For many years Leandro Vieira was responsible for sharpening the jiu-jitsu of American Kickboxing Academy athletes, but last year, that partnership came to an end.
“No hard feelings, but basically they changed [plans] after years of partnership,” explained Vieira, brother of the legendary Leonardo Vieira, leader of the Checkmat team. “When they invited me to take care of jiu-jitsu at AKA, there were no plans of having their own jiu-jitsu school so I came with Checkmat. But suddenly they decided to change the plans and built their own jiu-jitsu team.”
Vieira is now working at his own Bay Area gym in Morgan Hill, Calif.