Instructors

Master Carlos Gracie Jr. is a man ahead of his time. Son of Grand Carlos Gracie Sr., he has used his unique visionary skills to create two of the worlds largest and most important Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Organizations: the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) and Gracie Barra. As founder and current Chairman of both institutions, he has channeled his entrepreneurship to take our sport to the next level allowing thousands of individuals across the five continents to experience the ‘Gentle Art’ as students, instructors, or competitors.

Professor Vinicius Draculino Magalhaes is the head instructor of Gracie Barra Texas and Gracie Barra – BH Schools (more info about GBBH at jjbh.com). With more then 17 years of teaching experience, he is a primary example of a man who is fully dedicating his life to his Children ( JADE and IGOR), his wife ( Monica), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Gracie Barra and its members. Prof. Draculino‘s personality, enthusiasm, integrity, charisma and leadership make the essence of GB Texas and GBBH and touch all those around him. A great competition background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Wrestling and MMA qualifies him as one of the best featherweight competitors in BJJ history. He collects many titles such as a 4-time Pan American Champion, 1 time no gi pan american chamion- 2008, 2 Times Brazilian national champion, 2 Times Silver medalist at the world BJJ championships, MMA lightweight champion and Abu-Dhabi veteran. Besides these titles as a competitor, Professor Vinicius is considered one of the best instructors in the BJJ world. Among his students, you will find worlds, Pan Ams, national BJJ champions, more than 78 Black Belts, MMA and Grappling champions. Professor Vinicius is also a Lawyer in Brazil, graduated in the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio De Janeiro), one of the top three Law schools in the country

Gracie Barra Westchase Founder – 2010
Head Jiu-Jitsu Professor

Professor Ulpiano Malachias was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1979 and has been involved in athletics and Martial Arts in particular almost from the beginning. He began training and competing in Judo at the young age of 4 years old and continued for 10 years, reaching green belt rank. At the age of 17 he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by friend Erik Wanderley, now 4th degree black belt, and has been a dedicated practitioner of the sport ever since.

While living in Brazil, Malachias trained with team Gracie Barra under Professor Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes, now a 5th degree black belt teaching out of Webster, TX. He won many titles competing in Jiu Jitsu and visited The United States in 2003 for the 2nd time to compete in the Jiu Jitsu Pan American Games as a Brown Belt. After his week-long stay, he decided to try his luck at life in southern California. His first experience teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu came at Royce Gracie’s academy, and he was Royce’s training partner for the next 3 years, which proved to be an invaluable experience.

As a brown belt, he trained at Gracie Barra Lake Forest, in Orange County, California, under Professor Marcio Feitosa and Master Carlos Gracie Jr. His years of hard work and dedication to the sport paid off when he received his black belt from Master Carlos Gracie Jr. in 2006, which gave him the opportunity to also teach at the Gracie Barra Headquarters.

Coming full circle in his Jiu Jitsu career, in 2007 Malachias opened his own Gracie Barra Academy, in Santa Ana, California, which was the first Gracie Barra Premium School in the United States. He is extremely dedicated to his academy and his students and thrives on giving back to them all the great things that Jiu Jitsu has given him.

Ulpiano works hard every day striving to improve his teaching skills, his students’ Jiu Jitsu knowledge, as well as continuously improving his own knowledge and skill and training and competing as much as possible. Furthermore, he is a certified International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation referee and has served as referee in countless IBJJF tournaments, including some widely watched finals.

He also enjoys training Muai-Thai, Boxing, MMA, and wrestling in his free time. Malachias tried his hand professional MMA Fight in 2009, one fight submitting his opponent just 42 seconds into the first round. Hes has taken pride in spreading the knowledge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to anyone interested, hoping it will bring them as much happiness and fulfillment in their life as it has for him.

His main focus has been his move to the Houston area in 2010 where he opened a 3,000 sqft Gracie Barra Franchised Location in the Westchase area, just west of the Galleria. In 2011, the Gracie Barra Westchase location was expanded by 2,500 sqft with the addition of a Mixed Martial Arts facility to include classes for cardio kickboxing, muay thai, wrestling, capoeira and MMA. The Gracie Barra Westchase location now is home to 400+ students.

