Thompson, for whom Machado has served as BJJ coach.
He holds a special connection with the latter because the
martial artist is, in fact, his brother-in-law.
Machado began conducting seminars for Thompson’s
father Ray at his South Carolina karate school 20 years
ago. “He was already doing some jiu-jitsu training down
there,” Machado recalled. “I had a student who moved
there and began doing karate with him, and he arranged
for me to do a seminar in 1997. It became a tradition for
me to go there a couple of times a year and teach. Ray
became my student, but I didn’t meet his daughter Lind-
say till three or four years later because she was going
to college at the time. I finally met her in 2000. She was
pretty good at karate, too, and beat Stephen until he was
about 15.
“Anyway, we just started dating and ended up getting
married. I’ll tell you that in jiu-jitsu, you meet the most awe-
some people — even your wife, if you don’t watch out!”
Mark Jacobs is a freelance writer and martial artist
based in New York. For more information, visit his website
maworldreport.com. For more information about Carlos
Machado, visit carlosmachadojiujitsu.com.
In jiu-jitsu, you
survive, then you
equalize, then you
capitalize. After
you survive, you
can create space,
rotate, escape.”
13OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 BLACKBELTMAG.COM 43