# Marc Laimon > Black Belt | United States ## Overview **Name:** Marc Laimon **Belt Rank:** Black Belt **Nationality:** United States **Gender:** Male **Weight:** 99 kg ## Bio Marc Laimon initiated his jiu jitsu life on the 22nd of January, 1996 in Torrance, California at the Gracie Academy. He turned to jiu jitsu heavily influenced by Royce Gracie ‘s performances in the early UFC’s and became an avid student of Royce and Rorion Gracie at the academy, earning a blue belt from the Gracies. In 1997 Marc Laimon switched BJJ academies and started training at the Beverly Hills Jiu Jitsu Club. Laimon left the Gracie Academy because, according to Marc himself, he thought he wasn’t being given the correct tuition and he often felt that his coaches were holding back on their technical knowledge, or didn’t have a good technical portfolio to begin with. This feeling of mistrust towards the Gracie family would turn Marc Laimon into one of the first Americans to vocally express his discredit in the Gracie propaganda. His words would cause a well debated incident (in 2006) at “The Ultimate Fighter” show (season 4) between Marc Laimon and TUF contestant Matt Serra (a Gracie black belt) who got into a harsh war of words with grappling coach Laimon after he talked down on Royce Gracie. When at Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu Club, Marc Laimon received his purple belt from Joe Moreira , he stayed for 2 years under Moreira’s guidance before moving to Nova União ’s American team, where he was coached mainly by John Lewis, earning his brown belt in 1999 after a gold medal at the Pan American Championships as a purple belt. Marc Laimon spent a year in Hawaii where he worked as a coach for Nova União before he returned to the mainland and started coaching in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he settled. Laimon would receive his black belt on July 2001 by John Lewis. Marc remained in Las Vegas where he became a very well respected coach, specializing in No-Gi, though always maintaining the kimono as the basis of his BJJ. He would become a founding member and leader of the Cobra Kai academy in 2004. That same year of 2004 was when Marc Laimon was first invited to be a grappling coach at the famous TUF reality show, he would return in 2005 and 2006. Marc Laimon was voted “Instructor of the Year” in 2005 by On The Mat and became a member of Grapplers Quest “Grappling Hall of Fame” as well. Although much of coach Marc Laimon’s rhetoric speaks about his anti-guard mentality, meaning, he is not a believer in the guard as a fighting position, rather using the guard to get back on his feet, many of Marc Laimon’s top students are savvy guard players, fighters such as the aforementioned Sim Go and Chris Holdsworth. Where is Marc Laimon? ## Specialties - Top (Guard Passing) ## Achievements - 1st Place ADCC USA Trials (2001) - 1st Place Grapplers Quest GP (2001) ## Lineage - Carlson Gracie (Red Belt) - Andre Pederneiras (Black Belt) - John Lewis (Black Belt) --- **Last Updated:** September 08, 2026 **Data Source:** bjj.space (https://bjj.space/people/marc-laimon)