Charles Negromonte was born on September 29, 1988, in Recife growing up in a nearby town named Paulista – both located in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
Although Charles spent a few months training judo when he was 6 years old, he had no particular interest in martial arts while growing up. Instead, Negromonte’s love lied in football (soccer), a sport he played competitively for years.
When Charles’ local football club was forced to close down due to financial difficulties, Negromonte turned his focus to skateboarding, an activity that he practiced relentlessly for a few years, even entering freestyle competitions.
In 2005 Charles Negromonte became aware of jiu-jitsu through his brother Orlando “Olhão”, who already practiced the gentle art in a neighboring academy. Around March that year, Charles decided to join that same grappling team, transferring his skating focus towards BJJ.
Negromonte remained with the local jiu-jitsu club all the way up to the brown belt rank, a time when he finished high school and decided to become a professional jiu-jitsu competitor. His life choice demanded a level of dedication he could not find at his gym, and for that reason, he decided to join Zé Radiola ‘s team, one of the most prosperous grappling schools in the world. Due to the distance between his hometown and Radiola’s academy Charles chose to move into the gym, sleeping on the mats of the (then) Gracie Barra headquarters in Pernambuco.
It was also at the academy that Charles first started helping out with the classes, learning the coaching trade while picking up his first international coaching experience by spending 3 months in Poland, teaching jiu jitsu at the Copacabana academy – a gym affiliated with Braulio Estima at the time (Estima who was also a student of Radiola). After the Polish experience, Negromonte relocated to England for a while in order to train with Braulio and Victor Estima .
Charles spent a few years at brown belt, always making the podium of important tournaments in the International Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s (IBJJF) circuit, but never winning (and always losing either the final or semi-final by 2 points). In 2011 when the discussion to be promoted arose, Charles asked to stay another year in the division so he could break this “spell” that was haunting him. Unfortunately for Negromonte, 2012 brought him the same frustration and he was finally upgraded to black belt in July 1st of 2012.
After being promoted Charles Negromonte returned to England in preparation for a few up-and-coming events. While in the United Kingdom, training mainly with the Estima brothers in Birmingham, Negromonte also traveled regularly to London in order to train with the legendary Roger Gracie . With the strengthening of the relationship between Charles and the Gracie, Roger made an offer for Negromonte to move to London and join the Roger Gracie Academy team, an offer accepted after the nod by both coach Radiola and Braulio Estima.
As a black belt Negromonte’s career flourished, steering away from the bad luck he had as a brown belt by conquering important titles such as the South American Championship and the European No-Gi Open, among many others.
Cover photo by William Burkhardt of BJJ Pix .
Charles Negromonte Highlight London Fall Open 2015