Marc Laimon is a renowned grappling coach who holds the rank of black belt in Brazillian jiu jitsu, being also the founder of the Cobra Kai BJJ academy. Marc Laimon has worked on the ground games of several MMA fighters, including Bas Rutten, Oleg Tatakrov, Mark Kerr, Johny Hendricks and many more while producing well-known jiu-jitsu black belts such as Sim Go and Chris Holdsworth. Marc Laimon was also an instructor on the famous mixed martial arts show – TUF (The Ultimate Fighter).
Marc Laimon Jiu Jitsu
Full Name: Marc Laimon
Nickname: n/a
Lineage: Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Carlson Gracie > André Pederneiras > John Lewis > Marc Laimon
Main Achievements:
- 1st Place ADCC USA Trials (2001)
- 1st Place Grapplers Quest GP (2001)
Achievements (Colored Belts):
- 1st Place IBJJF Pan Championship (1999 purple)
- 1st Place Hawaii State Championship (1999 brown)
- 3rd Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2000 brown)
Favorite Position/Technique: Top (Guard Passing)
Weight Division: Peso Pesado
Team/Association: Cobra Kai
Marc Laimon Biography
Marc Laimon initiated his jiu jitsu life on the 22nd of January, 1996 in Torrance, California at the Gracie Academy. He turned to jiu jitsu heavily influenced by Royce Gracie‘s performances in the early UFC’s and became an avid student of Royce and Rorion Gracie at the academy, earning a blue belt from the Gracies.
In 1997 Marc Laimon switched BJJ academies and started training at the Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu Club. Laimon left the Gracie Academy because, according to Marc himself, he thought he wasn’t being given the correct tuition and he often felt that his coaches were holding back on their technical knowledge, or didn’t have a good technical portfolio to begin with. This feeling of mistrust towards the Gracie family would turn Marc Laimon into one of the first Americans to vocally express his discredit in the Gracie propaganda. His words would cause a well debated incident (in 2006) at “The Ultimate Fighter” show (season 4) between Marc Laimon and TUF contestant Matt Serra (a Gracie black belt) who got into a harsh war of words with grappling coach Laimon after he talked down on Royce Gracie.
When at Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu Club, Marc Laimon received his purple belt from Joe Moreira, he stayed for 2 years under Moreira’s guidance before moving to Nova União’s American team, where he was coached mainly by John Lewis, earning his brown belt in 1999 after a gold medal at the Pan American Championships as a purple belt.
Marc Laimon spent a year in Hawaii where he worked as a coach for Nova União before he returned to the mainland and started coaching in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he settled. Laimon would receive his black belt on July 2001 by John Lewis. Marc remained in Las Vegas where he became a very well respected coach, specializing in No-Gi, though always maintaining the kimono as the basis of his BJJ. He would become a founding member and leader of the Cobra Kai academy in 2004.
That same year of 2004 was when Marc Laimon was first invited to be a grappling coach at the famous TUF reality show, he would return in 2005 and 2006. Marc Laimon was voted “Instructor of the Year” in 2005 by On The Mat and became a member of Grapplers Quest “Grappling Hall of Fame” as well.
Although much of coach Marc Laimon’s rhetoric speaks about his anti-guard mentality, meaning, he is not a believer in the guard as a fighting position, rather using the guard to get back on his feet, many of Marc Laimon’s top students are savvy guard players, fighters such as the aforementioned Sim Go and Chris Holdsworth.
Where is Marc Laimon?
Is Laimon still at Cobra Kai? I thought he had turned the reins over to Sim Go.
He is in Wisconsin now, I’m a proud student.
Laimon has expanded Cobra Kai to Texas where he is now working with top UFC contender Johny Hendricks and the rest of Team Take Down while Sim Go heads Cobra Kai in Las Vegas.
Matt Serra is funny as heck. Just rewatch TUF4 and enjoy.
Marc* forgive me for misspelling your name sir my email address is also available for response please sir please I need to begin training and further my hopes and dreams of becoming a UFC champion fighter under the tutelage of one of the best ever
I’ve been training under Marc for two years, I cannot imagine training under anyone else.
Marc taught classes for John Lewis and was awarded his bb by john, but john wasn’t really his teacher, he just owned the school where marc taught and competed under his flag. john was absent most of the time working on side projects. Marc credits Ethan milius for most of what he knows; Ethan taught him how to learn and study video tapes (of fights and tournament footage).
You guys have to be from the era that I’m talking about to understand the impact that this guy had on American BJJ.. when people want to talk about American Jiu-Jitsu today it’s because they’re from a different time entirely. You ask any of the old heads Annie that you know 20 plus years in the game or even better. Certainly those with 25 years in the game. They will tell you and know this name very well. Not marketed very well. Not promoted. Not particularly spoken about except for that mats. Sarah incident but believe me when I tell you laimon is very very influential in American Jiu-Jitsu. One of the few people to make the move down to Brazil train in the trenches at the time with the real guys competing at the high-level tournaments in the Rio back when this was not a thing. Certainly not done by the gringos very few and if they did they were in the posh set up. Other gyms not the small. Nova uniao academy he was in 🙂 then forget about that. You talk about impact. Talk about impact on the actual scene who was responsible for all the mixtapes those of you in the game know and even that many people training back then didn’t have access to this. This is before the internet going to Brazil making connection with the tape traders. Chopping the stuff up making positional mixtapes before YouTube the spider guard tape the Della hiva tape the half guard tape. This was all magic. You guys don’t understand the time the passion of this era there was no money. There was no being famous necessarily with such a small Fringe thing but it was our thing and it was the thing.. today guys are fighting for a million dollars. They just did it. This guy went down to Brazil left. The Gracie academy went down to Brazil linked up with some legitimate Legends. Learn got his black belt there. Brought it back to America. Taught so many of highly touted Americans on the West coast. At one time Cobra Kai was for sure one of the go-to spots in terms of grappling in Las Vegas being as non-political as he was open door to the wrestlers one of the very first to train the wrestlers. And actually this is partially why I think he kind of. If you could say fell off the BJJ bandwagon it would have been that he left to do the MMA coaching for the team takedown and actually managed to get a guy to the title in. Johnny Hendrix. But at one time that was a whole crew of guys. Shane roller Hendrix and a couple other Elite level wrestles all on contract with him as the coach for their grappling … This guy is nearly single-handedly responsible for the union of those two groups. The previous era of restaurants that made the crossover to BJJ and the Americans that wanted to train minus any of the politics and fluffed it often comes with the Brazilians especially at that time. Things have gotten a lot better now but if you around back then you couldn’t help but be iranic kid if you had any self-respect in many cases these guys just took it too far. Anyways, I had to put my two cents in because I see people talking about American Jiu-Jitsu today. This same creature though today greatly evolved was around and something that I personally have seen him and many others like Tony D’Souza.. putting in the work and putting on the mats at the time. If there is a guy in North American BJJ that is not giving his fair due for his accomplishments and contribution, I would have to say it’s this guy anybody that’s really in the game. Any personal stuff aside can say nothing bad about his contribution to the game. Absolutely. Probably the worst guy to have cornering against you in the tournament for sure. But when push comes to shove and we’re talking about the development of the game in North America. You never ever dare talk about BJJ in America without mentioning the name Marc laimon