One of the most powerful people in the world of MMA joined BJPENN.com’s Fist-ta-Cuff radio. Ricardo Liborio was named the 13^th most powerful person in the world of MMA by Fight! Magazine.  He is the head instructor and co-founder of America top Team, one of the leading teams in MMA. The legend of the sport took time out of his day to talk MMA and BJJ.

Liborio was born in Brazil and started training at age 4 in the art of judo. It was not until he was 13 that he started to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under another legend; Carlson Gracie. When he was asked about his staying power in the sport Liborio had this to say:

“Everything started with Carlson Gracie, buddy. To think Carlson was the mentor that he was, and he was able to replicate to what he inspired everybody. Not just me. ….There are so many coaches that started with this lineage with Carlson Gracie. That was assured because of him, his personality, his ability to mentor, his, everybody lot of those guys became high level competitors, ended up dedicating their lives to MMA and BJJ. So, I definitely dedicate this to Carlson Gracie.”

He continued to talk about how when BJJ first began it was not very popular. “Judo was more popular than BJJ,” said Liborio. That all changed when Royce Gracie was tabbed to show case the efficiency of BJJ at the first UFC event. “Of course with Royce (Gracie) bringing up the UFC, the efficiency of the sport the little guy can beat the big guy because of the technique. This was a big show; we owe a lot to Royce because of that.”

Liborio knew that to be a top fighter you need to have a variety of skills in MMA. “I was always a big fan of cross train,” said Liborio. “I always thought it was important to learn everything. It is the main character of a good student.” This is what he brought with him from Brazilian Top Team to American Top Team. He went on to say this about how the sport has evolved:

“BJJ itself was almost like a brain wash. You belong to a group of guys you’re going to do something special. You feel very confident that the sport was beyond anything else the most efficient sport.  BJJ is extremely efficient. Especially at the time, like you said, this thing has evolved into more (inaudible) everybody trains everything, there’s no cross training it’s just impossible MMA is a new sport. But at the time when everything started it was a clash of styles. You could show a lot of efficiency of BJJ.”

The conversation moved to how big the sport has become. The sport has grown by leaps and bounds since Liborio started training BJJ over 30 years ago. ““I think I did. The growth of the sport I don’t think it surprise me in a certain way, I knew eventually it will come,” Liborio said of how big the sport has grown. “The sport is going to grow internationally.”

Hopefully Liborio will be around for a long time to instill his knowledge in all of the fighters that come through American Top Team, and the world of MMA. Being able to listen to Liborio talk about the sport of BJJ, how it has evolved and where it could go basically from a guy who has watched this sport evolve from its early stages is awesome. You can listen to the entire interview with Ricardo Liborio here.

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