Tarsis Humphreys

Tarsis Humphreys lost the 2009 medium-heavyweight world final to Rômulo Barral and a year later met the same opponent in the final. In 2010 he pulled guard, attacked the leg and won when Barral, having hurt his knee ligaments, could not continue. It was his only black belt world title. “2010 was the year I finally got the tittle I wanted and was missing in my career,” he wrote years later.

Born on November 4, 1983, in São Paulo, he started around 13 after a school friend showed him an armbar and a rear-naked choke. Fabio Gurgel was his only instructor and gave him his black belt in 2006, after he won his division and the open class at Pans as a brown belt.

At black belt he took Worlds bronze in 2007 at medium-heavyweight and in 2008 at heavyweight, before silver in 2009. At ADCC 2007 he took bronze at 88 kg after losing the semifinal to Demian Maia. In 2009 he won both his division and the open class at the first Abu Dhabi World Pro, beating Braulio Estima. In 2010, the year of his world title, he also won the Europeans, and in 2015 he reached the world final again, losing to Leandro Lo.

He moved to San Diego, where he teaches, and has coached singer Demi Lovato. His last Worlds was in 2019.