Juninho Crivelari - Biography

Antonio Crivelari Junior was born on June 7, 1984 in Jundiaí, a city located in Brazil’s São Paulo state.

As a 7-year-old Crivelari’s interest in martial arts grew, which led him to join a neighboring karate gym. The experience with the Japanese striking art, however, was short-lived as grappling called upon Antonio who then started through judo.

Although enjoying judo at the time, the boom of no-holds-barred (the predecessor of mixed mar- tial arts) during the mid 1990’s had Juninho in awe of jiu jitsu and its representatives, who held belts in the two biggest events at the time: The UFC and Vale Tudo Japan. This interest in BJJ ulti- mately drove Crivelari away from judo and into coach Nilson Liboni’s gym (1995), a jiu jitsu black belt under Grand Master Wilson Mattos.

Completely embedded in jiu jitsu culture, as a teenager Crivelari was already helping out as an assistant coach in Liboni’s classroom, going on to have his own group of students as a purple belt.

In August 2004 Juninho Crivelari earned his black belt from Nilson Liboni, who had graded him in every belt. 2004 was also the year when Antonio opened his first academy in Jundiaí. Through a good relationship with Robert Drysdale – a famous grappler who grew up in Jundaí’s neighboring town of Itu, Juninho Crivelari met Leo Vieira in 2005. After he started training regularly with the well-known coach/athlete, Junior became affiliated with Vieira’s academy – Brasa Clube de Jiu Jitsu (which in 2008 changed to Checkmat).

In October 2016, Crivelari decided to return to competition in full force. That same year, after con- quering the South American title, Juninho traveled to Europe where he competed and won the two main tournaments in the continent, the European Open both in the gi and no-gi categories.

After the Europeans, Juninho competed in the United States and won three titles in no-gi (2017- 2019). He decided to stay and live in California teaching for different academies and seminars throughout the US. 

Crivelari relocated to Oregon in October 2020 with one goal in mind, to introduce his jiu jitsu program. In September 2021, he was able to accomplish his goal to establish Checkmat Portland jiu jitsu academy in collaboration with Snap Fitness and Cobra Wrestling in Gresham, Oregon.