History of Gracie Barra Tarzana

August 15, 2022

History of Gracie Barra Tarzana

Founded in 2019 by Professors Edwin Najmi and Romulo Barral, our academy has quickly become a martial arts stronghold within the Tarzana, Encino, and neighboring communities. 

We opened our doors to everyone in the community offering both Adults and Youth/Kids programs throughout all times of the day in order to get the most out of our students. We already established ourselves in the San Fernando Valley at Professor Romulo Barral’s original school in Northridge, CA in efforts of having two powerhouse academies on both sides of the San Fernando Valley. We have quickly grown our academy and rightfully so have developed extensive programs for beginners to advanced students from all walks of life. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not only fun, but it’s a great way to bring together the community and tie an everlasting bond that no other fitness program can provide. Unfortunately, cycling and pilates classes do not offer belt systems or the comradery that a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy does, and for that reason we have curated an exciting and gratifying environment for our students to begin and advance their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journeys at Gracie Barra Tarzana for the rest of their lives. 

Not only have we trained our fellow neighbors, but we have some of the best grapplers and mixed martial fighters walk through our doors on a weekly basis in order to train with Professors Romulo Barral and Edwin Najmi. When it comes to Pro Training, there isn’t a better place in the city of Los Angeles to train at than Gracie Barra Tarzana. Under our tutelage, we have trained fighters such as Marvin Vettori (UFC Middleweight Contender), Beneil Dariush, (UFC Lightweight Contender), Arman Tsarukyan (UFC Lightweight Contender), Edmen Shahbazyan (UFC Middleweight Contender), Melsik Baghdasaryan (UFC Featherweight Contender), Migraine Arutyunyan (Olympic Greco Roman Gold Medalist) Tabatha Ricci (UFC Flyweight Contender), Danilo Marques (UFC Heavyweight Contender), and many more highly skilled and decorated martial artists. 

We hope to keep helping and begin developing future champions of the world both on and off the mats. As great as excelling in the sport of Jiu Jitsu is, we hope to develop better men and women for the world as a whole through the art of Jiu Jitsu.

Founded in 2019 by Professors Edwin Najmi and Romulo Barral, our academy has quickly become a martial arts stronghold within the Tarzana, Encino, and neighboring communities.