Born in the Bronx, New York – Edwin ‘Junny’ Ocasio moved to PA aged 5 years old, but eventually moved back to New York at the age of 19. Four years later aged 23 he began training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. However, like many athletes he also had a background in grappling as he states “I was on my high school wrestling team when I was 16 in Pennsylvania. I fell in love with BJJ when I was training for MMA, I wanted to be an MMA champion.”. Since then, he achieved his current rank of black belt aged 30 under the legendary Murilo Santana of Unity Jiu Jitsu.
It is Murilo who he lists as being the biggest influence on his style – as well as Joao Miyao and Eddie Cummings. When asked about Murilo he adds “I think what separates Murilo from other coaches is that he holds you to a standard that your mind can’t comprehend. you might have this idea of where you can go or what you’re capable of. however Murilo will show you, you can do more and go further”
We asked Junny about his favorite positions in BJJ and he said “I love x-guard, reverse de la riva and de la riva, those are my favorite guard positions. My sweeps are reverse de la riva to berimbolo and X-guard sweeps. I love knee cutting or pressure passing, shin cutting as well. My favorite pass is the solorplex knee cut and my favorite submissions are head and arm triangles and z-locks.” If you want to learn more about his signature z-lock, check out his instructional here.
Like many Unity practitioners, Junny is also a competitor whose official competition weight is typically 135 or 138lbs (bantamweight or light- featherweight). He lists being the black belt F2W bantamweight champion as his biggest competition achievement and says Geo Martinez and Lucas Phinero have been his toughest opponents to date. Like many competitors, he’s also had his share of injuries and lists ACL surgery and meniscus surgery as his biggest injuries during his grappling career.
We asked him about the infamous shower video on youtube which showed Unity members showering in their gi’s between rounds, he quipped “haha the shower video. Yeah, I was there before Unity Jiu Jitsu was born. The shower video is funny. No one takes a shower in between rounds. It’s so hot in that little room that some of the guys would let the cold water run on their heads and then go back to training. They definitely played it up for the cameras”.
It’s also been mentioned before that Junny came from an abusive household. We asked what this was like and how he overcame it to change his life – he said “Yeah I came from a very abusive household, one that would break people mentally. At a young age, I was sexually abused. On top of that, I was physically and mentally abused daily. It destroyed me for a long time. It is still something I struggle with, I dealt with that type of abuse for a long time”.
He then went on to discuss his entry into drug abuse which was used as a coping mechanism, saying “The truth is at first I used drugs as way to numb the pain. Marijuana and pills helped delay my darkest thoughts. I held on to my dream of becoming a professional athlete (an MMA fighter at the time). I just told myself that if I can just hold on and pour my energy onto my dream, then I could get there. I could do it, so that’s what I did. I channeled all my anger and pain, I used it to not give up. I stopped feeling bad for myself, I got out of that mentality and just got to work. It was hard. Still is. It’s worth it though”
He goes on to add “I think too often when these types of abuse happen or any kind really. We often go into a victim mentality, we feel like the world owes us. So we use drugs or do on to other people what was done to us. We feel bad for ourselves when really we are responsible for our lives and happiness. The world owes us nothing. If we can use the very pain that hurts us to propel us forwards, we can achieve great things. Do not get me wrong, anyone who goes through this, it’s tough but you can make it out and still have a successful life. Learn how to move forward instead of so staying in that time of place when the abuse happened. You do not have to accept that your life is over. Part of it is having someone say to you “hey your alive. your still alive”. With this said, it’s great to see Junny has gone on to achieve highs with his BJJ and teaching at Unity. Hopefully can achieve more success from this mindset in the future.
Lastly, we asked about his background in wrestling and how good he was. He said “I wouldn’t say I was a good wrestler, I would say I had potential haha. I think the rise in wrestlers in BJJ is insane. I would say pure BJJ guys are at a disadvantage in certain rule sets. However, I do believe you need both to truly be elite”.
In terms of future aspirations, he wants to win more titles, become an MMA champion and run his own academy. For more information, you can check out Unity at unityjiujitsu.com
