Brand-new black belt Mahamed Aly is one of the hottest new prospects to arrive on the scene. Only 21 years of age, the Rio-born grappler was promoted in September yet will dive right in to compete at the highest level with appearances lined up next weekend at the Grand Slam in LA and then next month at the No-Gi Worlds. 

Brown belts everywhere will probably be taking a huge sigh of relief to hear he’s moving up a rank as this releases his stranglehold on the top spot of the podium. He took double gold at Worlds and the Europeans this year and amassed an impressive record at many Opens across the US. 

He’s is equally comfortable fighting gi or no-gi, something he focussed on during his time training with former UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira. Even as a blue belt, due to his grappling ability Aly was called in to work with the MMA legend to help him prepare for bouts. With explosive throws and takedowns and a surprisingly well-rounded bottom game (somewhat unusual for an ultra heavy) he’s a dynamic competitor with a taste for gold – something that’s unlikely to change now he’ll be competing at black belt. 

From Rio de Janeiro but now training in the US as part of Team Lloyd Irvin, we caught up with Aly to find out more about the talented youngster. 

FloGrappling: Your parents must have been able to tell the future - how otherwise did they know you were growing to grow up to be a heavyweight like the man you were named after? [Aly is named after famed heavyweight boxer Muhammed Ali]

Mahamed Aly: I don’t think my father ever imagined I would be a fighter. The Brazilian culture doesn’t place much value on being an athlete, much less a fighter. I think if he ever thought I would be an athlete then it would be a soccer player, you know? But he liked the guy, he liked the name – and it was a guy who worked hard. I think he wanted this for me, to be a hard worker. 

Tell me about where you grew up in Rio de Janeiro. Most people only know about the beautiful beaches and the mountains, and they think it’s all one big paradise. What was it like where you’re from? 

People have this idea of Brazil… It’s not the wrong idea, but it’s incomplete. You have a lot of beautiful things, beautiful people, the beaches, a lot of fun. But you have a lot of people who don’t get to enjoy Rio because they work so much. 

My mother would leave the house early in the morning and arrive back at 8 or 9PM at night. I grew up on the side of the city where people didn’t enjoy the city. We had some difficulties but I don’t want to say it was miserable, it wasn’t. We were poor and had to work a lot, and when my father died it was became even more difficult, but we managed to come out on top, thanks God. 

How old were you when you started jiu-jitsu, and why did you choose that? Ali was a boxer! 

I started training jiu-jitsu at 15, I never thought I’d be an athlete. I wanted to fight, but I never saw this future for my life. I started training to get strong, I was really skinny, very small, and I wanted to get bigger but I didn’t want to work out, I wanted to do a martial art, I guess. I started with kickboxing and a few months later jiu-jitsu. 

People usually say they decided they wanted to become a jiu-jitsu professional around 15, 16 years of age. Was that the same for you? 

My last year of high school I was 16, I didn’t know if I wanted to go to college. I wasn’t sure which course I should do. I started training more seriously, and I wanted to see how it would go. I started to win some tournaments as a blue belt – I lost two tournaments, but after this I started winning everything. These were small tournaments in Rio, but I liked it a lot – it went straight to my heart. I would wake up at 5 in the morning to go to the gym, and I stayed there until 8 at night. 

You’ve been crushing it at brown belt since you won worlds as a purple in 2014 and you were ranked #1 brown belt both gi and no-gi at super heavyweight and absolute. What’s been your most memorable moment from the last 12 months? 

Man, the best moment of my brown belt career was winning the world title. I already had a world title [purple belt in 2014], but I was really focussed on the absolute. Thanks God I fought well; I won the majority of my fights by submission, only two weren’t by sub. Dude, it was really cool. 

There was a difficult moment in the final, because I was in a leglock that almost popped my knee. I managed to get out of the leglock and I got his knee! It was a really cool moment in my life – a moment that will never leave my heart or my mind. 




You’ve competed at both super heavy and ultra heavy. At what weight do you feel and perform best? 

When I was a blue belt, I was a little lighter but I enjoyed fighting with the big guys because my guard game was more efficient against guys slower than me. I never thought like most people do, to drop to a lower category to be the strongest there. Not me. I wanted to fight the strongest guys, because I was more agile than them and it was something really daring to do. I liked to fight ultra heavy, but when I got to purple belt it was a lot of weight on my legs, you know? So I dropped to super. 

Man, at super not much changed, I’m a bit lighter. But I don’t see too much difference between super and ultra heavy. 

So now, shortly after getting your black belt, what’s next? When are we going to see you in action against the big boys? 

Now I’ve got the black belt, things are a little bit different but the objective is the same. I always wanted to get better, to keeping moving forward. I’m always passing my limits. Dude, I’m going to be the best I can be. I’ll fight in the Grand Slam [October 18] in LA, then after that the No-Gi Worlds [Nov 7-8]. 

I want to fight as much as I can to get lots of experience as a black belt, but I still have a lot to learn.