Eduardo Telles Bio (@bjjheroes.com)

Eduardo Telles

Eduardo Telles is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Fabio Gurgel and one of the most criative grapplers in the World. Famed for being a fan of the “Esquijitsu” (weird Jiu Jitsu) he created several atacks from the turtle guard, revolutionizing what once was defensive position. He also created several trademark setups from a position that became famous as the “Octupus Guard”.
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Eduardo Telles in Detail

Full Name: Eduardo Telles Moreira
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Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti > Eduardo Telles
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Mains Achievements (BJJ):

Pan American Champion (2007);
Brazilian National Champion – CBJJE (2008);
World Silver Medallist (1999 – Purple Belt);
3x World Bronze Medallist (2000 – Brown Belt, 2008 and 2010 Black Belt);
2x Pan American Silver Medallist (2005, 2006);
3x Brazilian National Silver Medallist (2001, 2005, 2006);
3x Pan American Bronze Medallist (2002 – Pesado and Absolute, 2004 Pesado)
Favourite Position: Turtle Guard, Octopus Guard.
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Weight Category: Pesado, Super Pesado and Pesadissimo
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Team/Association: Nine Nine.

Eduardo Telles Biography

Eduardo Telles Moreira was born in 1976 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Telles entered the martial arts world through Karate when he was a teenager, Jiu Jitsu already existed in Sao Paulo at the time, but the academies were scarse and the only contact Telles had with Jiu Jitsu was when he spent time in Rio de Janeiro, his father’s home town. Telles’s family held a house there, in famous surfing and BJJ spot of Tijuca where Eduardo would hear about Jiu Jitsu for the first time.

After the UFC premiered and Royce Gracie won the first championship, Jiu Jitsu boomed in Sao Paulo and Telles’s Karate gym opened a schedule for BJJ. That was when Telles met his first instructor, Fernando Yamasaki, with whom he stayed until he received his blue belt. At this time Eduardo had to stop his tuition under Yamasaki as he moved to the United States (San Diego) to learn English, in the process he met Carlos Valente and trained with him for the duration of his term in the US.

Telles received his purple belt from Mr Valente and then moved back to Sao Paulo to train under Fabio Gurgel. At Gurgel’s academy he met Fernando Augusto “Tereré” with whom he became good friends, as well as Demian Maia and other Jiu Jitsu personalities who were all training under Mr Gurgel. At the Alliance Head Quarters gym, Telles technique grew heaps and bounds and the close contact with Augusto (who was already rapidly turning into a legend of the sport) was one of the reasons for this surge. The Alliance gym also served as a laboratory for Eduardo Telles’s experiments with Jiu Jitsu technique that he would develop to adapt to his “scrambly” grappling style.

He went on to get a Silver Medal in 1999 at the Mundial (World Championship) as a purple belt and a Bronze Medal the following year as a brown belt, and so it came as no surprise when he received his Black Belt the following year. By then Eduardo Telles’s style of fighting started standing out, and many in the BJJ community started branding it “Esquijitsu”, which means something along the lines of “Weird Jiu Jitsu”. This was due to the award positions in which Telles would put himself.

In 2002 the Alliance Team split and Eduardo Telles followed the path of the dissidents and helped open the Master Team and later the Brasa Team. The Brasa Team also had complications and so joining forces with his friend Fernando Augusto (whom Eduardo also considered his master) Telles opened the TT team (TT standing for Telles and “Terere”).

TT was successful from the start with some students showing that the team had tremendous potential, unfortunately by the end of 2004 Fernando Augusto entered his personal struggle with drug dependance and depression, and so the team was terminated. Telles decided to open another academy, this time presided by himself which he called Nine Nine, the meaning behind that name was that 99 is a reference in proximity to the number 100 which means perfection, the goal of Telles.

After setting up his academy Telles started his Mixed Martial Arts career (MMA) a quick submission of Rubens Xavier eaned him another call to the rings, this time against the experienced and heavy favourite, Gracie Barra’s Rafael “Sapo”. Telles won again in the first round by massive head kick. His first defeat would come from the hands of another fellow jiu jitsu practitioner, the experienced Landro Silva “Batata” from Nova Uniao, this defeat made Telles understand the necessity of joining a professional MMA team, and so he joined the famous X-Gym in Rio de Janeiro, headquarters to the Black House MMA team were some of the best UFC fighters train, people like Anderson Silva, Machida the Nogueira Brothers and many others.