Yeah we forgot southern Florida. Certainly there are a number of world champions training there, Abreu among them.
Aberu, extensive training in Brazil, then outside Miami (relocated for training)
Lepri, extensive training in Brazil, now trains in New York (relocated for training)
Jouban, moved to LA 10 years ago for training (relocated for training)
Miesha Tate, who lives and trains in WA, is at a level where she can travel all over the country and hire private coaches, which she does, so we can't really count that. You can train in Sibera if you can bring in the right coaches and training partners.
It doesn't really matter where you were born, or where you got started. All those people you listed have relocated for training, every single one.
Oh I forgot Nathan Orchard. I'm pretty sure he's not a world champion.
Like I said before there are many levels of achievement. But you were very specifically talking about being the best in the world, and a world champion. That's an extremely high bar. As far as I know, 10p has ZERO world champions. This Aug might be the first with Geo going to ADCC in Brazil. I'm sure everyone has their fingers crossed for him, and I personally think he's got a really good shot. But he's got some incredibly stiff competition, so we'll have to wait and see.
As an example of just how high that bar is, here is a bjj hero page for Jusin Rader.
http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/justin-rader
He's got world championship titles, but there are ZERO golds at the black belt level listed on his resume. And he's good. Really, really good. Here is a video of him competing against Denny Prokopos, who is also very good. It's a fairly one-sided affair in Rader's favor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQkAUwk1iIA
Rader will also be at ADCC this Aug, competing in the same division as Geo. I'm sure he's also hoping to get his first gold medal at the world-class level as a blackbelt.
The "world champion" bar is extremely, extremely high. You're just not going to achieve that without training with other guys who are competing at that level.
But that said, you're only a blue belt. You've got close a decade of training ahead of you before you're even a black belt. Let alone competing at the world-class level as a black belt. Perhaps this is just a matter of scale and perspective...
Finally I thought you were training in Alabama, not Atlanta?
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