Mason Fowler is an American jiu-jitsu black belt from Fresno, California, who competes for the Caio Terra Association (CTA). He held the Submission Underground absolute title and in 2025 became the first UFC BJJ light-heavyweight champion. His Instagram covers competition, training and coaching.
Background
Fowler was born in Fresno in January 1992 or 1993; Wikipedia's sources disagree on the year. He started MMA training at Thrive MMA at 18 and went 5–0 as an amateur and 2–0 as a professional before stopping to focus on jiu-jitsu. Caio Terra promoted him to black belt on the podium of the IBJJF World Championship on 12 December 2021. His lineage runs through Paulo Maurício Strauch and Reylson Gracie to Carlos Gracie.
Competition highlights
- Colored belts: IBJJF World titles at purple (2018) and brown (2021), plus No-Gi Worlds, Europeans and Pans titles at purple and brown.
- ADCC: won the West Coast Trials in 2019 and the East Coast Trials in 2021, then competed at ADCC 2019 and 2022.
- Black belt: ultra-heavyweight gold at the 2022 Brazilian Nationals and the 2023 Europeans.
- Submission Underground: absolute champion from July 2020.
- UFC: won the UFC Fight Pass Invitational 3 absolute tournament in December 2022 and the inaugural UFC BJJ light-heavyweight title on 31 July 2025.
Notable matches
- Craig Jones: Craig Jones submitted him in the ADCC 2019 quarter-final. Fowler beat Jones in EBI overtime at SUG 16 in July 2020 to take the SUG absolute title, then won the rematch at SUG 17 the same way.
- Ryan Bader, SUG 20: armbar on the MMA veteran at 1:39 of the main event.
- Haisam Rida, UFC FPI 5: kimura on Rida, who replaced Gordon Ryan after Ryan withdrew.
- David Garmo, UFC BJJ 2: first-round rear-naked choke.
- Nick Rodriguez, UFC FPI 7: a points loss.
Coaching and content
Fowler was the grappling coach for Team Sonnen on The Ultimate Fighter 33. He has also been a guest on the Chewjitsu podcast. Follower counts are curated snapshots, not live data.