing and competing under the R1ng flag. The Team is led by Roberto “Gordo” Correia, Alexandre “Soca”, Mauricio “Tinguinha” and Marcio “Pé de Pano”. With the mission to become the number one BJJ Team in the world, the R1ng BJJ Team is shaping up to achieve that and many other great accomplishments. 

Career Information:

• Black Belt 6th degree

• More than 30 years of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu experience

• Taught BJJ in Brazil, USA and Japan

• Owner / Head Instructor of the Tinguinha Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy

• Former Global Director of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Program of all the UFC GYMS

• Inducted into the UFC Gym Hall of fame-2018

• Founding member/Director of the R1ng BJJ Team

• Technical Director of The Tinguinha BJJ Affiliation System

• Creator/Instructor of The TBJJ.TV Online Training System

• Creator of 8 instructional DVDs sold worldwide

• Pioneer in developing the Spider Guard Game/Known worldwide as the Spider Guard Master

• Inducted into The USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame-2008

• Organizer/ Director of the So Cal Summer Open BJJ Championship

Most Important Titles:

1st Place:

• Champion of the National Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

• Champion of the National Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a team

• Champion of the Virginia Beach Federation

• Championship - No Gi Superfight

• 4- time champion of the State

• Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Rio de Janeiro)

• Champion of the State Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Sao Paulo)

• Champion of the State Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Minas Gerais)

• Champion of the Novo Leblon Cup of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

• Champion of the Invitation Company Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

• Champion of the Gracie Barra Championship of Jiu-Jitsu

• Champion of the Company Championship of Jiu-Jitsu

• 2-time champion of the Nova Ipanema BJJ Championship

2nd Place:

• 2nd Place in the World Championship (1996)

• 2nd Place in the Pan-American of Jiu-Jitsu Championship (2001)

• 2nd Place in the State Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Rio de Janeiro)

• 2nd Place in the Ralph Cup of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

3rd Place:

• 3rd Place in the Pan-American of Jiu-Jitsu Championship (Hawaii)

• 3rd Place in the World Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (1998)

• 3rd Place in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship