Riccardo Ammendolia is a BJJ black belt who comes from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Currently he is a content creator for Flograppling as well as a commentator at some of BJJ’s biggest events. He first started training BJJ when he was around 18 or 19 years old. Like many others at this time, he did not take BJJ seriously. It wasn’t until he trained at the Carlson Gracie Academy in 1998, he realised how much he didn’t know so began to train more.
Due to a spinal surgery in his teenage years, Ammendolia was unable to take part in physical sports during high school, so began to train other martial arts. Another familiar story often heard, is that people get lured in to BJJ by watching the UFC, Ammendolia is no different. He was always in to martial arts from an early age since his father taught karate. After watching UFC 3, an event with 4 submission victories, he decided that BJJ was for him.
Ammendolia originally trained at Alliance, but switched to Pura BJJ. He has been a black belt since 2012 under the prestigious Mendes brothers and still trains under them to this day.
His style is quite versatile, currently preferring half guard, he is a big fan of the Shaolin sweep. His worst injury ever is a tear of the ACL, due to his knee injury he cannot really knee slice anymore so has to pass using leg drags and toreando. A style that is quite synonymous with the Mendes Brothers.
When talking about submissions he feels the triangle is best as it exemplifies what BJJ is. He goes on to mention “Leverage, angles, technique and normally from the bottom position”. Ammendolia is a real BJJ fanatic so it is not surpising he enjoys a submission which summarises BJJ so well.
Unlike modern day, there were not weekly tournaments when Ammendolia was coming up through the belts. When he did compete it was in the 185lbs category. He does however mention that he was the first ever Canadian to win a BJJ tournament in Manaus, something which he did in 2004. At least some of us will know how hard it is to get a decision in Brazil, especially when you are the only foreigner.
The athletes with the biggest influence on his style are Leo Vieira, Marcelo Garcia, and of course his professors, the Mendes brothers. He mentions “they all have superior technique, are lighter in size and are always entertaining to watch”. He also credits them with evolving the way BJJ is practiced.
Q & A
You are perhaps the most fanatical person about BJJ I’ve ever seen. Your youtube channel has tons of old footage and BJJ history. Where does this come from and how did you get it?
“When I started jiu-jitsu we didn’t have youtube. So tape trading, buying and selling was how we did it. We didn’t even have black belts in Canada when I started, so I just had to learn from tapes, magazines and seminars. So with that being said, I decided a long time ago to make a collection of tapes so I could use them to study from. I have a ton of more never before seen footage that I will be releasing over time”
Could you tell us about training in Brazil in the early 2000’s. Were the mats full with renowned black belts at this time or had they started moving out to the USA?
“Training in Brazil at that time was awesome. I was blessed to travel a bit in Rio, Buzios and Manaus. Every gym was different. Some had up to 15 black belts on the mat. Some had a room full of kids. I was able to take something from each and bring it back to Canada, then I would continue to train and adapt it to my game. At that time most of the best black belts were still in Brazil, only a handful of top guys lived in the USA, because BJJ was not a way to earn a living at that time unless you were a Gracie”.
“Some of the guys I got to train with were Romero Jacare, Leo Vieira, Ricardo Vieira, Fernando Terere, Felipe Neto, Fabio Gurgel, Alexandre Paiva & Mestre Pina.”
Could you tell us about training under the Mendes Bros? Obviously they are some of the best competitors the world has ever seen, but are relatively new at coaching compared to others. Would you expect them to become the best competition team within the next 10 years?
“Yes, I absolutely do think they will. They have students who have competed and won at the highest level. They now have a very strong black belt team who are starting to win everything.”
“The Mendes brothers way and style of teaching has always been revolutionary. They are very integral in changing the sport in terms of technical development, popularity and appearance. I know that they will use that same dedication towards their students such as Tainan Dalpra, Jessa Khan, Johnata Alves as well as the up and coming kids like Joaquim O Campo, as well as many more”.
Lastly, A lot of people reading this will be jealous of your job. Could you tell us how you got the job working as a content creator for Flograppling and being a live event commentator?
“So, I sometimes still pinch myself and remind myself how blessed I am to be doing what I am doing. It is really awesome. But I also know that I was grinding doing things behind the scenes for a long time. People see me in front of the camera or hear my voice but don’t realize I used to run, organize and promote tournaments all over North America.”
“I put in my time, got the experience and dedicated my life to this sport. Originally I was asked to commentate Rio Grand Slam in 2015 for Flograppling and one thing lead to another as they learned I could do more. I have been contributing to them since around 2015”.
Riccardo can be found on his instagram here.
His excellent youtube channel which details the history of BJJ and rare unseen matches can be seen here.
