The Lineage · 03 of 07
Oswaldo Fadda
Founder of the Fadda line — he taught jiu-jitsu to Rio's forgotten neighborhoods
Oswaldo Fadda was a student of Luiz França. He founded his academy in Bangu, in Rio de Janeiro's working-class west zone, and taught generations of students the famous academies downtown would never have taken — jiu-jitsu for the people of the suburbs.
In the 1950s, Fadda's team visited the most famous academy in Rio for a celebrated series of challenge matches and won the majority of them — many by foot lock, a Fadda specialty at a time when few took leg attacks seriously. The visits are still cited as the day Brazilian jiu-jitsu proved it belonged to no single family.
The line that carries his name — the Fadda line — runs from Bangu through his black belt Monir Salomão to GFTeam, and from there to Takoma Park, Maryland.