Rani Yahya, UFC veteran and 2007 ADCC world champion, has just been promoted to 5th degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt!
The promotion came after he spent almost two decades as a black belt – and he was proud to share the news about it on social media:
19 years as a black belt is one of my biggest accomplishment in my martial artist career.
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Yahya started training Jiu-Jitsu when he was just 11 years old. Soon enough, he started competing – and it wasn’t long before he began winning medals and titles.
For example, he won the IBJJF World Championship title as a blue (in 1999), purple (in 2002), and brown belt (in 2003).
He first competed at ADCC back in 2003 as well, when he was defeated in the quarter-finals.
He then won a silver medal in 2005 and, the last time he competed in 2007 – he became a 66kg division world champion.
Somewhat simultaneously, Yahya was developing his professional MMA career, and earned a 11-2 record over a five-year period. After that, he competed at WEC.
It wasn’t before long that he made the transition to the UFC though. Since then, he’s been fighting regularly in both the featherweight and bantamweight divisions.
The post UFC Veteran Rani Yahya Promoted To 5th Degree BJJ Black Belt appeared first on Bjj Eastern Europe.