Romulo Barral - 3rd Degree BJJ Black Belt And Coach

Romulo Barral is a top BJJ athlete who is five times World Champion under the toughest coach, Vinicius Magalhães. He is a great coach and produces top athletes in his academy, Gracie Barra, Northridge. He is also on the list of “Top Ten Competitors of All Times”.

Romulo Barral was brought up by his mother who worked as a school teacher. He had three sisters and one brother in his family.

Romulo Barral is happily married and lives in Northridge, California with his wife and two kids.   

Like other boys in Brazil, Romulo Barral was influenced by movies and attracted by MMA. He started his journey in combat sports with striking martial arts and joined the Taekwondo gym at the age of eight years. He loved martial arts. 

When Romulo turned 19, he achieved his Taekwondo Black Belt in striking-based combat sports. But he left Taekwondo training after getting Black Belt. 

Romulo Barral wanted to learn BJJ so that he could be more efficient in MMA. He was excited to enroll in MMA competitions. To uplift his efficiency in MMA, he wanted to add some basic BJJ techniques to his MMA fight. 

Romulo started his BJJ training at the age of 15 under Vinicius Magalhaes and Cristiano Lazzarini in Gracie Barra BH. Later Vinicius promoted him to Black Belt. 

Romulo Barral had an extreme wish to fight in an MMA tournament. His wish came true in 2004. This was a difficult year for Romulo as his brother died in a motorcycle accident. The same year, Romulo Barral was invited to Arena Belo Horizonte.

Romulo made his debut in MMA and gave a fabulous performance. He submitted Fabiano Fabiano with RNC in his first fight and proved the importance of BJJ techniques in MMA.  

Romulo Barral is an extraordinarily disciplined person. He followed his daily routine workout and balanced diet for years and did not miss a single day except vacations. He mentioned that he enjoys his disciplined routine. If his routine remains disturbed for more than three days. It starts to bother him.

Romulo Barral believed that to follow big goals in life, efforts should also be big enough. Discipline is a very important thing to achieving long-term goals. 

Romulo Barral divided his time between his BJJ training and his family. He has three training sessions in a day except for Wednesday. One session in the morning, the second training session at noon. After the second training session, he spends some time with his family till 6 pm.

After 6 pm, he has his last training session. He did his cardio session daily in the garage of his house except for Tuesdays. On Tuesday, he alternates this cardio session with a weightlifting session in a gym where he works with a coach.

Wednesday is a rest day for me because he takes only one training session. Saturday is fixed for conditioning. And Sunday is an active recovery day. He did not take a complete day off from workouts. 

Romulo Barral is very conscious about his diet. In his team, he has a doctor in Brazil and a nutritionist in the USA. He eats simple food which contains proteins, carbs, and fibers. He eats three times a day.

Romulo also mentioned that he did not eat too much until he was full. He eats less which makes him completely fit. He is very conscious about the hydration diet as hydration was a problem for him in previous years.

He also takes cheat meals like burgers and beer but he did not take these on weekends. He takes cheat meals on a working day so they can be digested.    

One thing which made Romulo Barral an untouchable fighter is that he trained in MMA, Judo, and Wrestling along with BJJ. Various fighting techniques polished his skills. He is famous for his unpassable spider guard and X-guard. He also executes the best triangle choke which cannot be swept.

Romulo Barral is a somewhat offensive fighter and non-stop in his passing and playing guard. He is also famous for his sweep followed by an impassable guard, and knee slice. He is also good at submitting from any position. 

For Romulo Barral, 2007 is also a challenging year. In 2007, Romulo got injured and also needed surgery. He got his upper body hurt due to some nerve damage. Nerve damage also affected his arm.

Romulo Barral is very strong and showed resilience to overcome his injuries. After intensive medical care and the best physiotherapy, Romulo Barral returned to the fighting world with a stronger body.  

Romulo Barral thought MMA was not his career. He wanted to continue his journey in BJJ. His choice brought him to the horizon of international fame.

Romulo Barral did not think like other fighters who thought to become efficient MMA fighters, No-Gi training is effective. Romulo stuck with Gi training and proved the effectiveness of Gi training in MMA fights.  

Romulo Barral relocated to the USA in 2010 and started teaching in a school named Alberto Cranes School situated in Los Angeles. In 2011, he opened his academy known as Gracie Barra Academy in Northridge, California. Soon his academy earned international fame.      

There is a big list of Romulo Barral’s students who earned international recognition. Some of his Black Belts are Felipe “Preguica” Pena, Victor Silverio, Edwin Najmi and Gabriel Arges. 

Romulo Barral pulled himself out from ADCC 2019 when the roster was set. He upset the BJJ fans and organizers of the event after removing him from the list of the 99 kg divisions with little time left between the ADCC Championship.

He mentioned that he has to change his priorities and wants to focus on his students and the gym as his students including Edwin Najmi, Servio Tuliost, Felipe Pena, Gabriel Arges, and Orlando Sanchez are ready to participate.

Romulo Barral proved that BJJ techniques helped in MMA fights. After his speedy success in both BJJ and MMA, many big names in MMA including Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Dan Henderson, and King Mo contacted him and trained under him to learn various BJJ techniques helpful in MMA fights.

Romulo Barral was hospitalized in September 2022 due to a blood infection, Spondylodiscitis. According to him, when he was in Spain for his seminar, he woke up in pain and thought of some post-training fatigue. He went to a seminar after taking some painkillers but the pain got severe.

He spent the night before the last seminar with pains and shivers. But he attended his seminar in pain. His brother helped him as he sat on the tatami and his brother performed various positions.

