Aryzinho

Ari Farias spent almost three years away from the gi, focused on MMA, and came straight back to the top of the podium. In 2016, at his first major gi event since 2013, the Atos athlete from Amazonas beat Gabriel Moraes 2-0 in the light-featherweight quarterfinals at Worlds, got past Hiago George on a referee decision in the semifinal and finished with gold, with Isaac Doederlein in second.

Born on October 22, 1989, in Manaus, he tried several sports as a child and started Jiu-Jitsu at 11 at ASLE, where Ronaldo Jacaré was his first instructor until he was 16. He then moved to Rio de Janeiro to train at Ricardo Vieira’s Fightzone, and Vieira promoted him to brown belt under Checkmat in 2009. In March 2010 he moved to Atos with his brother Yuri. Ramon Lemos gave him his black belt in November 2010 in Rio Claro, after world titles at purple belt in 2008 and at brown belt in 2009 and 2010.

At black belt he took Worlds silver and won the Europeans in 2011, took third at the 2012 Worlds and silver in 2013, in a final he was leading on points against Gabriel Moraes before being penalized after time ran out for leaving the mat area to celebrate. From 2013 to 2016 he fought MMA. After the 2016 title he took bronze at the 2017 Worlds, losing the semifinal to Mikey Musumeci on advantages, and silver in 2018, when he lost the final to Musumeci 4-0.

In late 2019, with MMA as his main focus, he faced AJ Agazarm in the Fight 2 Win 133 main event in Fresno and lost on a referee decision. In 2026 he returned to competition at the ADCC Brazil trials at 77 kg, submitting Alysson Igor before going out in the third round.