Oswaldo Fadda

Oswaldo Baptista Fadda (August 1, 1920 – April 1, 2005) was a practitioner and developer of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, reaching the rank of "nono grau", a 9th degree red belt.

[2] He is known for being one of the highest ranked non-Gracie black belts and also for teaching students from the poorer areas of Rio de Janeiro, where Brazilian jiu-jitsu was regarded as an upper-class sport.

Fadda was born in Bento Ribeiro, a suburb in the north of Rio de Janeiro to a family of immigrants from Ardauli, Sardinia.

At the age of seventeen, while in the Brazilian Marines, he began to study jiu jitsu under Luiz França, a black belt under Mitsuyo Maeda.

Maeda was an expert judōka with direct lineage to the founder of judo, Kanō Jigorō, who had travelled around the world as a prize fighter while also teaching the locals his self-defence techniques.

After settling in Belém in 1917, Maeda had continued to teach jiu jitsu to a select group of students (including França and Carlos Gracie).

Fadda had received his own black belt from França and soon started teaching jiu jitsu free of charge in unorthodox locations such as public parks and beaches, often without the aid of crash mats, aiming to spread the art of jiu-jitsu to the poorer folk.