Gustavo “Braguinha” Batista

Gustavo Espindola Batista was born on March 11, 1996, in Florianópolis and grew up in Palhoça, both in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. He played soccer until 2012, when he followed his older brother into Felipe Teixeira’s academy. The nickname Braguinha (“little Braga”) comes from his resemblance to Antônio Braga Neto, a world champion from an earlier generation.

Still a blue belt, he moved to São Paulo to train at Cícero Costha’s project, where he grew close to Leandro Lo. In 2015 he won Worlds, Pans, Europeans and Brazilian Nationals at blue belt, each of them in his weight class and the open class, and in September of that year he followed Lo out of the team and into the newly formed NS Brotherhood. Lo gave him his purple belt, his brown belt and, in October 2017, his black belt.

In January 2018 he moved to California and joined Atos, André Galvão’s team, alongside Luiza Monteiro, now his wife. As a black belt he won the open class at the 2019 Europeans, beating Lucas Lepri 10-0 in the final, and won Pans at heavyweight in 2020 and 2021. Both times he lost the open class final to Fellipe Andrew.

His first world title came in 2021, at medium-heavyweight, after he beat Leandro Lo in the semifinal and closed out the final with teammate Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa. In 2023 he won Pans, Brazilian Nationals and Worlds in the division, the last with a win over Andy Murasaki in the final. At Brazilian Nationals he had three matches and three submissions.

The third title came in 2024, with a submission in every match. In the semifinal, a kneebar on Isaque Bahiense; in the final, a footlock on Jansen Gomes. “I was very confident, I was really at peace there, that I was truly going to get that win, you know? I set myself up well, everything was well connected, I did everything nice and tight and found the submission early in the match,” he told VF Comunica.

In 2025 he was runner-up at Worlds, beaten by Jansen on advantages, and in 2026, now registered under Start Doing, he went out in the quarterfinals, disqualified against Wallisson “Tarta” Oliveira. Between the two Worlds he turned to no-gi: he lost at the first ADCC South American Trials, won the second a week later and made his ADCC World Championship debut in September, in Poland, with a loss in his first match. “I only started fully dedicating myself to it a little over a year ago, and I know that with more time and experience, better performances will come,” he wrote on Instagram.

The X-guard and pressure passing are the trademarks of his game. Of his 58 submissions as a black belt, ten were chokes from the back and eight were arm-triangle chokes.

At The Crown, the story has repeated itself since the first edition. In 2023, at heavyweight, he lost the final to Fellipe Andrew 11-0. In 2024, again at heavyweight, he lost to Adam Wardzinski by one advantage. In 2025 he moved up to ultra-heavyweight, got past Elder Cruz and Francisco Papasidero and was stopped by Erich Munis. Three editions, three finals.

On November 8 he is back at heavyweight, one division above his own, and in the bracket is the same Fellipe Andrew, who has beaten him all five times they have fought. In 2024, ahead of a BJJ Stars Grand Prix they were both in, he said: “He got the better of me in our last matches, so my expectations are high to be able to face him one more time and go get that win over him. That would be incredible.” In early October, Braguinha finished second at AIGA, in Argentina, and said on Instagram that he hurt his shoulder in the final: “Now it’s time to focus on recovery so I can get back to training and keep doing what I love.”