Ricardo “Ricardinho” Vieira

Ricardo Vieira started training at age 5 in Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti’s kids class and went on to collect world titles at almost every belt. With Alliance he won the Worlds at blue belt in 1997 and at purple in 1998, both at roosterweight, and at brown in 1999, now at light-featherweight. In 2000, still a brown belt, he took silver.

He received his black belt from Jacaré and completed the set at the 2001 Worlds. He got past André Motta in the quarterfinal, beat Robson Moura 6-5 with a comeback in the final seconds of the semifinal and defeated Nova União’s Daniel Beleza on advantage after a 0-0 final. The following year he won the Pans.

The brother of Leonardo “Leozinho” Vieira, he left Alliance in 2002 with the group that formed VB Team and years later founded CheckMat with his brothers. He also ran a social project in Rio de Janeiro’s Cantagalo community.

He kept competing at a high level, and in 2013, at 34, he was invited to ADCC, where he submitted Japan’s Yuta Sasaki with a guillotine before losing to João Miyao.