Derek Cleary

My name is Derek Cleary. I have been a lifelong martial artist, starting with karate at the age of eight. I first got interested in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu after seeing the Ultimate Fighting Championship 6: Clash of the Titans. My friend, Andy Foster, and I started driving to Atlanta around 1997 to train under legendary black belt and founder of Alliance Jiu-jitsu, Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti. Around the time that we had gotten our purple belts, we then veered off into mixed martial arts training. Foster, along with other fighters including Dalton Combatives head coach,Gabe Shupe, went on to have successful mixed martial arts careers on the Atlanta fight scene. I was fortunate enough to train alongside and work as a licensed cornerman for these fighters. Once Foster decided to stop fighting, he took a job as the athletic commissioner for the state of Georgia and is now currently the commissioner of California. He was kind of the glue that held the small stable of fighters we had at the time together. With that, I decided to continue back on my jiu-jitsu journey. I then started training with Tommy Wales in Cleveland, TN where I met Jason Finnell. He had opened an affiliate gym, Veritas Jiu-jitsu in my hometown and was gracious enough to let me train and teach there. At the same time, Mr. Foster wanted to keep me involved in the sport of mixed martial arts, so he had convinced me to study and learn the complex art of judging mixed martial arts fighting. This decision has turned out to be a whirlwind of a ride that I am still on. My decision to judge mixed martial arts contests started at the lowest levels of seedy bars in dangerous parts of towns all the way up to the highest level of the sport, The Ultimate Fighting Championship. My martial arts journey has been unique and sometimes hard to believe. I have been very fortunate to be able to officiate many household names in the fight game and travelled all over the world with all the credit going to martial arts. On June 6th, 2015, I received one of my greatest achievements of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under professor Shawn Hammonds. I have had a lot of martial arts instructors over the years and wouldn’t trade the experiences I have had with all of them for anything. Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in general is a lifestyle and my advice for anyone just starting out would be to…don’t quit and just enjoy the ride. The experiences you will have and the people you will meet will last a lifetime.