Léo Ferreira

Before the gi, Leonardo Silveira Ferreira danced and surfed. Born on January 18, 2001, in Tramandaí, a beach town in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, he performed the state’s traditional folk dances as a kid and surfed more than he did anything else, until his older brothers introduced him to Jiu-Jitsu. “Competition was part of my life from the very start and I grew to like it, and I became an athlete at yellow belt,” he told VF Comunica.

Taking the sport seriously meant leaving home early. The nearest Alliance school was in Porto Alegre, 150 km (about 93 miles) from Tramandaí, and at 16 he moved into Mario Reis’s academy. “I slept on the mat, and being away from my family from such a young age was without a doubt a big obstacle,” he said.

The results came while he was still in the colored belts. In 2021, as a blue belt, he won Brazilian Nationals, Worlds and the Abu Dhabi World Pro. At purple belt he took silver at the 2022 Worlds. In 2024, as a brown belt, he won Worlds at heavyweight and took silver in the open class, which was won by Robson Chaves, a teammate who is also from Rio Grande do Sul. Mario Reis gave both of them their black belts right there, at the Long Beach Pyramid.

His first tournament at the new rank was in October 2024, with gold at the Curitiba Open. The next month, at the South Americans, he won his weight class and the open class with six submissions in seven matches. “At the Curitiba Open I left it too late to decide my matches, and at the South Americans I was determined to be more aggressive and go for the submission,” he explained.

In 2025, his first full season as a black belt, Léo reached the final at Europeans, Brazilian Nationals and Worlds and lost all three to the same opponent, Poland’s Adam Wardzinski. That same year he beat Hygor Brito and Fellipe Andrew in superfights at BJJ Stars, a pro event in Brazil.

The 2026 season opened with the European title in January, sealed with a submission of Matheus Vetoraci. In May came Brazilian Nationals, with an armbar on Davi Vetoraci in the semifinal and a win by one advantage over Rider Zuchi in the final. At Worlds the two met again in the semifinal, Rider came out on top and Léo took bronze. “Watching the match again, I can see I came in flat. That wasn’t me,” he wrote on Instagram.

His game starts from the guard and often ends on his opponent’s back: ten of his 20 submissions as a black belt were chokes from the back. “I have a very progressive game, I like to open things up,” he said. After Worlds he also won the ACBJJ Eurasia Super Cup in the under-100 kg (220 lb) division.

For The Crown on November 8, the IBJJF lists him as the No. 3 ranked heavyweight, and the bracket has three names he has already beaten: Vinicius Liberati, Windson Torres and Fellipe Andrew. The event takes place at the Long Beach Pyramid, the same arena as Worlds. After the loss in May, he left a message on Instagram: “We’re still going to have the best view of the Pyramid, you can be sure of that.”