Juninho

Claudio Calasans made 2015 the most complete year of his career. In May, after three silver medals in middleweight finals, he won Worlds: he submitted Bruno Togni with an Estima lock in the round of 16 and beat Vinícius Marinho 6-4, Victor Estima 4-2 and Vitor Henrique 8-4 in the final. In August, in São Paulo, he won the ADCC open class, described as the lightest champion in the division’s history, beating João Gabriel Rocha in a final decided by a penalty after about 40 minutes.

Born on October 11, 1983, in São José dos Campos, São Paulo state, he is the son of judo master Calasans Camargo and started judo at 3. He came to Jiu-Jitsu at 15 to improve his ground game and went from blue belt to black belt at Liga Jiu-Jitsu under Erivaldo Junior, who promoted him to black belt at the end of 2006. He was also part of Brazil’s national wrestling team.

Before the world title he took Worlds silver in 2010, losing the final to Marcelo Garcia, and in 2012 and 2013, both times against Otávio Sousa. He won Pans in 2011 and 2012, the Europeans in 2011, in his division and the open class, 2013 and 2014, and the Abu Dhabi World Pro in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2017. After 2015 he reached the Worlds quarterfinals in 2016, 2018 and 2019 and began splitting his calendar with seminars around the world.

In 2022 he reached the final of the ADCC Brazil trials at 88 kg and lost to Isaque Bahiense on a penalty. In November 2025, after 16 years away from judo, he won gold at the judo World Masters and came to be described as the first athlete to win ADCC, IBJJF Worlds and a judo world title.