These prestigious homegrown Canadian black belts were directly
trained and promoted by Marcus Soares.
Marcus has given away many black belts throughout his 30+ years of teaching. As head of the Carlson Gracie main camp in Rio he has given and promoted many fighters to black belt but always under the Carlson Gracie name.
When Marcus moved to Vancouver and started his own club, he finally was able to give black belts under his own name but always under the Carlson Gracie system.
Below are the black belts of Marcus Soares who fight under him and the Carlson Gracie name.
Denis Kang, promoted on July 2004
Omar Salvosa, promoted on September 2005
Stephan Kesting, promoted on December 2006
Vlado Skrepnik, promoted on December 2006
Adam Zugec, promoted on March 2008
Mark Stables, promoted on June 2008
Maurice Parry, promoted on November 2009
Clint 'Sanguebom' Allert, promoted on August 2010
Troy Scheer promoted on October 2010
Tom Montes promoted on November 2010
Mike Hong promoted on June 2011
Jason Parry promoted on November, 15 2011
Eric Boutilier promoted on November, 15 2011
Denis Kang, promoted on July 2004
When Marcus Soares first moved to Vancouver to set up his Braziliam Jiu-jitsu club one of his first students was Denis Kang. He is Marcus' first BJJ black belt outside of Brazil in his own club.
Over the last 10 years Denis has competed in the following organizations, Bas Rutten Invitational, UCC, USMMA, Super Brawl, TKO, Pancrase, IFC, World Freestyle Fighting, M-1 MFC Russia, Spirit MC, AFC, PRIDE Bushido, K-1, Dream, Raw Combat and UFC.
Marcus is Denis Kang's mentor and Marcus corners Kang in every fight he fights in.
Professional record breakdown: 47 matches 32 wins 12 losses
Omar Salvosa, promoted on September 2005
Omar Salvosa is a 5 time national champion under the Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Association and has represented Canada internationally in both grappling and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competition.
He is a 2 time Gold medalist as the Lightweight competitor for Team Canada at the World Kobudo Grappling Championships.
Omar is known as one of Ontario’s pioneer students of BJJ and grappling, alongside standout colleagues Carlos Newton, Jeff Joslin, Mark Bocek and other highly skilled competitors actively practicing today.
Salvosa is a Marcus’ BJJ senior representative of the Carlson Gracie Team in Ontario and runs his own club Ascension in Scarborough, Ontario.
He received his black belt from Marcus in 2005.
Stephan Kesting, promoted on December 2006
Stephan Kesting got his black belt in December 2006 and is the owner of Grapplearts.com.
Kesting is one of Marcus’ best black belt and has over 25 years of martial arts training. He is an instructor in Erik Paulson's Combat Submission Wrestling and Dan Inosanto's Jun Fan JKD, Maphalindo Silat, and Filipino Martial Arts program.
Kesting has used his knowledge from Marcus and since 2002 he has released a series of best-selling instructional DVDs covering a wide range of topics.
Vlado Skrepnik, promoted on December 2006
Vlado Skrepnik got his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Marcus on December 2006. He is a training partner of Denis Kang and is widely considered one of the best BJJ fighters Marcus has ever seen.
Vlado is a firefighter by trade and has even been on the Vancouver firefighter’s calendar.
Vlado has won many titles and is one of Vancouver's best black belt.
Adam Zugec, promoted on March 2008
Adam Zugec got his black belt from Marcus on March 2008. He moved to the west coast in 1998 where he started training with Marcus Soares (Carlson Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), until he earned his coveted black belt.
Adam has started one of the most successful MMA club in Victoria BC and is now the first, and only, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt on Vancouver Island.
His MMA club is called Zuma which is a combination of Adam’s last name and Marcus’s first name and has started building a big reputation as a world class trainer training the likes of Ryan Ford and Strikeforce women’s champion Sarah Kaufman.
Mark Stables, promoted on June 2008
Mark Stables is the owner of Mecca Martial Arts in Toronto Ontario and received his black belt from Marcus on June 2008
Stables has been studying various martial arts for over 20 years and is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Marcus Soares of the Carlson Gracie Team.
