Edson Diniz is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Rogério Poggio, who worked extensively with coaches Pitoco Jordan, Jorge Pereira, and Ricardo Libório while representing the InFight and American Top Team academies in both grappling and mixed martial arts (MMA). Diniz was widely regarded as one of the top jiu-jitsu athletes during the late 1990s / early 2000s era, a reputation earned with medals in the top tournaments of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF).Edson Diniz was born on March 22, 1978, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, growing up in the famous Barra da Tijuca neighborhood.Growing up watching the 1980s Chinese martial arts films developed in Diniz the desire to one day learn kung fu, a desire that never came to fruition. Instead, Edson slowly gained an interest in jiu-jitsu. Barra da Tijuca, at the time, was a grappling hotspot where the famous Jean Jacques Machado and other members of the Gracie family taught and trained, during the very early stages of Gracie Barra. Diniz often observed the jiu-jitsu classes being taught at the Gracie Academy, as a child, and was very aware of the famous BJJ family.As a teenager, Edson started working as a ball boy at a tennis club, the famous Clube Canaveral. This private club also offered jiu-jitsu classes with two historic BJJ figures, Jorge Pereira and Totila Jordan (Pitoco). It was under the guidance of these two black belts that Diniz was formally introduced to martial arts, at the age of 15.Edson quickly gained a passion for grappling, going on to achieve his yellow and blue belts from the hands of Pereira and Pitoco. Diniz would later join the classes of one of Jordan’s foremost black belts, Mr. Rogério Poggio, co-founder of the InFight Academy.Poggio graded Diniz with his purple, brown and black belts, the latter while standing on the podium of the Brazilian Nationals on October 1999, becoming the very first black belt promoted by Master Rogério. That year Edson had conquered every tournament he entered.In 2000 Edson traveled to the United States to compete at the IBJJF Pan American Championships. The tournament was set in Orlando, and Diniz ended up extending his stay where he kickstarted his MMA career with a debut on July 2001. Soon after Ricardo Libório and Conan Silveira set up their American Top Team (ATT) headquarters in Florida. Looking to settle in the US, Edson joined the squad, becoming one of the very first members of the ATT competition team.While in the USA, Diniz split his career between being a fighter and a coach, careers he combined at the ATT headquarters, later going on to open an academy of his own in Pompano Beach, Florida, where he remained until 2011, when he returned to Brazil.After spending so 10 years in the United States, adapting to the socio-economic reality of Brazil was not an easy task. This discomfort led to a short stay in the United Arab Emirates, which lasted 7 months. But the UAE lifestyle was equally hard to adapt. More recently, in 2018, Edson’s longtime friend Andre Benkei offered a position at an Austrian start-up gym. Although the project did not work out, it opened the doors of the Austrian martial arts market, and ultimately the Infinity Fight Training Center (IFTC), located in Steyr – Upper Austria. A team Diniz joined that same year in the capacity of grappling and MMA coach.