Claudio França (fourth from right) with his newest black belts / Photo by Daniel Carettoni
Our GMA in Santa Cruz, California, Claudio França, held his academy end-of-the-year party and promoted nine of his students to black belt.
At the ceremony, he fastened black belts around the waist of the stalwart competitor Nathan Mendelsonh as well as Steve Opolinsky, Toru Kawamura, Brian Guzmanm, Todd Jones, Steven Cocos, Quintin Cox, Paul Pendergrast and Ken Wong.
Each of the nine promoted have been training with França for at least 11 years. “Now, Todd Jones and Paul Pendergrast have trained with me for almost 20 years,” he remarked.
The Jiu-Jitsu professor was also proud to point out the fact that his new black belt Toru Kawamura is 62 years old.
Besides promoting the black black belts, Claudio França also promoted 420 other students of his—among them children and adults from his three academies and branches of his school around California.
Claudio França’s December 2012 promotion party/ Publicity photo