His doctor diagnosed it as a blood infection and he spent 16 days in the hospital with antibiotics. After 16 days, he was allowed to go home but had to take medicines. Now he returned to his gym stronger than before.

Romulo Barral fought two matches in MMA and won both matches by RNC. He won his first match in 2004 when he also started training BJJ so that he can make his MMA fights better. BJJ fighting techniques helped him so much that big names in MMA also learned BJJ techniques from him later.

Romulo Barral restlessly and speedily succeeded in BJJ. He became a strong competitor in his Brown Belt and Purple Belt stage. Then he was promoted to Black Belt in 2005 by Vinicius “Draculino” when he was training in Gracie Barra.

Romulo Barral is a five times World Champion with Black Belt. Just after getting his Black Belt, he started winning various international championships. He won the gold medal in the IBJJF World championship 2007 under the 88kg division and also won silver in the absolute division in the same year.

After taking a break in 2008, he became gi and No-Gi world champion in 2009. He continuously won the world championships for three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014. 

Besides a challenging year, 2007 is also a winning year for Romulo Barral. Barral won five Gold medals in 2007, all in international championships. He earned two gold medals in the IBJJF Pan championship, both in 88kg and in the absolute division. He was also the champion in CBJJ Brazilian Nationals in 2007.

He is also a gold and silver medalist in the IBJJF World Championship in 88kg and absolute weight respectively. 

He appeared in ADCC for the first time in 2007 but did not stay much and left the championship in the quarter-final match, losing against Tarsis Humphreys by Footlock. For the next two attempts, Barrel also did not qualify for the finals but did not lose hope. In 2013 he made it with his hard work.

In ADCC 2013, the 88 kg weight division contains the most competitive grapplers like Keenan Cornelius and Rafael Lovato. Romulo Barral brought gold home after an outstanding fight of 30 minutes against Rafael Lovato.

He was very passionate about ADCC 2013 as he said after winning the 2013 ADCC:

Romulo Barral is two times European champion. In 2013, he won the gold medal in the 88 kg weight category, and in 2016, he won both the 88 kg and absolute weight championships.

Before his 2013 European championship, he stated in the answer to a question,

 Romulo Barral defeated various BJJ legends and toughest athletes in various fights like Saulo Ribeiro, Xandro Ribeiro, Bernardo Faria, Leandro Lo, Lucas Barbosa, Keenan Cornelius, and Rafael Lovato Jr.

In Northridge, USA Romulo Barral opened his own academy named Gracie Barra Academy, Northridge in August 2011. His academy became famous due to various top-class athletes. Romulo retired from BJJ and has prioritized his academy and students at the top of his priority list.

Romulo Barral stuck to the system which was designed by Master Carlos Gracie Jr. He offers everyone who wants to get fit, release stress or learn excellent Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques. People of every age, every country, and every need are welcomed at Gracie Barra Northridge. 

Romulo Barral started his online courses for BJJ students from Brazil and everywhere in the World. He started his Youtube channel on which he is coaching his students. Romulo Barral is not just a good BJJ practitioner and a coach but also a great social media personality who got a lot of followers.

Romulo Barral proved himself a good leader, a humble man, and a selfless teacher by giving his two students the title of World Champion in the European Open 2016. 

In the 2016 IBJJF European, Romulo was against his student Felipe in the final who hurt his arm due to resisting an armbar in the semifinal. Romulo let his students win the title of world champion.

In the middle heavyweight category, Romulo found another student in the final. He also let him win the championship and proved himself a great leader and the best coach.

Edwin Najmi, a top athlete by Barral said:

Romulo Barral faced Rafael Lovato in the 2013 ADCC final match. Both competitors are top athletes and world champions.

Lovato took down Romulo Barral at the beginning and applied Heel Hook. Romulo who is famous for sweeping got his foot free actively and took him down with the knee on his belly and scored two points.

Romulo succeeded to take Lovato’s back and also pass a guard but Lovato escaped. At the end of the match, Romulo again succeeded to get back at Lovato and applied RNC until time out. Romulo won the match by points.

Romulo Barral faced Keenan Cornelius in the 2013 ADCC Semi-final. Both competitors are World Champions and fought with great energy. Keenan Cornelius was newly Black Belt in 2013 but nobody can deny his achievements in the Brown Belt division.

At the start of the match, Keenan Cornelius tried to pull down Romulo by taking both his legs but Romulo countered with a lethal Guillotine Choke. When he tried to take his back, Kennan took this opportunity and actively escaped.

Romulo Barral tried to strangle the neck of Cornelius but Cornelius moved around and took Barral’s back. Due to the imbalanced position of Keenan, Romulo escaped from his grip and once again went for Guillotine.

In the whole match, both participants are equally energetic. Romulo won the match for scoring more points and the same year he took the ADDC Gold medal with him.

Romulo Barral faced Peter Frank in the quarter-final of Pan Championship 2017. Both competitors are greatly energetic from the start of the match.

Piter started by taking down Romulo and tried to mount him. But Romulo did not let him mount and scored two points for the active sweep.    

Piter immediately balanced the score with a sweep as a counter back of the full mount. Piter tried to take this opportunity and take down Romulo. But Romulo actively escaped and went for the single leg. 

Romulo Barral again scored two points for taking down Piter and succeeded to take his back. At the end of the match, Romulo submitted Piter with Bow and Arrow.   

Romulo Barral VS Bernardo Faria / World Championship 2010

BJJ Scout Bsides: Romulo Barral v Rafael Lovato Jr ADCC 2013 -88kg final

Romulo Barral VS Rafael Lovato Jr. / Pan Championship 2007

BJJ Scout Bsides: Romulo Barral v Keenan Cornelius ADCC China 2013 -88kg Semi-Final

Photo credit: @romulobarral