Stables competing in the 2004 Copa Do Mundo (World Cup) in Brazil where he took home a bronze medal in the master division roxa, light heavyweight.
Mark is a great instructor and his classes are well-rounded with a solid emphasis on the clinch, throws, takedowns and ground fighting.
Maurice Parry, promoted on November 2009
Maurice Parry has been training with Marcus for over 10 years and has competed in some of the best tournaments around the world. By trade he is a RCMP police officer.
Clint 'Sanguebom' Allert, promoted on August 2010
Clint 'Sanguebom' Allert received his black belt on August 2010. On a trip to Ontario Marcus Soares surprised Allert with a black belt. Allert owns and operates the Sanguebom Burlington Academy of Martial Arts in Ontario Canada which he took over in in August 2003.
Sanguebom also hold's a Black Belt in Japanese Jiu Jitsu which focuses heavily on effective methods of Self Defense in close quarter conditions and is a certified personal trainer.
Since taking over and running the club Allert has skillfully orchestrated a strong team to represent Burlington in the GTA as well as internationally.
His team has been fortunate to remain 9-0 in MMA competition in 2009.
Troy Scheer, promoted on October 2010
Tory Scheer is Marcus’ 10th BJJ black belt and is the official representative of the world renowned Marcus Soares and Carlson Gracie Team in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. He runs Scheer’s Martial Arts which was established in 1967, is one of the longest running Martial Arts schools in Western Canada.
In addition to his BJJ black belt Scheer was certified under Grandmaster Thosaphon Sitawatjana better known as Grandmaster Toddy in 1997.
His program has produced many successful Champions including 1 World Title holder, 3 Canadian Title holders, 3 Western Canadian Title holders, 4 Provincial Title holders and 5 WKA Canadian Golden Glove Champions.
Tony has built a strong MMA, kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu team in Saskatchewan.
Tom Montes, Promoted on November 2010
Tom Montes is one of Marcus Soares’ fastest black belts and got his black belt in just 8 years. Montes received his black belt on November 1, 2010.
He is one of Vancouver best BJJ practitioners and has done MMA in the past.
Montes has won many titles in the local BJJ scene and is a multiple Pan Am competitor and a Gracie Open tournament champion winner.
Mike Hong, Promoted on June 2011
Michael was introduced to the Brazilian style of Jiu-Jitsu by some fellow students about 12 years ago. He was immediately fascinated with the efficiency and effectiveness of the "gentle art".
He's never stopped learning and training BJJ since. Over the years Michael has competed and medalled in various BJJ, grappling, and submission wrestling tournaments, in addition to fighting professional MMA competition.
Michael is also the owner of BAMA with his longtime friend and mentor, Clint Allert and supports his efforts in building a strong BJJ and MMA team to represent the Carlson Gracie/Marcus Soares Canada Team.
Jason Parry, Promoted on November 15, 2011
Not to be out done by his older brother, Jason started training with Marcus in 2001.
He was very busy in the local competition scene, collecting medals in over 10 tournaments as a white and blue belt.
As a purple belt he has 6 international medals, collecting gold at the Asian Open, Pan Ams and World No Gi Championships. Also collecting two Bronze in the Naga tournaments.
Jason received his brown belt while training in Rio at the original Carlson Gracie gym in 2009. As a brown Belt he won gold in the 2011 Pan Ams. When he got his black belt, Jason and Mo became the first brother Jiu Jitsu black belts in Canada.
Eric Boutilier, Promoted on November 15, 2011
Born Nov 01, 1974 and raised in White Rock BC, Eric
started kick boxing in high school.
He started MMA/Muay-Thai/BJJ in 1998 and began training with Marcus Soares in 2002 when he brought Carlson Gracie
BJJ to the school in Langley where Eric was teaching at.
Being skilled in both striking and grappling Eric has helped many MMA fighters such as Todd Gouwenberg and Tyler "TNT" Jackson train for their MMA fights in Bodog and King of the Cage.
Eric has competed in various tournaments and placed silver at the 2011 Las Vegas NAGA Masters Expert cruiser weight division.
