Flávio Almeida

Flávio Alves de Almeida grew up in Rio de Janeiro and got into Jiu-Jitsu by following his older brother, Ricardo Almeida, known as Cachorrão, or “Big Dog.” That is where his own nickname, Cachorrinho, “Little Dog,” comes from. He started martial arts at 12 with karate and, about a year later, began training Jiu-Jitsu at his brother’s academy at Gracie Barra, where his coaches included Renzo Gracie, Marcio Feitosa and Carlos Gracie Jr., who later gave him his black belt.

By the late 1990s he was one of the most promising athletes of his generation. He won the IBJJF World Championship at blue belt in 1997, at middleweight, and at brown belt in 1999, at medium-heavyweight, on a podium that had Fernando Margarida in third place. At black belt, he made the Worlds podium in his first two tries, taking bronze at medium-heavyweight in 2000 and 2001. He lost in the semifinals to Margarida the first year and to Saulo Ribeiro the second.

He then stepped away from competition to study economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and spent about five years working and studying business. In 2006 he quit his job and moved to the United States to teach at his brother’s academy in New Jersey. Back on the mats, 2007 was his best black belt season: silver at ADCC in the under 88 kg (194 lb) division, after losing the final to Demian Maia, silver at heavyweight and bronze in the open class at the Pans, and bronze at heavyweight at the Worlds. In 2009 he reached the Pans final again and took bronze at the Europeans.

In California, he taught at Marcio Feitosa’s academy before opening his own Gracie Barra school in Dana Point. Today he is an executive director of Gracie Barra and one of the leaders of the team’s expansion projects. According to the team, he has co-founded eight schools in Southern California and the Phoenix area and promoted more than 30 black belts. He also teaches the classes of Gracie Barra’s GB3 curriculum alongside Marcio Feitosa and Braulio Estima.

In the masters divisions, he kept collecting IBJJF titles. He won both his weight class and the open class at the 2016 Pans and the 2016 World Master, did it again at the 2017 Pans and won the World Master once more in 2018, all at master 2 heavyweight. In the heavyweight final of the 2016 Pans he beat Eduardo Telles, the same opponent who had beaten him in the 2007 Pans final. In 2022 he won the Europeans at master 3 with four wins.

He likes to say that in Jiu-Jitsu you never lose: you either win or you learn. He told the Elaine Talks podcast that mistakes are the only path to real learning. Read the story.