BJJ patriarch Pedro Valente Jr. reveals how a White House jiu-jitsu story sparked UFC's historic event

Pedro Valente Jr. holds a distinction no one else in mixed martial arts can claim: he was in the building at UFC 1 in Denver in 1993 and again at UFC White House: Freedom 250 in 2026, making him the sole eyewitness to both the sport’s chaotic birth and its arrival on the most prominent stage in American politics.

“It was a unique emotion to see where this sport has come,” Valente told Sherdog. “I couldn’t help but remember the tribute that Rorion [Gracie] paid to his father in the center of the Octagon at UFC 1. The old man would certainly be very emotional to see where it has come.”

Valente is the eldest son of Pedro Valente Sr. (1938–2016), one of the most respected disciples of Gracie jiu-jitsu founder Helio Gracie. Together with his brothers Joaquim and Guilherme, he runs the Valente Brothers Jiu-Jitsu academy in Miami — a school whose student roster includes children and grandchildren of President Donald Trump, as well as the children of Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen. Gisele married the youngest Valente brother, Joaquim, in December 2025.

It was that personal connection to the Trump family that ultimately led to the UFC’s White House debut, and the origin story is rooted in a piece of presidential history. During a conversation at the academy with Jared and Ivanka Kushner, Valente recounted how President Theodore Roosevelt organised a fight at the White House in 1904 between American boxing and wrestling champion Joe Grant and judo master Yoshitsugu Yamashita, a student of judo founder Jigoro Kano.

“After seeing [Yamashita] submit the much larger American several times, Roosevelt sent a letter to his son, Kermit, telling him what he had witnessed,” Valente explained. “[Yamashita] had easily dominated the American, even though he was much smaller, but that if Americans learned [judo] they would be superior. Ivanka was impressed by this story, which happened 120 years ago; she’s brilliant.”

According to Valente, Ivanka relayed the story to her father, and the chain of events moved quickly from there. “They called Dana White and that’s how the idea for this UFC at the White House came about,” he said.

The Valente brothers have long been regarded as the primary custodians of Helio Gracie’s self-defense-first philosophy — a deliberate counterpoint to the sport-oriented competitive jiu-jitsu that dominates the United States today. Their Miami academy even houses a small museum in its basement dedicated to Master Helio’s legacy.

“We ended up creating a bond of friendship beyond the mats, which is why we were invited,” Valente said of the family’s relationship with the Trumps — a bond that, by his account, quietly set in motion one of the most unusual events in UFC history.