Oswaldo Fadda
| Oswaldo Baptista Fadda | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Oswaldo Baptista Fadda January 15, 1921 Bento Ribeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Died | April 1, 2005 (aged 84) Bento Ribeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Bacterial pneumonia |
| Other names | Mestre Fadda |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Style | Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu |
| Team | Academia Fadda |
| Teacher(s) | Luiz França |
| Rank | 9th degree red belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu |
| Years active | 1937 – early 2000s |
Oswaldo Baptista Fadda (January 15, 1921 – April 1, 2005) was a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, reaching the rank of "nono grau", a ninth grade red belt. 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 jiu-jitsu was regarded as an upper-class sport. Fadda's lineage, the most prominent second to the Carlos Gracie lineage, still survives through his links with today's teams such as Nova União, Grappling Fight Team, as well as Deo Jiu-Jitsu (Deoclecio Paulo) and Equipe Mestre Wilson Jiu-Jitsu (Wilson Pereira Mattos).
Fadda was born in Bento Ribeiro, a suburb in the north of Rio de Janeiro to a family of Italian immigrants. 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).
By 1942, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was becoming well known in Brazil, although the price of tuition was too high for most residents of Rio. 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. Fadda also saw jiu-jitsu as a way to help people with physical or mental disabilities, especially the city's numerous polio victims. With no real income from his teaching he was forced to advertise in the obituary section of the local newspaper.
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