Rida Haisam

Rida Haisam is a native of Ghana and a grappling pro athlete who earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Yuki Ishikawa, founder of Japan’s Carpe Diem Academy. Haisam made himself noticed as a brown belt, after a fantastic performance at the ‘Quintet: Grappling Team Survival Match II’ event, where he submitted 4 well-known black belts, he would later cement his status as one of the top African BJJ competitors.

Rida Haisam Jiu-Jitsu

Full Name: Rida Haisam Isaac

Nickname: Haisam was named ‘Giraffe’ by his training partners due to his lanky body frame (1,93m / 6’3″).

Lineage: Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti (Jacaré) > Alexandre Paiva (Gi-gi) > Mitsuyoshi Hayakawa > Yuki Ishikawa > Rida Haisam

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place IBJJF American Nationals NOGI (2020 / 2021)
• 1st Place Quintet Fight Night II (2019)
• 2nd Place Quintet II Challenge (2018)
• 3rd Place IBJJF American Nationals NOGI (2020*)
• 3rd Place WNO Championships (2021)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• IBJJF Asian Open Champion (2018**)
• JBJJF All Japan Champion (2017/2018**)
• UAEJJF Grand Slam Tokyo 2nd Place (2017 brown)
• IBJJF European Open 3rd Place (2018 brown)
• UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro 3rd Place (2018 brown)

* Absolute
** Weight and absolute

Favorite Position/Technique: Kneebar

Weight Division: Peso Pesado (94,30 kg / 208.0 lbs)

Team/Association: Assembly Jiu-Jitsu

Rida Haisam Biography

Rida Haisam was born on July 25, 1993, in Accra – the capital of Ghana, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, where he spent his formative years.

While growing up Rida’s sporting interests lied in football (soccer) and basketball, two sports Haisam played competitively from elementary to high school. These activities were stopped short in 2009 after his father’s services were hired by a Japanese construction company, and the family moved to Tokyo.

During their stay in Japan, the Rida family became close with Haisam’s father’s overseer, a man who was also a jiu-jitsu enthusiast and BJJ coach. It was he who introduced the young Ghana talent to the martial art in 2011, an activity Haisam fell in love with from the very start.

Yamada Shigetaka became Haisam’s first jiu-jitsu instructor and the man who graded Rida with his blue (2012), purple (2014), and brown belts (2016). As a brown belt, however, the heavyweight athlete decided to take a step towards professionalism and looking to train in a more competitive atmosphere he left Yamada’s dojo and joined Yuki Ishikawa’s well-known Carpe Diem Academy, a gym famed for housing some of the top competitors in Japan. It was while training under Ishikawa that Rida earned his black belt, on September 15, 2018.

While pursuing the best competitive circuit to advance his career, in November 2020, Haisam decided to break from his Tokyo bond of 11 years and relocate to compete in the US for the Assembly Academy, located in Detroit.

The individual’s grappling record feature available on BJJ Heroes relates solely to matches in the adult black belt divisions. At the time of Rida’s first appearance at Quintet, he was a brown belt, and therefore those matches are not accounted for on this list.

Rida Haisam vs Erikson Takeushi (2017)