How Renzo Gracie Niagara Built a BJJ Family Where Members Show Up to Help Each Other Move
.png)
Starring
Fernando Brazileiro is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under the Ryan Gracie Academy lineage who began training in Rio de Janeiro in 1995. He received his purple belt from Royler Gracie in São Paulo, trained at Barra Gracie in the 1990s alongside Renzo, Royler, and Daniel Gracie, and spent 2000 to 2005 teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Japan during the PRIDE era — among the first ten BJJ instructors to teach in the country. Fernando moved his family from Rio de Janeiro to St. Catharines, Ontario in April 2022 and founded Renzo Gracie Niagara the same year after being invited to launch a BJJ program at a local Muay Thai gym. Before teaching full-time, Fernando spent fifteen years in Brazil's IT industry as a technical architect.
About the Gym
Renzo Gracie Niagara is a BJJ academy at 486 Grantham Avenue in Linwell Plaza, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Founded in September 2022 by Professor Fernando Brazileiro and affiliated with the Renzo Gracie Association. Fernando's lineage runs through Barra Gracie in Rio de Janeiro and the Ryan Gracie Academy—after Ryan Gracie's passing, he affiliated directly with Renzo since the Ryan Gracie Association has no North American presence.
Programs include adult BJJ (gi and no-gi), Little Ninjas (ages 3-5, ~30 students), and a bigger-kids program (~40 students). Saturdays feature a "no-gi family class" where adults and kids share warm-ups before splitting the mat—parents and children training in the same session.
The gym is built around community rather than competition. Fernando tells prospective students he isn't building a fight team and refers competition-focused athletes elsewhere. Despite this, the academy sent 13 athletes to a recent tournament and brought home 12 medals. Off the mats, a member WhatsApp group organizes volunteer move crews, car-battery jump-starts, and the everyday logistics of a tight-knit training community.
📍 Address: 486 Grantham Avenue, Linwell Plaza, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Summary
Professor Fernando Brazileiro launched Renzo Gracie Niagara in September 2022 inside a local Muay Thai gym in St. Catharines, Ontario—after the head coach spotted him wearing a BJJ shirt and asked if he was Brazilian. A black belt under the Ryan Gracie Academy lineage who trained at Barra Gracie in Rio in the 1990s, Fernando moved his family to Canada as an international college student just months earlier. The program outgrew the host space and moved to its current standalone location at Linwell Plaza.
The episode follows Fernando through adult and kids classes—including Little Ninjas (ages 3-5), where break falls are framed as winter ice safety before anyone calls it jiu-jitsu. He shows Alex the culture he deliberately built: a WhatsApp group that mobilizes 15-20 members to help each other move houses, a Saturday "no-gi family class" blending adults and kids, and a rhetorical framing that makes the gym feel safe for women before any newcomer walks in.
.png)
