Name: Rafael Lima
Nickname: “Gordinho”
Born: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (08/19/1975)
Nationality: Brazilian
Residence: Miami, USA
Weight: 182 lb (83 kg)
Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.87 m)
Division: Medium Heavyweight
Style: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
World Championship: 1x
Brazilian National Championship: 7x (Individual: 4x/Team: 3x)
Professor Rafael was a hyperactive child, with great physical preparation, very competitive and engaged in all kinds of sports since an early age.
Due to his strong identity and closeness with his brother, Professor Roberto ‘Gordo’ Correa de Lima, who started in the art of Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 10, Professor Rafael started training and grew up with other great icons of martial arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Professor Rafael ‘Gordinho’ Lima won the 1998 Mundials World Championship in the Black Belt Division. He is also a 4-time National Champion in the birth place of Jiu-Jitsu, Brazil, (1994–1997) where he was voted the most technical fighter.
Some members of the Gracie family such as Renzo, Ralph, Ryan, Russo and Daniel were Professor Rafael’s classmates at the Anglo-American School of Rio de Janeiro, and since then, the Gracie and Correa de Lima families have always been together and inseparable.
Professor Rafael’s despise of drug use and his passion for healthy natural foods and way of living have always been his priorities and main concern. His life reflects this philosophy that has contributed to maintain his excellent shape and physical condition.
Professor Rafael Gordinho started standing out as a young adolescent, in competitions, and won various championships and titles, with determination, discipline and great effort. He has always been curious and thirsty for new techniques and knowledge so he started expanding the sport abroad. First, he lived in Australia and soon after he decided to travel around the world. Later he moved to New York, where he helped develop and became one of the founders of the Renzo Gracie Academy (2004-2009). This partnership resulted in an important contribution made by Professor Rafael ‘Gordinho’ both as a teacher and as the Academy’s administrator.
As a successful professional he received many invitations and decided to cooperate with the expansion of EVOLVE-MMA group in Singapore, where Professor Rafael ‘Gordinho’ lived for two years.
In 2011 and 2012, Professor Rafael ‘Gordinho’ took some time off in Rio and dedicated his time exclusively to be with his wife Xiony and their son Tiago, and that was when Professor Rafael ‘Gordinho’s younger daughter Rafaela was born.
However, Professor Rafael also taught young children in his brother ‘Gordo’s’ academy out of Rio de Janeiro, fully and intensely with great success showing the “new generation” how to live in a healthy way. During that period, Professor Rafael also worked on a lifetime dream and project, which has become a reality: opening his own academy in the United States, country which he considers his homeland.
Thus, Professor Rafael moved back to the United States and the Start Academy in Miami was born ready to shine in excellence and quality, with an outstanding professional team to help develop future generations of champions!