Soke Rivera was born and raised in the south bronx nyc,I studied the art of boxing at the south bronx pal. for about 5 years. as well as wrestling in high school. I later began kick boxing and studying isshinryu karate in which I obtained the rank of ni-dan. I began cross training in brazilian jujitsu with multiple instructors ,as well as combative jujitsu under Shihan Jerry Tardi. .In 2003 I began to develop my own system of self defense with the guidence of Shihan George Strydio and Shihan Jerry Tardi. The sytem was named Senshi Tori .The concept of Senshi Tori was to keep the old ways of traditional martial arts which practices respect and honor, but shy away from alot of the traditional applications in which the old ways rely on..Senshi Tori is a full contact self defense system,which blends traditional jujitsu..submission grappling.,kick boxing, and street fighting,In 2006 I was tested and ranked San dan by Soke joseph Miller in combative jujitsu , Later on that year I was granted the title of Soke for developing Senshi tori by Soke Joseph Miler.under the taizan ryu federation