Team Beauregard BJJ has a lot to celebrate, and it’s not just the growing evolution of their school and team that’s making them so happy. It’s about the bonding of three brothers, whose whole family migrated from Boston to Phoenix to make their Jiu-Jitsu dreams come true.
The brothers sporting gold at the Arizona International Open / Deb Blyth
Best known for winning the Worlds as a brown belt in 2008, Ryan Beauregard leads the charge for Team Beauregard BJJ / BJJ Revolution in Arizona and is proud and happy to have his two younger brothers, Colin and Ian, standing by his side as he does so.
Ryan and his brother Colin started training Jiu-Jitsu about six years ago. “We’ve always been into competitive sports,” Ryan says, “But after high school we started getting into trouble . . fighting . . . we needed to find some way to channel our aggression. We found Jiu-Jitsu.” What they found was Professor Demetrius Ramos and BJJ Revolution right down the street from their house. “How lucky is that?” he asks.
Now a black belt and in a whole different league of competition, Ryan says he trains really hard and, as an American, feels like he has something to prove in a sport dominated by Brazilians. “When we first started training, I felt like we were behind, compared to those who grew up doing Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, but we have put so much time into the gym. We’re not behind anymore.”
Ryan received his black belt after the 2010 Pan, so he’s relatively new to the “black belt club,” but he is holding his own just the same. He competed in Portugal and came in third and is planning on competing at the 2011 Pan and the Worlds in June. “We haven’t missed a Pan or Worlds since we started training Jiu-Jitsu,” Ryan says.
Ryan competing at Arizona International Open / Photo: John Cooper
At the 6th Arizona International Open, Ryan won gold in his weight class. “I had one match against Michael Martin,” he says, “He’s a local instructor. It was good for us to challenge each other. It was a good fight. He’s a tough guy. I won with a choke from the back.” In the open, Ryan had one match against Gracie Barra’s Don Ortega, which he lost. “Don won at the Worlds as a brown belt the same year I did,” Ryan says, “He was a light heavy and I won at light.”
For Ryan, the day was a big success and he was very happy about the results and the performance of his team. “We had five people from our personal academy in Phoenix here today and they brought home five gold medals. We also did two blue belt promotions on the podium today.”
Ryan says his experience at the 6th Arizona International Open was great. “I think Gustavo’s (Dantas) tournaments are awesome. He puts together a great tournament. Arizona has great competitors now and I think this is the reason.”
Colin Beauregard is the middle brother in the Beauregard family. He is currently a brown belt in the feather weight division. Colin had a great experience at the Arizona International Open. He took home gold in his division. “I had one match and won with a kneebar in a little over a minute,” he says.
Like Ryan, Colin competes and trains a lot. “I’ve had hundreds of fights,” he says, “I won the last three state championships I’ve entered; the last 2 state championships at brown belt, by submissions.”
Colin received his brown belt after the 2010 Worlds. He’s excited by the progress he’s made in the sport and the fact that most of his wins have been by submission. “I’m excited to tap the legs finally,” he says, “It’s how I’ve gotten most of my submissions since I’ve got the brown belt.”
The most seriously competitive-minded of the three brothers, Colin loves Jiu-Jitsu and the fact that it allows him to stay in a competitive sport after so many years of wrestling. “It’s a good release for me,” he says, “I’ve competed my whole life. Jiu-Jitsu has taken over my life since high school. It allows me to keep my competitiveness.”
Jiu-Jitsu has also brought the Beauregard family closer together. “All three brothers spend every day together,” he says, “We improve because of each other. We push each other. If Ryan goes to the gym, I have to go. If I ask Ian to go to the gym, he’s going to come no matter what. We never say no to each other.”
Ian, the youngest brother, moved to Phoenix about six months ago to join his two older brothers on the mats. Colin says that Ian is training with him and Ryan and “blowing through everyone” during his competitions.
“We always tell him at his tournaments that rolling here can’t be any harder than rolling with us,” Ryan adds, “We go hard on him. We never take it easy on anyone. We push all of our students and each other as far as we can. BJJ Revolution is the #1 team in the nation – we have no room to slack.”
“We love Jiu-Jitsu,” Colin says, “We do it because we love it.”
All three of the brothers competitively wrestled in school, but it was youngest brother Ian who found martial arts first, albeit an unorthodox form of it. “He found ‘Hawaiian Jiu-Jitsu’ in Arizona,” Ryan says. But then the guys found BJJ Revolution, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Older brothers with baby brother Ian after his big win / Photo: Deb Blyth
Ian Beauregard is a blue belt who now fights in the adult light division. At the 6th Arizona International Open, he won four matches, three of them ending in submission. In his final, he fought Jonathan Hill and won on points.
Ian’s been training for about four years. His signature move is a judo throw. “I like takedowns,” he says. Ian just turned 19 and only recently started competing in the adult division. Already, he’s done well, placingthird3rd in blue/purple gi and secondin the blue/purple no gi at the Abu Dhabi Trials in Las Vegas.
Ryan says he coaches Ian every day. “He’s blessed because he’s a mix of me and Colin. He sucks info from his two older brothers. He’s just now starting to shine and it’s showing the depth of our family. He’s still young. We’re going to see lots more of him. I’m very proud of him.”
Ian agrees with his brothers that Jiu-Jitsu has made his family closer. “We love Jiu-Jitsu”, Ian says, “My parents come to every tournament. I train with my brothers every day. We share everything, and we hang out every day. We’re all really close.”
Big brother Ryan concurs, “Jiu-Jitsu is the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. Not only has it brought me and my brothers closer together – we are together every single day smashing each other…my two brothers are everything to me, but it’s also brought my parents together, too. They never miss a match, no matter where it is. We have our own academy. It doesn’t get any better than that.”