Robert Lewis Drysdale[1] (born October 5, 1981) is a Brazilian-American Brazilian jiu-jitsu 4th degree black belt under Léo Vieira, a retired undefeated mixed martial artist and an instructor at his own BJJ academy.

[5] Born in Utah, the United States to a Brazilian mother and American father, he moved to Brazil with his family in 1987 at the age of six.

He was introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu during his late teens (17) at the Quatro Tempos Academy in the city of Itú, state of São Paulo, Brazil in 1998.

He has competed and taught in various countries around the world, including Germany, Denmark, Poland, France, Sweden, Finland, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand Canada, Cuba, Brazil, Norway, Ireland, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Russia, England, Scotland, Japan, Bulgaria and Austria; while teaching and hosting seminars in cities across the United States.

In 2012 Drysdale joined forces with Rodrigo Cavaca to form a new grappling team – Zenith BJJ, which became a big player in the sport.

[7] In his next fight, Drysdale faced Clay Davidson, a King of the Cage veteran who entered the contest riding a six-fight win streak.

[9] Drysdale eventually made his debut at Legacy Fighting Championships 12 and went on to defeat Isaac Villanueva, Chris Reed and D.J.

However, after failing an out-of-competition drug test, with a 19.4/1 T/E ratio, the Nevada State Athletic Commission ultimately declined to license him.

However, the win was later overturned and changed to a no contest, after it was reveled that Drysdale had failed a post-fight drug test for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio.

[16] Alongside his BJJ and MMA careers, Drysdale also cultivated a successful coach career, having trained many UFC and BJJ champions: Forrest Griffin, Frank Mir, Randy Couture, Dan Hardy, Evan Dunham, Brad Tavares, Michelle Nicolini, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Kevin Randleman, Phil Baroni, Kevin Lee, James McSweeney, Joe Stevenson, Jay Hieron He was introduced on Countdown to UFC 101 as the BJJ coach of former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.

In March 2018, Drysdale announced that he was involved in a documentary production titled "Closed Guard: The Origins of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil".

The film is primarily about the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Vale-Tudo (later rebranded "MMA") from Japanese immigrants to the Amazonian Jungle and from there to the world.

According to Drysdale, the goal of the film was to tell a complete account about how Brazilian jiu-jitsu drifted away from its Kodokan roots and became such a unique art.