Leonardo “Leozinho” Vieira

Leonardo Vieira started training at age 6 at Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti’s academy and spent the late 1990s on the Worlds podium. With Alliance he won the Worlds at brown belt in 1996, at featherweight, and as a black belt was lightweight runner-up in 1997 behind Márcio Feitosa. In 1998 he turned the tables, beating Feitosa on advantage in the final to win the world title.

He reached the final again in 1999, at featherweight, and lost to Royler Gracie by decision. In 2000 he took bronze at lightweight. He also won the Pans in 2002 and 2004.

At ADCC he built one of the longest careers of any Brazilian. He won the under 66 kg division in 2003, beating Eddie Bravo 16-0 in the semifinal and Baret Yoshida in the final, and won again in 2005 against Rani Yahya. He was runner-up in 2007 to Yahya and in 2011, now at under 77 kg, to Marcelo Garcia.

He left Alliance in 2002, went through the team that would become Brasa and in 2008 founded CheckMat with his brothers Ricardo and Leandro. He developed champions such as Marcus Buchecha, Lucas Leite and João Assis and in 2022 became ONE Championship’s vice president of grappling.