He was primarily a wrestler on the regionals, his stand up development is easily the most noticeable improvement in his game. Pretty sure you can find his Bellator fight where he gets outstruck by dude and then grapples the shit out of him in 2 and 3.
Not to gas up my state too much here, but even if he didn't pursue wrestling further than high school hes my age (26) and iirc NJ was a top 5 state in the country for high school wrestling when I was in school. I wrestled out of state locally in HS and you could DEFINITELY feel a difference. Obviously thats nothing compared to some of these all americans, but I have a hard time believing anywhere in Brazil has better wrestling training than NJ