Eduardo Telles

Main Achievements

• IBJJF World No-Gi Champion (2013) — Conquered the undisputed summit of international submission grappling by taking adult black belt gold.
• IBJJF Pan American Champion (2007) — Dominated the heavyweight landscape to claim the prestigious continental gi crown.
• Tactical Revolutionary of Modern BJJ — Single-handedly transformed the global sport architecture by weaponizing the Turtle and Octopus guards from defensive shell postures into dangerous offensive systems.
• Co-Founder of the Legendary TT Team — Partnered with Fernando “Tererê” to spearhead an incredibly influential, powerhouse generation of young world-class athletes.
• 3-Time IBJJF Black Belt World Medalist — Solidified his pound-for-pound elite standing with serial podium finishes on the sport’s biggest grand prix stages (2008 / 2010).

Overview

Professor Eduardo Telles Moreira, celebrated across global combat sports history by his moniker “The Turtle Master,” is an elite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt champion, a veteran professional mixed martial artist, and one of the single most influential technical innovators in grappling history. Competing primarily within the Heavyweight and Absolute brackets, Telles completely turned martial arts strategy on its head by transforming historically inferior defensive configurations into devastating attacking platforms. As the architectural founder and leader of the prominent Nine Nine Jiu-Jitsu (99 Jiu-Jitsu) global association, his masterclass pedagogy and unorthodox “Esquijitsu” matrices remain securely enshrined at the absolute vanguard of contemporary martial arts majesty.

Early Life & The Birth of “Esquijitsu”

Eduardo Telles was born in 1976 in the industrial metropolis of São Paulo, Brazil. He initialized his combat education during his teenage years through traditional Karate, building a strong baseline of timing and spatial discipline. While executing a stay in Rio de Janeiro—his father’s hometown—he first encountered the uncompromised leverage physics of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The historical backdrop of Brazilian grappling had been set in motion decades prior when the arrival of Japanese judokas sparked Carlos Gracie’s imagination and ignited a dynamic, cross-disciplinary prize-fighting subculture. In the wake of this cultural wave and the booming expansion triggered by early UFC events, Telles seized the opportunity to initialize his formal BJJ training under the direct curation of Fernando Yamasaki, later refining his structures in California under old-school technician Carlos Valente.

Upon returning to São Paulo as a decorated purple belt prospect, Telles embedded his daily lifestyle inside the central Alliance Academy headquarters under Master Fábio Gurgel. It was during this hyper-competitive era that he forged an unbreakable bond with his mat brother, the mythic Fernando “Tererê,” while sharing training rooms with future legends like Demian Maia. Telles utilized the mats as an elite laboratory, experimenting with highly unusual angle controls tailored to his ultra-resilient body type. Because of his highly eccentric, deceptive, and non-traditional positioning, the global BJJ community affectionately branded his tactical framework as “Esquijitsu” (“Weird Jiu-Jitsu”). When the Alliance roster separated in 2002, Telles joined forces with Tererê to form the immensely successful **TT Team**, which generated a powerhouse generation of young champions before Telles ultimately established **99 Jiu-Jitsu** as a tribute to the unyielding pursuit of perfection.

Revolutionizing the Mat: The Turtle Master Architecture

Professor Telles permanently re-engineered the strategic playbook of modern ground combat by developing comprehensive, high-percentage attacking systems from two primary domains that were previously ignored by traditional schools:

• The Turtle Guard — Prior to Telles’s structural innovations, exposing the turtle position was universally regarded as a desperate, passive survival stance. He revolutionized the sport by weaponizing the position into an aggressive guard variant, mapping out clean sweeps, high-velocity back-takes, and submission entries that caught elite passers completely off-guard.
• The Octopus Guard — He pioneered advanced hip-locking controls and spinal wraps over an opponent’s back from the bottom configuration, opening entirely uncharted transitional pathways to submission.

This legendary mechanical ingenuity translated seamlessly into an elite, multi-decade competitive career. Telles secured gold at the 2007 IBJJF Pan American Championships, captured a CBJJE Brazilian National title, and conquered the pinnacle of submission wrestling at the 2013 IBJJF World No-Gi Championships. He backed up his grappling accolades by venturing into professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), notably logging a spectacular, first-round head-kick knockout victory over UFC veteran Rafael “Sapo” Natal while cross-training at Black House MMA alongside superstars Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers.

Today, operating from his central global headquarters in San Diego, California, Professor Eduardo Telles continues to direct world-class technical education. Through his prominent video instructional platforms and international seminars, he continues to pass down the exact same creative discipline and warrior lineage that altered the course of grappling history. Professor Eduardo Telles stands securely enshrined at the absolute pinnacle of combat sports—an eternal monument to tactical non-conformity, instructional brilliance, and uncompromised martial majesty.