Ricardo de la Riva Goded, a Master Carlson Gracie student, started his training in Jiu-Jitsu at the Marcos Vinicius house (who was Carlson student as well) in January of 1980 at the age of 15 years old. After noticing de la Riva's skills as a blue belt, Marcos Vinicius took him to the Carlson Gracie academy. Since the beginning, de la Riva helped Master Carlson with the classes. In 1986 he received his black belt.

From this moment his fight style became very famous through the legendary De La Riva Guard. This style was developed throughout a lot of victories, specially the one over Royce, Rolker and Royler Gracie. He defeated Royce and Rolker Gracie in the same competition and defeated Royler Gracie two times. He was the first person to defeat one of the Gracie brothers.

In 1993 he interrupted his training targeting competitions in order to dedicate his time exclusively to his students. He helped in the formation of several champions like Rodrigo Minotauro, Rogerio Minotouro, and Marcelo Grosso amid others. In December 1998 he returned to the competitions in a submission grappling tournament in the USA. He defeated his opponent Shane Dun who was nearly 10 times de La Riva's own body weight.

In 2002, Master De La Riva competed in the Jiu-Jitsu World Tournament at age of 37 years old, which he lost a fight at the semifinal to a opponent 15 years younger. He conquered the bronze and kept his motivation to keep competing. In 2003 he was one of 900 fighters invited to participate to the world selection to the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Some of De La Riva's highest achievements:

• 5th Degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under GrandMaster Carlson Gracie
• Inventor of the "De La Riva Guard"
• Voted one of the five top BJJ players in the world by Gracie Magazine
• Victories over Royler, Rolker and Royce Gracie
  

View Ricardo de La Riva's Seminar in Dripping Springs, Texas...

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