Lloyd Irvin has been a former Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion since 2005, and has run his own martial arts school since 1996. After successfully finding a new way to market online to gain more students into his school, Lloyd Irvin has produced several world champions and even a UFC champion. Now, after four years of being absent from Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions, Lloyd Irvin stepped back into competition last February with an impressive showing.

Lloyd Irvin ended up competing in the Senior 1 Super Heavy Black Belt Division, and received a gold medal at the recent No-Gi World Championships in Long Beach, California. His team, Team Lloyd Irvin, picked up a total of 12 gold medals.

“Our team had built up big expectations ahead of the No-Gi Worlds and I thought throwing my hat into the ring with them and telling them I was going to get back in shape and ready to battle alongside them would be very motivational. The team result was fantastic and my own gold medal was the icing on the cake,” Lloyd Irvin said about entering this competition after a four-year absence.

After his four-year break from competition, Lloyd Irvin had a lot of training to do. Lloyd Irvin had to lose 31 pounds in less than five months, all at age 43. Lloyd Irvin says that stepping up his training led to this weight loss and readiness to be able to grab the gold medal in this competition.

“I was very happy with the team’s overall performance and we achieved great success across different belts and genders. We can always improve more and we will be working hard to make sure that happens. We have big ambitions for the 2013 season with many of the team chasing gold at various levels,” Lloyd Irvin said about his team’s success.