Alexandre “Gigi” Paiva

Alexandre Paiva won the middleweight world title in 1999, at age 32, beating Roberto Atalla on points in the final. At that same Worlds, Alliance also took gold with Leo Leite and Roberto Traven, two names tied to his path as a coach and training partner. Two years earlier he had taken bronze in the same division.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1967, he started training in 1983 at Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti’s academy in Ipanema, where he later received his black belt. A back injury kept him off the mats for about two years in the late 1980s. In 1992 he opened Academia Strike with Roberto Traven and soon after helped found Alliance alongside Jacaré and Fabio Gurgel. In 1996 he won the Pans.

As a coach he promoted black belts such as Fernando Tererê and Leo Leite, both world champions. He led Alliance in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, and now teaches at Alliance in Eagle, Idaho, in the United States. He has also collected titles in the masters divisions and is now a coral belt.

In 2017, on turning 50, he told GRACIEMAG that jiu-jitsu had been guiding his life for almost 35 years.