About david Cainas

I was born on June 24, 1996, in Tampa, Florida. In 2008 at age 12 I began training MMA at Gracie Tampa under the instruction of Professor Rob Kahn. Since my beginnings, I trained with the adults because I was considered too big to train with children my age. That gave me an advantage over the other youngsters in competitions and allowed me to place first in multiple BJJ tournaments, giving me the nickname “prodigy”; I also had the opportunity to compete in several Muay Thai fights. According to my parents, the only thing missing in my training was the sport of Judo, which I immediately wanted to try.

In 2009 I began my journey in the Judo world training under Sensei Jose Fonseca. After almost 2 years of training, Sensei Fonseca suffered a knee injury that forced him to have surgery and be out of the sport for a while.

In 2011 a World-Class Japanese Champion named Shinjiro Sasaki was brought over from Japan by Tampa Bay area residents, Hugh and Kayoko Hickman, Sensei Fonseca saw this to be perfect for me to train high-level Judo and told me I could not miss the opportunity.

After a full year of training under Sensei Shinjiro Sasaki he relocated to Orlando which left me without a dojo (Judo Gym) to train in, but thanks to Sensei Fonseca’s speedy recovery from knee surgery, I and Sensei joined forces once again and under the blessing of Professor Rob Kahn, Gracie Tampa Judo was born. Although teaching the arts of Judo and BJJ, I still train Judo with the best of the best, three x’s Olympian and mentor Sensei Dr. Rhadi Ferguson.

Due to my hard training and great mentors, I was part of the USA Judo Cadet Elites and had the honor of representing the United States in the Harnes France Judo International Tournament in the year 2011 with only 2 years in the sport, making it to the quarter-finals. I have competed and obtained extraordinary results not only in Judo but BJJ in GI and No-GI modalities. Aside from being a USA Judo Certified Coach a few of my achievements are:

• 2016 Silver Medal @ USA Judo Nat’l Scholastic and Collegiate Open

• 2014 5th Place USA Judo Nationals (Judo)

• 2012 Florida Open Gold Medalist (Judo)

• 2012 USA Judo Youth and Scholastic Bronze Medalist (Judo)

• 2011 Florida State Gold Medalist/State Champion (Judo)

• 2011 Junior US Open Bronze Medalist (Judo)

• 2011 NAGA Pan Am Silver Medalist (higher weight division) (Bjj)

• 2011, 2010 MMAC Champion (Bjj)

• 2010 Grappler’s Quest Champion Gi and No-Gi (Bjj)

• 2010, 2009 Copa America Nationals Champion Gi and No-Gi (Bjj)

• 2009 NAGA Champion Gi and No-Gi (Bjj)

Although I took over teaching at Gracie Tampa Judo since 2012, I continued and continue to compete in BJJ and Judo and dream of being able to represent the USA in the Olympics and in BJJ World Tournaments. I was the USA Judo Coach of the Year 2015 and Coach of the Month of November 2015. I hold a Nidan (2nd degree) rank in Judo, also a Black belt and Professor in BJJ, USJF Judo National Certified Coach, Nage-No-Kata Instructor C, CPR Certified, USOC-Team USA Safe Sport Training Certified, CDC’s Heads Up! Concussion in Youth Sports Certified.

Today I have the honor of being a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo Professor/Instructor at Gracie Tampa South MMA Academy and I have successfully developed and teach the Judo program at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida.