Marcelo Mafra

Marcelo Mafra, commonly known as ‘Lapela’, is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Demian Maia, having worked extensively with other well-known instructors such as Everdan Olegário (Mestre Dan), Fernando Tererê, Lucas Leite and Leonardo Vieira. Mafra is well known for his achievements as a competitor on the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) circuit, with medals at the Brazilian, Pan, World NoGi and World Masters championships.

Marcelo Mafra Jiu-Jitsu

Full Name: Marcelo França Mafra

Nickname: The nickname Lapela (meaning lapel in Portuguese) started by way of Marcelo’s training partner Sergio Moraes when they shared the mats at the COHAB academy in São Paulo. Mafra was already a regular competitor at the time and used his judo experience to strangle many of his opponents with lapel chokes. For that reason, Moraes started calling him Mr. Lapela and the name ended up being associated with Marcelo throughout his career.

Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti (Cavalcante) > Fabio Gurgel > Demian Maia > Marcelo Mafra

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place IBJJF World Masters (2016 Master 1)
• 1st Place IBJJF World NoGi (2014/2016 Adult, 2017 Master 1)
• 1st Place IBJJF Pan American (2018 Master 1)
• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian NoGi Nationals (2018 Master 1)
• 1st Place UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro (2016 Master 1)
• 1st Place IBJJF San Diego Open (2018)
• 1st Place IBJJF Las Vegas Open (2013/2014/2016)
• 2nd Place IBJJF World NoGi Championship (2013)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2013)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Pan No-Gi Championship (2015)
• 2nd Place CBJJ Brazilian NoGi Nationals (2015)
• 3rd Place IBJJF World NoGi Championship (2011/2015)
• 3rd Place IBJJF American Nationals Championship (2010**)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• 1st Place IBJJF World NoGi Championship (2008 brown)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2008 brown)

Favorite Position/Technique: Half-Guard

Weight Division: Peso Médio (82,30 kg / 181.5 lbs)

Team/Association: Checkmat

Marcelo Mafra Biography

Marcelo Mafra was born in 1985 in the city of Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil.

It was in Manaus that Marcelo was introduced to martial arts, namely judo, at the age of 8, and it was with the Japanese art of throwing that Mafra discovered his interest for competition, a love he carried with him when he joined jiu-jitsu.

Mafra conquered a few junior judo tournaments but eventually moved to the São Paulo district of Itaquera, which forced him to interrupt his training. As a 12-year-old, he joined a jiu-jitsu class with the well known Cohab team of “Master Dan” Olegário, a coach who produced several high-level grapplers such as Serginho Moraes, Dimitrius Souza, Guilherme Augusto to name a few.

At first, Mafra used jiu-jitsu as a past time activity, that changed when he turned 18, a time when Marcelo started taking his focus to a professional level. He was a blue belt at the time. This mindset would lead Lapela to Fernando Tererê as a purple belt, as did many of Olegário’s students, who had a very close relationship with the TT team (Tererê/Telles).

Under the guidance of Tererê, Lapela met an array of future BJJ legends. Names such as Cobrinha, Lucas Lepri, André Galvão and many more, all training under one roof, and it was Fernando who graded Lapela to brown belt.

After Fernando Tererê ran into a few personal problems and abandoned the sport (2004), Marcelo trained with a few different coaches under the Brasa Clube de Jiu-Jitsu academy banner. One of those was Demian Maia, someone who helped Mafra tremendously as a brown belt, providing the opportunity for Lapela to move to the United States in 2007.

In 2008 Mafra was promoted to black belt by Demian Maia. Also by the end of that same year that Lapela joined the Checkmat Academy, training extensively with another competitor who had recently arrived in the country, Lucas Leite as well as João Assis, Robert Drysdale, André Galvão and more.

By 2013 Marcelo Mafra opened his own academy in California, a gym that would expand into 3 in the following years, with extensive affiliated academies.

Marcelo Mafra vs Ben Henderson

Marcelo Mafra vs Samir Chantre