Giancarlo Bodoni

Giancarlo Bodoni is a professional jiu-jitsu competitor and a black belt under Lucas Lepri, who worked extensively with Bernardo Faria as well as Rillion Gracie, and is best known for his success while representing the Alliance Team in the early stages of his career, going on to join John Danaher‘s New Wave team as a pro-athlete. Bodoni earned his reputation as one of the sport’s top athletes after his performances in the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) World Championships and Pan American Championships as a brown belt, a level of excellence he continued to display as a black belt.

Giancarlo Bodoni Jiu-Jitsu

Full Name: Giancarlo Bodoni

Nickname: N/A

Lineage: Carlos Gracie > Carlson Gracie> Sergio Bolão > Mauro Chueng > Elan Santiago > Lucas Lepri > Giancarlo Bodoni

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place ADCC (2022 / 2024)
• 1st Place IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2021)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2020)
• 3rd Place IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2020* / 2021*)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• 1st Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2019 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2020 brown)
• 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2019 brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2019* brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2020* brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2018 brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF European Open(2019 brown)

Favorite Position/Technique: Closed Guard

Weight Division: Pesado (94,30 kg / 208.0 lbs)

Team/Association: New Wave

Giancarlo Bodoni Biography

Giancarlo Bodoni was born on October 15, 1995, in Miami, Florida, United States of America.

Martial arts were introduced to Giancarlo’s life at a very young age. By the time he was 5YO, Bodoni was already training karate, an extracurricular activity to which he would later also add taekwondo, competing briefly in both combat sports.

Although widely recognized by the jiu-jitsu community as a product of the Alliance team, Giancarlo’s grappling initiation was spent training with one of the Gracie Family’s most respected members, Rillion Gracie, who guided the talented Floridian from the age of 12 up until his 20th birthday. It was Master Rillion who promoted Bodoni from white to purple belt.

In 2017, Giancarlo Bodoni fulfilled his lifelong dream of training in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a city famous for being the birthplace of jiu-jitsu. The American grappler spent a few months there, where he met and befriended another big player in the sport, Mr. Gutemberg Pereira of GF Team. Later, when Pereira moved to the United States to live in Toledo, Ohio, he invited Bodoni to train with his local team, thus settling a bond between Giancarlo and the Toledo workgroup.

When Giancarlo’s father moved to Charlotte, in North Carolina, the young athlete took the opportunity to train at the local Alliance gym, with one of BJJ’s greatest competitors of all time, Mr. Lucas Lepri. Bodoni made the most of this experience by joining the team and spending extended periods with the Minas Gerais legend, who graded Bodoni with his brown belt in June 2018.

Midway through 2019, Giancarlo received an invitation from another Alliance legend, who, coincidently, is also from Minas Gerais, namely 4x adult black belt World Champion Bernardo Faria, who offered Bodoni a position as an instructor at his school – Faria’s Alliance gym in Bedford, Massachusetts. Giancarlo accepted the offer and it was while training and working at his new Massachusetts home that Bodoni conquered two of his most prized gold medals, the 2019 World No-Gi title and his 2020 Pan American Gi title – both in the brown belt division.

After these tremendous achievements, Bodoni was promoted to black belt in a ceremony that took place in Charlotte, NC, led by Lucas Lepri on October 18, 2020. He would go on to focus on his no-gi career and join John Danaher‘s workgroup in Austin, Texas, to achieve those goals in 2021.