Renowned coach Ramon Lemos has been at the helm of the UAE national jiu-jitsu team since December, building the squad up for its first major competition under his watch at the Abu Dhabi World Pro later this month.

The 39-year-old Brazilian—who founded Atos along with Andre Galvao and was the main coach of the hyper-successful Mendes brothers—started out coaching the U18 national squad before taking over the responsibility of the entire country's medal hopes. 

“I have come here to follow my dreams,” he told Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National. “The UAE has a vision to take jiu-jitsu to the Olympics and I want to be a part of this project. I want to do everything within my capacity to see they achieve that goal." 

Lemos has been working with a 30-strong squad leading up to the World Pro, which takes place April 24-28 at the Mubadala Arena. 

Watch the 2018 Abu Dhabi World Pro LIVE on FloGrappling

“When I first arrived here in 2015 I made a plan to put our fighters at a different level. The levels have kept improving since then,” he said.

“The UAE is still young in the martial art as compared to Brazil, where jiu-jitsu has been practiced for more than 100 years and in the USA for more than 40 years.

“The Emirati fighters have progressed but I would imagine them to be second to none in the world in another 10-20 years' time.

“We are already at a good level but we need more experience competing abroad. We have a couple of black belts but I want to see more than 100, perhaps, more than 1,000 Emirati black belts.

“A lot has still to be done but I think they are well on the way. We have more than 600 black belts as trainers in the UAE. They are going to pass all their experience to the Emirati fighters from a very young age. We can already see the results.

“It’s not unusual in any sport for a new generation to emerge and with stronger results. If you see footballers, the new generation are more skilful and with their scientific and modern training methods. Jiu-jitsu fighters are going to be exactly the same.”