Puerto Rico is a small US island (100 miles by 35 miles square) in the Caribbean island chain. It is recognized for its beautiful beaches, rivers and culture but that’s not the only beauty of the land, now is getting recognized as the home of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt champions. Puerto Rican black belts include: JT Torres, Israel Reyes, Marcos Torregosa, Jean Dalua Cartagena, Vidiver Vazquez, David Selpa and Shimmy DiSoriano, They were all born on the small island and now they are making waves in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world.
Jean Dalua Cartagena, born and raised in Puerto Rico, has this to say about the beautiful island and the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu there, ”Puerto Rico is not only a beautiful island and home of good boxing, surfing, basketball, baseball but we also have judo, wrestling Olympic medalist and good athletes. And now we have good BJJ practitioners too. Marcos Torregosa is a black belt world champion and Pans champ. He is ranked # 1 in the black belt master division GI and No GI by IBJJF and I am black belt Pans champ and ranked # 3 in No GI and # 9 in GI in black belt master division by IBJJF. Puerto Rico also has browns belts, purple belts, blue belts all winning Worlds and Pan championships. The sport is growing very fast over there now we have a handful of schools like Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Yemaso BJJ, Flavio Bering, and Tiburones Puerto Rico. Marcos Torregosa and I are planning on making a BJJ camp in Puerto Rico close to the beach with a lot of BJJ, beach, and trips around the island so the people who joint the seminar is not only going to enjoy the BJJ but also the beauty of our land.”
