Mauricio Zingano was born in Rio De Janeiro Brazil in 1976. When he was 16 years old, his family moved to the U.S. where Mauricio was introduced to Jiu Jitsu by his brother Marco, who had gone to aviation school with one of Rickson’s Gracie top instructors, Luis Heredia.

Mauricio began training along with his brother at Rickson Gracie's academy in
Santa Monica, CA in 1993. After 1 year training with Rickson, Mauricio started to attend classes at the Gracie Academy in Carson, Ca.

Mauricio was awarded his blue belt by Royce Gracie and also started to learn how to teach Jiu Jitsu to other students. Soon after Mauricio started to receive private lessons from Helio Gracie not only Jiu Jitsu but also in how to teach the art, being one of very few people in world to receive this privilege.

Throughout the few years Mauricio successfully competed in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournaments and Mixed Martial Arts competitions and became one of the so called “Gate Keepers” of the Gracie Academy fighting numerous times in “Challenge Matches” against practitioners of other styles of Martial Arts who wanted to test their skills against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Around 1996 the Gracie Academy brought a famous instructor from Brazil to help with the heavy class schedule at the time. His name was Carlos “Caique” Elias.

Mauricio won the 1998 Gracie National Jiu Jitsu Championships and was awarded his purple belt by Royce Gracie soon after.

At the time Royce was very busy teaching numerous seminars throughout the country leaving Caique in charge of all the classes and making him the head instructor at the Gracie Academy.
Eventually after a few years teaching at the Gracie Academy Caique felt it was time to move on his own and opened his school. With the support of his friends and students he opened his academy in 2001 in Carson, Ca.

With his newly awarded brown belt, Mauricio started to really focus on teaching and successfully coached several students to win many Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts tournaments along with Professor Caique.Mauricio continue his training for the next years and eventually received the rank of Black Belt from Professor Caique in 2004.

Professor Zingano currently teaches full time at his school in Broomfield, Colorado and is also the president and founder of the Rocky Mountain Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation. With the Federation, Professor Zingano started to promote BJJ and grappling tournaments in Colorado and continue his commitment to the sport and to the growth of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the state of Colorado.