Professor Jonnathan Armijos

Grappling runs in Jonnathan’s family. His grandmother trained judo, his father learned to grapple at the police academy back in Ecuador, and both filled his childhood with stories from the mat. His own start, though, was an accident: in 2015 he walked into Renzo Gracie’s Brooklyn academy to buy Muay Thai shorts for a friend, drifted into the wrong room, and got submitted a few times by people he was sure he could overpower. He left salty — and came back the next week. Aside from one stretch when life pulled him away, he hasn’t left since.

That competitive streak never cooled. Jonnathan is the competitor of the room — an avid athlete who trains the way he competes and brings that fire to every class he leads. He pushes his students to the edge of their limits, running rounds as a true competition-ready environment: high pace, live pressure, and honest feedback. It’s the kind of training that forges tournament-tested grapplers.

He found his home on the Soca mats in 2022 and has been a fixture there ever since. If you want to test yourself, his is the mat where you’ll find out what you’re made of.