Honouring Oli’s Legacy: Open Mat at Roger Gracie Academy HQ

On 23 August 2026, the mats at Roger Gracie Academy HQ in London became the setting for something very special.

Oli’s Roger Gracie teammates came together to organise an Open Mat in support of the Oliver Geddes Foundation. It was a day centred around Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, friendship and community, but above all, it was a beautiful way to remember Oli and continue the legacy he left behind.

For Oli, Jiu-Jitsu was so much more than a sport. It was a huge part of his life. The friendships, the training, the challenges, the shared hours on the mats and the community surrounding the sport meant an incredible amount to him. Seeing his teammates come together in the place where so many of those memories were created made this Open Mat particularly meaningful.

The Oliver Geddes Foundation exists because of Oli and the values he believed in. Our mission is to support martial arts gyms facing financial hardship due to illness, unforeseen circumstances or other challenges. Alongside financial assistance, we aim to provide advice and guidance to help gyms build a stable and sustainable future.

At the heart of that mission is something Oli understood very well: a martial arts gym is much more than a place to train. It is a community. It is where friendships are formed, people support one another and individuals find somewhere they belong.

That is exactly what was reflected at Roger Gracie Academy HQ on 23 August.

We are incredibly grateful to Oli’s teammates for organising the Open Mat, to Roger Gracie Academy for supporting the event, and to every person who stepped onto the mats, donated, supported the Foundation or simply came along to be part of the day.

Your support means more than we can properly put into words.

There is something incredibly powerful about seeing the community Oli loved continuing to stand behind him, his values and what the Foundation is trying to achieve. Every roll, every conversation, every donation and every person who showed up helped keep his memory present on the mats.

Oli’s legacy lives on through the people whose lives he touched, through the Jiu-Jitsu community he was so deeply connected to, and through the work of the Oliver Geddes Foundation.

Thank you to Oli’s Roger Gracie teammates for keeping his spirit alive and for helping us turn his legacy into something that can support martial arts communities for years to come.