Pedro Marinho - The BJJ No-Gi Champion

Pedro Marinho was born in Rio de Janeiro Brazil on the 9th of October 1996. He started Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 17 and then never looked back. Marinho started his professional career as a purple belt competitor and earned a name in the list of elite grapplers.

Pedro Marinho was an incredibly active and athletic child from a very early age. He spent his childhood in various sports like surfing, soccer, and skating. He loved to participate in combat sports as well.

Pedro’s interest in sports became the reason for him to join MMA. He started his MMA journey with Capoeira at the age of 7. Then his interest shifted to various other martial arts. He also practiced Thai Boxing as well as Western boxing. In his teenage years, he was much involved in martial arts.

At the age of 17, he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and joined Brazilian Top Team. BTT was founded and coached by Master Reinaldo Fernandes who was Pedro Marinho’s first coach. Next four years, Pedro Marinho trained under the supervision of this great instructor.

In 2017, Pedro Marinho was introduced to a project, FP Golden Team started by Felipe Pena. The main theme of the project was to pick out the emerging talent of Brazil in BJJ and then provide them with a full scholarship and give them all the BJJ training free in Belo Horizonte (BH) situated in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Pedro Marinho passed through the complete process of selection. The selection process includes an internship consisting of two days and fight competitions. Pedro Marinho was one of the selected competitors out of a thousand competitors. Master Fernandes supported Marinho in his decision.

Felipe Pena and his team had close relations with Gracie Barra’s franchise, Red Shield Academy. The Red Shield Academy was under Ulpiano Malachias as his head instructor. Pedro Marinho met with Ulpiano Malachias during his training in FP Golden.

Ulpiano was very impressed with Pedro and he invited him to train together. Marinho was seeking new ways to pursue his BJJ training in a more competitive environment, took advantage of this golden opportunity, and joined Ulpiano in his academy situated in Houston, Texas in November 2018.

In 2018, Felipe Pena became No-Gi World, CBJJ Gi, and No-Gi champion. Due to his consecutive achievements, Marinho was promoted to the brown belt by both Felipe Pena and Ulpiano Malachias in 2019. 

As a Brown Belt, Marinho performed fabulously, and on various occasions, he defeated black belts. Furthermore, he also won the No-Gi World Championship and No-Gi Pan Championship. After seeing his fabulous record, Ulpiano promoted Marinho to black belt on the 13th of March 2021.

Pedro Marinho earned a name in the list of No-Gi champions. He won three times at the No-Gi World Championship in the Purple, Brown, and Black Belt divisions. After receiving his black belt, he won the No-Gi world championship in both weight and absolute divisions in the same year.  

Pedro Marinho was one of the elite grapplers who executed their best grappling skills even in their purple belt division and fought against black belts. In the same way, in the 2019 Elite Grappling 3 and 2020 Jitz King Tournament, Marinho became the champion by defeating various black belts.

Pedro Marinho is very well known for his guillotine submission technique. He did 12 out of 28 submissions with the guillotine technique. His guillotine lessons available on BJJ Fanatics’ official website help many grapplers to improve their technique.

According to IBJJF records , Pedro Marinho was top-ranked IBJJF No-Gi competitor in 2022 and now he is second-ranked No-Gi competitor with 441 points and 8th ranked No-Gi Grand Slam competitor with 315 points.

Pedro Marinho is now serving the BJJ world with his grappling skills as an athlete and also as a coach. He is coaching in Gracie Barra Westchase and producing various new BJJ athletes and black belts.

Pedro Marinho faced Giancarlo Bodoni in the 2023 WNO in Light Heavyweight Division. Giancarlo Bodoni, who is a World, Pans, and ADCC Champion was very warm and energetic. On the other hand, Pedro Marinho is also an elite grappler.

A few minutes at the start of the match, both fighters remained in the standing position and tried to take down each other. After a few minutes, Marinho went for a single leg. He trapped one of Bodoni’s legs and tried to take him down. But Bodoni maintained his balance and escaped Marinho’s takedown attempt. Again, a few minutes passed in their struggle to take the other one to the ground.

Marinho again went for double legs and this time he pushed Bodoni to the ground. He tried to overcome Bodoni who did not give Marinho any chance to dominate. Marinho also tried an armbar but Bodoni escaped. Marinho took the top position for more than 7 to 8 times and Bodoni was on the ground till the end.

At the end of the match, both fighters did not score any points. Marinho was very dynamic and took down Bodoni and secured the top position. So he won the match due to the referee's decision.

Pedro Marinho and Giancarlo Bodoni faced each other in the final of the Orlando Open No-Gi 2021. Both fighters started the fight in a standing position and for a few minutes tried to put each other on the mat. A few minutes later, Marinho went for the single leg and took down Bodoni in a fabulous manner. Now Marinho was in the top position and Bodoni applied full guard.

Marinho later escaped from his full guard and tried to overcome Bodoni. In the next few minutes, Bodoni tried to escape from Marinho's control but he did not let him escape. Marinho tried for arm lock and leg lock but Bodoni's high potential and strong core helped him to resist. After a short while, Bodoni escaped and also tried to take the back of Pedro Marinho but the latter freed his back and subdued Bodoni.

Both fighters again took standing positions and tried to overcome each other. Bodoni tried to strangle one leg of Marinho but Marinho grasped his neck and applied for a guillotine. At the end of the fight, Pedro Marinho submitted Giancarlo Bodoni with his famous guillotine.

Pedro Marinho faced Benjamin Silva in the final of the Santa Cruz Open NoGi 2022. This was one of the historic fights of Pedro Marinho. He started aggressively and put down Silva on the surface. He controlled him from the back and scored points for back control. Marinho made his grip strong around his neck of Silva and applied an RNC. At the end of the match, Marinho submitted Benjamin Silva with RNC.

Pedro Marinho vs B-Team's Jay Rodriguez | 2022 ADCC World Championships

Pedro Marinho v Diego Ramalho / Orlando Open NoGi 2021

Pedro Marinho v Giancarlo Bodoni / Orlando Open NoGi 2021

Pedro Marinho v Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu / World NoGi 2021

Photo Credit: @pedromarinhojj