Est. 2000 | ||
Founded by Murilo Bustamante
Ricardo Libório
Mário Sperry
Luis Roberto Duarte Past titleholders Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira Heavyweight Champion (Pride 2001-2002) 240 lb (110 kg; 17 st)
Murilo Bustamante Middlewieght Champion (UFC 2002) 185 lb (84 kg; 13.2 st)
Vitor Belfort Light Heavyweight Champion (UFC 2004) 205 lb (93 kg; 14.6 st) Training facilities Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Headquarters)
Long Beach, California
Austin, Texas
Dallas, Texas
San Antonio, Texas Website www.braziliantopteam.com | ||
The Brazilian Top Team (BTT) is an academy specialized in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. The academy was established in April 2000 by Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Libório, Mário Sperry and Luis Roberto Duarte, former-members of the Carlson Gracie Academy, to develop and create new training techniques for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, submission grappling and mixed martial arts.
Contents
Rivalry with Chute Boxe
BTT maintains an intense rivalry with Brazilian mixed martial arts stable Chute Boxe, which is descended from a Muay Thai lineage. BTT traces its lineage to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu of Carlson Gracie. The most storied chapter of this rivalry was reached at the apex of each teams success in PRIDE FC. Chute Boxe was comprised, at the time, of such fighters as Wanderlei Silva and Shogun Rua, and former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.
BTT consisted of top fighters such as, Ricardo Arona, former UFC Middleweight Championship holder Murilo Bustamante, The Nogueira Brothers, Vitor Belfort, Allan Goes, Mario Sperry, and former WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho. Competition between the two teams was not limited to Pride FC matches. Bouts between fighters of the two camps had taken place in Brazil, Portugal, the U.S., and other parts of the world on a regular basis.
Locations
In April 2000 BTT inaugurated a new center in Brazil for training professional fighters in mixed martial arts. In the new center, the athletes are able to count on teachers of: Muay Thai, boxing, wrestling and the already recognized skills of its teachers of mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Other locations are:
Future
BTT have produced some of the best Brazilian MMA fighters of all time. The team was compared to the Real Madrid soccer team around 2003 because of the number of good fighters the team had at this time.
In 2007 the Nogueiras Brothers founded his own team taking some BTT fighters with them. It split the power of the team at this time but BTT kept building young fighters, like always did. Ricardo Arona and Paulo Filho followed their own way but keep the friendship returning often to visit and train with the team at the BTT headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Ricardo Liborio left the team in 2002 moving to US to found American Top Team with some friends. Bustamante and Liborio kept their friendship since the beginning of the times in Carlson Gracie school until now. BTT has new blood fighting around the world in BJJ and MMA. Pat Cote is representing the team in UFC, Toninho Furia and Pedro Nobre are fighting in Titan FC, Leonardo Leite is fighting in Legacy FC and many others are fighting all over the world. The team are growing with affiliates in Brazil, Canada, US, Turkey, Russia, Australia and Thailand. One of the biggest Muay Thai camps in Thailand, Tiger Muay Thai, is affiliated with BTT to represent the team in Asia. It makes possible the BTT fighters learn Muay Thai from the roots of Thailand, and Thai fighters learn the BJJ and MMA from one of the best teams of all time.