Alliance Jiu - Jitsu Boise

Eagle · East Boise · Allianceboise.org

Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Boise · Student Guide

The Alliance Story

The most decorated Jiu-Jitsu team in history — and why its cofounding family chose Boise, Idaho.

The Beginning

Founded in 1993, Built to win

In 1993, four Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts — Romero "Jacaré" Cavalcanti, Alexandre "Gigi" Paiva, Fabio Gurgel, and Fernando Gurgel — merged their separate academies under one name: Alliance. The original goal was straightforward: stop having their own students compete against each other at tournaments.

What started as a simple organizational decision became the most successful team in the history of the sport. Within just a few years, Alliance set the technical and competitive standard for professional JiuJitsu worldwide.

Alliance won 9 consecutive IBJJF World Team Championships from 2008 to 2016 — plus titles in 1998, 1999, and back-to-back in 2024 and 2025, securing their 15th title. In 2010, the team achieved what no organization had done before or since: winning the European, Pan American, and World Championships in the same calendar year — the Triple Crown. When you train at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Boise , you train under that same banner.

The Man Behind Alliance Boise

Master Alexandre "GIGI" Paiva — Here in Boise

Alexandre "Gigi" Paiva began training Jiu-Jitsu in 1983 under Master Romero "Jacaré" Cavalcanti in Rio de Janeiro — training an average of 8 hours a day. He earned his black belt in 1991 and co-founded Alliance two years later alongside Jacaré, Fabio Gurgel, and Fernando Gurgel.

An IBJJF World Champion and 7th Degree Coral Belt, Master Gigi is one of the founding pillars of the most successful team in Jiu-Jitsu history. For decades he led Alliance Rio de Janeiro before making a deliberate and personal choice: relocate his family to Boise, Idaho , and build something lasting in the American West.

His presence here is not a franchise arrangement. Master Gigi moved to Idaho personally — he lives here, coaches here, and is on the mat alongside his family and students every day. When you train at Alliance Eagle or Alliance East Boise , you are training under the direct guidance of one of the people who built this sport.

• Co-Founder, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu (1993)
• 7th Degree Coral Belt
• IBJJF World Champion
• Husband of Prof. Daniela Genovesi — IBJJF Black Belt World Champion (2000)
• 25+ years of head coaching experience
• Head of Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Boise — Eagle & East Boise, Idaho

Next Generation

Professor Victor Genovesi — Head Coach, Alliance East Boise

Victor Genovesi is the eldest son of Master Gigi Paiva and Professor Daniela Genovesi. He grew up immersed in the Alliance system — shaped by two World Champions and surrounded by the team's methodology from childhood. He was promoted to black belt by Master Alexandre Paiva himself, and went on to earn his own IBJJF World Championship title as a competitor

With over 13 years of black belt experience, Victor is not only a coach — he is an active elite-level athlete who continues competing at the highest levels of Jiu-Jitsu while leading Alliance East Boise day to day. His approach reflects both competitive rigor and the patient, student-centered philosophy that defines Alliance's culture at every level.

The knowledge passed from Jacaré to Gigi — and from Gigi to Victor — is now passed directly to every student who trains at Alliance East Boise . That continuity of instruction is not incidental. It is exactly the point.

When you train at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Boise — Eagle or East Boise — your direct line of instruction runs: Maeda → Gracie → Rolls → Jacaré → Gigi → Victor. World-class Jiu-Jitsu, in your neighborhood, taught by the family that built it

— Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Boise · Eagle & East Boise