JT Torres

Jonathan Torres, better known as JT Torres, is an American Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and submission grappler of Puerto Rican descent. Born on September 2, 1989 in New York, he began martial arts through karate, earning a karate black belt before high school and also getting early wrestling exposure in Rockland County. After leaving karate and being cut from his high-school basketball team, he tried the small Brazilian jiu-jitsu program at his old martial-arts school and quickly became hooked, earning his blue belt within months.

Torres built his early competitive base across the Northeast. He trained locally in New Jersey, traveled to BJJ United in Philadelphia to learn around Wilson Reis and Jared Weiner, and later joined Louis Vintaloro at Performance BJJ, where he earned his purple and brown belts in under three years. As a colored belt he became a Pan American medalist and title winner, then sought a full-time competition room at Team Lloyd Irvin in Maryland. Lloyd Irvin promoted him to black belt in 2009, when Torres was still 19, making him one of the young American black belts to break through during an era still heavily dominated by Brazilian lightweights.

His black-belt career blended gi and no-gi success before his ADCC peak. Torres won IBJJF No-Gi Worlds in 2013, took IBJJF World Championship silver in the gi in 2014, won the IBJJF European Open and Pan Championship in 2015, and later added another Pan title in 2018. In 2013, amid the public Team Lloyd Irvin scandal, Torres and several teammates left Maryland; he moved to San Diego to train under Andre Galvao at Atos, a transition that refined his professional environment while preserving the pressure-heavy, grip-dominant style that gave him the nickname Spiderman.

ADCC became the center of Torres' legacy. After qualifying through the North American Trials and reaching the 2011 quarterfinals, he earned bronze at 77 kg in 2013. In 2017 in Espoo, Finland, he defeated Lachlan Giles, Celso Vinicius, Garry Tonon, and Lucas Lepri, beating Lepri 3-0 in a 30-minute final to become the first American ADCC 77 kg champion. Two years later in Anaheim he repeated the feat, defeating Ross Nicholls, DJ Jackson, Garry Tonon, and Vagner Rocha, using wrestling, body-lock pressure, and back control to secure a second straight 77 kg gold.

Torres opened Essential Jiu-Jitsu in White Plains, New York, in 2016 and proved that he could win at the highest level while running his own academy. FloGrappling later highlighted how both ADCC gold medals came while he was directing his own training and teaching full time. Essential's public profile describes him as a 4th-degree black belt and 2x ADCC world champion; Jits Magazine reported that Andre Galvao promoted him to fourth degree in 2023. In later seasons Torres remained active in elite no-gi, returning at ADCC 2022 and 2024, while continuing to teach a pressure-passing, wrestling-aware, back-taking system through Essential, seminars, and instructionals.