Marcos Flexa
Marcos Flexa is the head instructor of Carlson Gracie Amsterdam. He holds a 6th degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, the highest degree currently held in the Netherlands. He received every belt from blue to black from Master Carlson Gracie himself, and has taught Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Amsterdam since 2004.
Marcos Flexa was the first Carlson Gracie lineage black belt to come to the Netherlands.
The rank, and who awarded it
Marcos Flexa received his black belt from Master Carlson Gracie on 18 November 1997. It was the last of four: Carlson Gracie promoted him through blue, purple, brown and black — every belt, one master, over years of training under him in Rio de Janeiro.
His degrees at black belt were awarded by Master Carlson Gracie Junior, under IBJJF rules. Master Carlson Gracie died in 2006; the degrees that followed came from his son, and the lineage never left the family.
He currently holds the 6th degree.
His full name is Marcos Neves Mello. Flexa is the name he is known by in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and the two appear together as Marcos Flexa Neves Mello.
The certificate shown here is the original, issued by the Liga Carioca de Jiu-Jitsu. It records that Marcos Neves Mello received the black belt on 18 November 1997, conferred by Master Carlson Gracie, and it carries Carlson Gracie's own signature.
Brazil
Marcos Flexa has been teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since 1995 — more than thirty years.
He began teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and self-defense in Brazil that year, and in the same period he assisted his master at the Carlson Gracie academy in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, while Carlson Gracie was alive.
On 21 July 1995, in Rio de Janeiro, Carlson Gracie signed a declaration stating that Marcos Neves Mello was qualified to teach Jiu-Jitsu. It is the document beside this text, and it is dated more than two years before the black belt he received from the same hands on 18 November 1997.
By 1998 he was running his own Carlson Gracie Team academy in Itaquaquecetuba, São Paulo.
In 1999 he travelled to Europe for the first time, to teach a seminar in Germany. He was the first Carlson Gracie black belt to teach a seminar in Germany.
Amsterdam
A second invitation brought him back to Europe in 2001. On that trip he trained and taught in Amsterdam for the first time, and it is the reason he moved: he arrived in the Netherlands in 2003, training and teaching with a small group of volunteers in a rented sports room.
He began teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Amsterdam in 2004.
From 2008 to 2012 he taught as a contracted Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor at the University of Amsterdam's USC Universum Sportcentrum — engaged by the university for his expertise, not renting space from it.
In 2010 he registered the gym with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under the name Carlson Gracie Holland. In December 2012 he took a dedicated space of his own and left the university to give the academy his full attention. At the end of 2013 it reopened under the name it carries today: Carlson Gracie Amsterdam. In January 2025 the academy moved to its current, larger home at Burgemeester de Vlugtlaan 125.
Eighteen black belts
Eighteen black belts have been developed at Carlson Gracie Amsterdam. Several of them now teach at their own academies.
That number is the one measure of a teacher that cannot be bought, franchised or accelerated. It takes roughly a decade per person, and it only happens if students stay.
The academy is not one person
Marcos teaches alongside Professor Olga Lyashevska (3rd degree), who leads Friday evenings, and Professor Desmond van den Berg (3rd degree).
The point of developing instructors is that the academy does not depend on any single one — including him.
Where to check
Every claim on this page is checkable, and we would rather you checked.
Train with us
Never trained before? The Free Trial Class runs on Mondays at 08:00 and 18:00 — free, gi lent, no experience needed. The schedule shows which Mondays.
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