Michael is a second degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under André Galvão, of the elite Atos academy, Michael is widely recognized as one of the most talented competitors of his generation. Michael started making waves in jiu-jitsu’s competitive scene early on, winning his first world title as a blue belt in 2011, he followed his early success winning 2 more “Mundial” gold medals at purple and brown belt, and his victories are far too extensive to read on and on about. In October 2019, Michael moved to Colorado where he founded his own academy alongside fellow Atos teammate, YJ Lee, and they named it Lōgōs Jiu-Jitsu Academy.
I'm gonna be honest this was one of my favorite episodes, there are so many great takeaways I got from it, and I get the sense that you will as well. It became immediately clear that Michael is a highly intelligent, self aware, and present individual. These characteristics manifest themselves in very interesting ways, one of which is that Michael has a very high fight IQ. Not only is he aware of what and how he needs to train and iterate, but he also has earnest respect and reverence for his competition. I feel lucky to have engaged with Michael in a very interesting transitional period in his life, going from single focused competitor to an academy owner/leader role where responsibilities and priorities can vary greatly. Michael is refreshingly calm, candid, and laid back with me and more importantly himself. An important highlight I'd like to make which could get lost is the importance of his father Michael Liera Senior (also a black belt), they seemed to have a very special connection in that Michael Senior exposed Jr to various interests (a lot more than many others have done) only to finally land on BJJ. This type of special mentorship is the foundation of Michaels's greatness thus far, I mean his other instructors were Saulo Ribeiro and Andre Galvao for goodness sake!
Some housekeeping notes, in the episode Michael makes several references to "HQ", which refers to ATOS headquarters in Southern California. Also, just a reminder to please give us a 5 star review on iTunes and check out our Forever White Belt merchandise at https://teespring.com/forever-white-belt, and become a patron by clicking the "Support" button at the https://anchor.fm/foreverwhitebelt/web page, you can also leave us a message on that same page, also Like our Facebook page to get all the latest at https://www.facebook.com/foreverwhitebelt, and check us out on all the socials by searching for Forever White Belt.
