Luca Atalla - GRACIE Magazine

GRACIE Magazine

At Gracie Barra, Luca was in his element. He successfully competed in Jiu-Jitsu events, winning the title of world champion as a blue belt, and subsequently winning major titles in the other belt classes, between the years 1995 and 2001, when he left competition behind him. Master Carlos Gracie Jr, leader of the Gracie Barra team, before Luca excelled as an athlete under his tutelage, convinced Luca to drop his job and help him in administering the fledgling Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Confederation (CBJJ), as well as the Jornal Gracie newspaper, which would later metamorphose into GRACIE Magazine, of which Luca is CEO .

Less than two years after re-establishing Jornal Gracie, Luca took his journalistic endeavors a step further by quitting the post he held at the CBJJ and launching GRACIE Magazine. He had taken the scathing criticism he received from Ricardo Azoury, a Jiu-Jitsu black belt and founder of Brazil's first independent photography agency (F-4), regarding the issue of Jornal Gracie he produced for the inaugural Jiu-Jitsu World Championships, as a challenge. With the experienced Ricardo Azoury offering guidance, GRACIE Magazine quickly became a credible source of information, bringing news and training material to Jiu-Jitsu fans and practitioners, and sold in newsstands across Brazil, as well as reaching the entire globe via the Graciemag.com website.

In 2002, with a great deal of experience in publishing magazines, Luca and the GRACIEMAG team would launch NOCAUTE magazine, to cover the growing market of mixed martial arts, so that GRACIE Magazine could devote greater space to Jiu-Jitsu instruction and news.

A few months after Luca earned his degree in Journalism with honors at Estácio de Sá University, he saw his long-time dream for his magazine come true, as, in March 2006, the first bilingual issue of GRACIE Magazine was printed with all articles displayed in English and Portuguese, and later the GRACIEMAG.com website was, too.

On April 20 of 2007, Luca married Maria Guillobel Atalla in a ceremony that took place in Rio de Janeiro. They currently live in Hazlet, New Jersey and Luca teaches at Renzo Gracie Holmdel in his spare time.