Washington Luis was born on January 26, 1989, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he grew up.

During Washington’s childhood, his family life was filled with turmoil. These tragic circumstances led Mr. Luis Lima down the path of jiu-jitsu, a sport he joined when seeking to learn a combat system to help protect his mother from an abusive relationship. Washington was 10 years old when he started training at the Complexo do Lins social project, where he met BJJ black belts César Guimarães (Casquinha) and Leonardo Ligeirinho.

Washington Luis went from white to black belt training under the supervision of César “Casquinha” Guimarães, the founder of Top Brother, one of the most well-known teams on the Rio de Janeiro circuit. The extensive work with Casquinha earned Luis his black belt rank, in a promotion that took place in 2011.

While training at Top Brother, one of Washington’s most valued training partners was Patrick Gaudio, therefor, when Gaudio decided to switch camps in search of a more competitive training environment, Luis followed him out of the Top Brother academy and into GF Team, where his training was passed on to Júlio César Pereira.

In 2014, after a few years of coming to the USA to compete at the World Championships, Washington Luis was offered a position as a coach in Boston, Massachusetts, working alongside his GFT colleague Robson Mau-Mau, which he accepted. He would later move to Houston, Texas, where he led the team’s affiliate, Paradigm Training Center – Southwest.