Garth Taylor

Garth Taylor entered the world of martial arts through Tae Kwon Do, a sport/martial art he practiced in his younger days, after which he moved on to wrestling, competing throughout high school and college. He found out about Jiu-Jitsu by seeing the very first UFC, watching Royce Gracie’s victories inside the octagon convinced Garth to try BJJ.

At the time whenTaylor watched the first UFC’s, he was coaching wrestling at a high school in Santa Cruz, and there were no Jiu-Jitsu clubs where he lived. His first actual contact with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt was at a Rickson Gracie workshop. Garth had a chance to roll with the BJJ legend which impressed him even more. In 1994 Garth sought out BJJ instruction and found it, but a few months later, Claudio França arrived in California and Garth Taylor left his gym to go and joint França’s academy where he stayed until achieving his black belt on December 2000 (becoming the very first North American black belt under Master Claudio).

Garth Taylor poured his heart and soul into his training, competing everywhere and against everyone, becoming one of the most successful American BJJ competitors of his generation. He also became an assistant instructor for Claudio França when he was still a blue belt, working full time at his master’s gym.