Arya Esfandmaz is a black belt from London who runs his own gym, Pure Jiu Jitsu. He originally got into BJJ aged around 17/18 but had done Judo from age 4. Since then Esfandmaz achieved his black belt in BJJ aged 25. He originally got into grappling to counter being bullied whilst at school. Esfandmaz states “My dad wrestled and tried to enrol me in wrestling, but there were no wrestling schools at that time (there was a club in Kensington but I was too young) so I was enrolled in judo from 4 years old at the Budokwai.”.
When playing guard he favours the De La Riva, Spider, Closed and Half guard positions, in his own words “…I like guard”. From half guard he likes Shaolin sweeps and Deep half back takes whilst using the Roleta sweep in closed guard. When on top Esfandmaz opts for pressure passing – especially favouring the smash pass. His favourite submissions are the Triangle choke and various chokes from the back.
Regarding his weight as a competitor Esfandmaz states “I used to drop to under 100kg, but since UAEJJF has only -94kg and -120kg I just don’t bother cutting weight”. In terms of his best competition achievements, he states his silver medal at brown belt in the World Pro where he lost only by an advantage. Elswhere he won the first Tokyo grandslam, got first in the Nogi Euros (closing with his professor at the time) and got third in the Gi Euros in both 2018 & 2019. With this in mind he’s an avid competitor with a number of high profile achievements under his belt.
However, as with highs in BJJ there are also lows in the form of injuries. On injuries, Esfandmaz says “Oh man.. so many, I always have had issues with my back playing so much guard. In 2016 while prepping for the London grand slam I hurt my back in sparring and I was in a wheelchair for a month.”
Regarding his toughest competitor he states the up and coming Felipe Andrew was his hardest opponent: “Oh man so many guys. The most recent opponent that was hard I would say is Andrew Felipe. He moves like a cat. We went sweep for sweep, then I came up on his back thinking “yessss” then he did this weird spin that threw me on my back and completely threw me out of my element.”
Esfandmaz claims Lucio ‘Lagarto’ Rodrigues is his biggest influence where he learnt most of his Jiu Jitsu from. In terms of future goals, he wants to compete a lot more in Nogi and make a strong team within his gym.
Finally, he adds “Check out my school, it has been a dream to teach and set a school up without any politics”
