Education by Day, Ralph Gracie by Night — Meet Chicago's Toughest Dean

🎙️ HIT PLAY. This is not the post — this is the preview. This episode features Misho Ceko, an original OG from the legendary Ralph Gracie Academy in Mountain View, back when that room was producing killers like BJ Penn and the Camarillo brothers and nobody was walking out soft. Misho trained through that wild, rough era, competed against Braulio Estima himself as a brown belt, and earned his black belt under Ralph in 2004. But here’s what nobody expects when they meet him on the mats: this man holds a BS in Bioengineering, an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School. He’s consulted for Accenture, engineered medical devices for St. Jude Medical, run operations for a UNDP posting in Mozambique, and served as COO of Uniting Voices Chicago. Right now, by day, he’s Senior Associate Dean of Business Operations at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy — running high-level institutional operations at one of the top universities in the world. By night and on weekends, he’s still on the mats teaching. And here’s the real testament to who he is: years later, it was Ralph Gracie himself who opened the door for Misho to earn a black belt in Luta Livre, the original no-gi art from Brazil (this was before Eddie Bravo and the 10th Planet revolution) the same discipline whose rivalry with BJJ once spilled real blood in the streets of Rio. He earned his black belt in Luta Livre from none other than Hugo Duarte.

That a Gracie black belt would go earn rank in the very system his own lineage used to war with — that’s not just skill. That’s an open mind doing what most men never do. We talk about that wild Mountain View era, the bridge Ralph built for him into Luta Livre, how he balances a Harvard-and-Kellogg mind with a fighter’s discipline, and where he’s taking Chicago MMA next as he opens a new location. Thank you to every listener still here, still sharing this show — free or paid, more is always on the way. As Marcus Aurelius wrote, the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way — and Misho Ceko has spent his whole life proving that.

Follow Misho:
IG: @m.m.a.professor
Website: chicagomma.com

Hit play. You need to hear this one.