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Wisconsin's BJJ story begins with a Costa Rican immigrant in Milwaukee. Henry Matamoros arrived in Wisconsin and built his game inside Salas Martial Arts, training through the Pedro Sauer line — itself running directly back through Rickson and Helio Gracie. In 2006, Matamoros became the state's first BJJ black belt. Eric "Red" Schafer, who had started training at Salas as far back as 1996, was among those shaped by that early Milwaukee ground floor. Schafer earned his own black belt under Pedro Sauer and made nine appearances in the UFC, debuting at UFC 62 in August 2006 with a first-round arm-triangle choke finish. By the early 2010s, Wisconsin could count only a dozen or so black belts statewide — nearly all connected, directly or indirectly, to the Matamoros lineage. That lineage eventually extended north to Kewaskum, where Veritas BJJ produced Sam Nevermann, who became the youngest black belt in Wisconsin when promoted at 24 under John Friedland, a third-degree black belt under Pedro Sauer.

Milwaukee remains the state's gravitational center. Red Schafer's gym anchors the south side. Scott Huston's 360 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu functions as the metropolitan area's primary competition feeder, and its affiliate network stretches northeast to Green Bay Jiu Jitsu, whose competitors have won IBJJF gold at the master level under the Wisconsin 360 banner — including Andy Kazik, who has taken both the NoGi Master 3 Super Heavy and Absolute world titles. Metz's Martial Arts Academy, operating since the late 1990s, introduced BJJ alongside a full MMA curriculum and served as an on-ramp for grapplers across central Wisconsin who then connected with the Matamoros line for deeper development.

Madison functions as the state's second pole. Mark and Sonya Plavcan built Twisted Fitness into one of the state's most decorated academies, both earning black belts under Romero "Jacare" Cavalcanti of Alliance. Mark received his in March 2013 and has collected multiple IBJJF Open gold medals. Sonya, a former chemical engineer at UW-Madison, became the first woman in Wisconsin to earn a BJJ black belt and is now the most decorated female masters black belt in the world — 16 IBJJF Master World Championship titles and 9 Master Pan Championship titles, currently ranked first globally at the Master 6 division. Foundations Jiu Jitsu, a separate Madison academy launched in 2015, represents the Combat Base lineage through Chris and Melissa Haueter, adding another entry point to what has become a genuinely competitive city scene.

The geographic spread is real. Appleton has five registered academies, including Resurgence MMA — the only Carlson Gracie Team affiliate in northeastern Wisconsin. Green Bay's scene runs through 360 affiliation. Smaller cities including Racine, Kenosha, Stevens Point, and Manitowoc all have active academies with tournament pipelines. Training culture across Wisconsin skews practical — competition is taken seriously, and Pura Vida's Milwaukee tournaments grew from 40 competitors in 2008 to well over 150 by 2012, building a local circuit that removed Chicago as the default option. MatMade currently lists 159 gyms across Wisconsin, spanning every corner of the state from the Madison metro to the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Wisconsin

BJJ & Martial Arts in Jefferson, Wisconsin