Ulpiano and team are expanding in summer of 2016 to a new, larger facility to continue to grow his academy and legacy for his students.

Main Achievements as Ibjjf black belt

• Asian Champion (2006)
• American National Champion weight division (2004, 2005, 2008)
• American Nation Champion Open Division black belt (2008)
• Pan American Championship Silver Medal (2010)
• Pan American Championship Bronze Medal (2011, 2005, 2004)
• World Nogi Bronze Medal black belt (2008)
• European Championship Bronze Medal (2007)
• European Championship Silver Medal (2009)
• Houston Open Champion (2013)
• Houston Open Silver medal (2014)
• Houston Open Silver medal Open Divison (2014)
• Dallas open Silver Medal (2011)
• Dallas Open Championship Bronze Medal (2013, 2014)

See IBJJF.com for a list of titles held as a Brazilian jiu jitsu competitor. (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation)

My name is Pedro Marinho, I was born and raised in Angra dos Reis, Rio De Janeiro on October 9, 1996. I started to train Jiu Jitsu in November of 2013 as a hobby with a couple of friends. After two years of training, realizing how involved I was and what a passion I had for the sport, I decided to stop attending college and quit my job to try to make a career in Jiu Jitsu. It was not easy due to the fact that I did not have the financial resources to support my dream which proved to be very costly, but I always remained confident in myself and I was prepared for it to be tough.

In order to pursue this path, I was selling candy door to door in my city, I worked in my local flea market, and I preformed security jobs here and there to help financially support myself when I was not training and competing.

In 2018, I won my 6th Brazilian National IBJJF Title competing inside Brazil, additionally I became the 2018 IBJJF World Champion No-Gi in my weight class and took home 3rd place in the open weight class division, in 2019, I won the Open Class at IBJJF NOGI Pan American and won my second World Title at 2019 NOGI World Championship. Also I compete the ADCC 2019.

Now I have a chance to live in the United States and even more intensely focus on my future as a Jiu Jitsu competitor and became a black belt world champion.

Youth BJJ Coach & Program Director

Arezou Rastegar began training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in July of 2011 as a student under Professor Ulpiano Malachias at Gracie Barra Westchase along with her (at the time) 10 year old son. She began training as a way to enjoy a sport together with her son and to learn some self-defense. Pretty quickly she fell in love with the art and also lost 20lbs training! She now trains Wrestling and Cardio Kickboxing as well as BJJ and is a huge motivation for new and existing students to achieve their fitness and mixed martial arts related goals. After about 1 year of training, she took a position as the Youth Coach and Program Director here at GBW and has become a valuable team member since. She is also a certified Gracie Barra coach. Every day she does her upmost best to bring jiu-jitsu and fitness into people’s lives for the better. She is now our top youth and women’s coach and our go-to person for newcomers and experienced grapplers alike to make them feel a part of the GBW family!

Coach Arezou seeks to share the knowledge of the world-class professors she has had the pleasure of learning from to help guide students to fulfill their potential both on and off the mats.

“Before I discovered Jiu-Jitsu, I was overweight with no motivation to exercise. Believe me when I say: ‘this sport saved my life.’ This school is now my home away from home and I want to give that feeling to all our students.”

Youth & Adult Wrestling Coach
Cardio Kickboxing Instructor
Lead Program Director

Coach Servando’s Mixed Martial Arts interest began at a young age, as he has been wrestling since age 9. For the past 4 years he’s trained wrestling religiously with Brandon Mullins (GB Webster) and GBW’s own Babak Norzad.

He began working with us at GBW when our MMA program opened in 2012 and has been a valuable and highly dedicated member of our staff ever since. In 2012, he won his debut MMA fight at Cage Combat 11, earning him knockout of the year with a 5 second KO. He trains daily in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as well and is a Brown Belt under Professor Ulpiano Malachias at GB Westchase and has been practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for 7 years total beginning under Professors Ted Stickle (GB Katy) and now at GBW since 2012.

He also teaches many of our Cardio Kickboxing classes on a weekly basis which our students very much so enjoy and see great results with his class structure. He is very dedicated to our wrestling program and you can find him leading or assistant coaching to Babak Norzad in all of our wrestling classes.

He is our go-to staff member here at Gracie Barra Westchase and we’re very lucky to have him!