Tanquinho

Augusto Tanquinho Mendes went up 2-0 in the 2013 featherweight world final against Rafael Mendes, saw his rival fight back from 50/50 and take the lead with four minutes left, and in the final minute swept to the back and scored the advantages that won him the title. The win ended the run of Rafa, champion in 2011 and 2012, and it was the only year between 2011 and 2016 that the division’s gold did not go to him.

Born on March 3, 1983, in Rio de Janeiro, he started in 1997, at 14, at the Kioto academy in Tijuca, brought along by his older brother Bruno, known as Tanque (tank). As the youngest and smallest brother, he became Tanquinho (little tank). Francisco Mansur gave him his black belt in December 2004. In 2005 he opened Renovação BJJ with Bruno and, in January 2008, co-founded Soul Fighters with Rafael Formiga Barbosa and Leandro Tatu. He holds a degree in physical education.

Before the gold he had been runner-up at the 2011 Worlds, losing the final to Rafa by one advantage, the same year he beat his rival at the Abu Dhabi World Pro. He won the World Pro again in 2013, beating Cobrinha in the final, and won No-Gi Worlds in 2012 and 2015. At ADCC he took bronze in 2015 and won the under 66 kg division in 2019, beating Matheus Gabriel, Paulo Miyao and, in the final, Kennedy Maciel. “My first Worlds was in 1999 as blue belt at Tijuca Tennis Club in Brazil, and my last was when I became a black belt World Champion in 2013,” he wrote as Worlds turned 30.

In MMA he went 6-3. In the UFC he lost to Cody Garbrandt in 2016, in a fight taken on five days’ notice, beat Frankie Saenz in 2017 in a Fight of the Night, and lost to Aljamain Sterling. In March 2018 he was pulled from a fight with Merab Dvalishvili after testing positive for ostarine. USADA concluded the substance came from a contaminated supplement, with no evidence of intentional use, and imposed a six-month suspension. He now owns and leads Soul Fighters in Arizona.