João Assis is an accomplished grappler having won important titles in the sport of Brazilian jiu jitsu, including the ADCC and World No-Gi Championship. A Checkmat black belt under Leonardo Vieira João turned a few heads his way for the first time on June 2010, after his submission wins over Jeff Monson, (a 2x ADCC Champion who had not been tapped in competition for over 10 years) at UFC 114’s Fan Expo (Grapplers Quest).Joao Assis was born on the 11th of July, 1983 in Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul. He started training relatively late (he was 17 years old) as a way to learn how to defend himself. As a youngster he got involved in a lot of fights at school as well as at parties, and he wanted to learn self defence. To start his training he sought out Luis Brito, a BJJ and MMA instructor who was from Rio de Janeiro but living and teaching in Porto Alegre.He stayed with Luis Brito from white belt to purple, but as he got more and more interested in BJJ, Joao Assis realised that grappling was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and that Porto Alegre just wasn’t big enough for him. Always trying to seek out the best sparring and instruction around, he travelled to Sao Paulo to train with a legend in the business, Mr Leonardo Vieira, at the Brasa headquarters (now Checkmat). Under Vieira he met a formidable team that helped his jiu jitsu game grow exponentially, earning his brown belt from Vieira and later the deserved black belt in 2009.In another display of his fearlessness, Joao moved to the United States, travelling almost “blindfolded”. He arrived at the northern territory without any money, any job, house or even a contact number, just armed with his will power and a strong belief in himself. Luckily (or maybe as Joao Assis puts it, thanks to his prayers) he managed to find the right people that helped him get settled in, people like Fabricio Werdum, Rafael Cordeiro, Dan Henderson, Carlson Gracie Junior, Lucas Leite, Robert Drysdale amongst many others.In America Joao Assis worked extensively on his wrestling and No Gi game to improve his MMA career, a career he started back in 2003 with a win by Mata Leao Choke against Valdir Linhares, at the Profight Combat Show. To get that high profile training Assis sought out one of the best wrestling based teams in MMA, Team Quest, who has some of the best fighters in the world – Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen, Matt Lindland amongst many others.