Who is Gabriel Almeida, the black belt who submitted Gilbert Burns in his UFC BJJ debut
The 34-year-old Brazilian from the Checkmat team won a world title at blue belt, competed twice at the ADCC World Championship and now lives and trains in California
Gabriel Almeida needed 4 minutes and 34 seconds to get the attention of everyone who follows UFC BJJ. In his debut, this Thursday, October 8, in Las Vegas, the Checkmat black belt submitted Gilbert “Durinho” Burns with a heel hook. Burns, a former UFC title challenger, saw the match as a step toward a UFC BJJ title shot. For people who follow competitive Jiu-Jitsu, Almeida is not a new name. At 34, the Brazilian has a world title in the colored belts, two trips to the ADCC World Championship and a reputation as a finisher.
From Niteroi to Checkmat
Gabriel Salles Muniz Almeida was born on June 4, 1992, in Niteroi, a city next to Rio de Janeiro and the same hometown as Burns. He started training as a teenager at a small gym with coach Eduardo Flexa, who gave him his blue belt and opened the door to the Checkmat team. Flexa also gave him his nickname. Gabriel and his cousin Raphael looked so much alike that the coach compared them to Rod and Todd, the brothers from The Simpsons, and Gabriel became “Todd.”
At Checkmat, he trained with Thiago Sa and with brothers Ricardo and Leo Vieira, the founders of the team. They gave him his black belt on October 13, 2018.
A world title at blue belt and two trips to ADCC
His first big title came in 2014, when he won the IBJJF World Championship at blue belt. At brown belt, in 2017, he took silver at Worlds in his weight class and bronze in the open class. As a black belt, in 2019, he won silver at the European Championship and won the ADCC trials in Sao Paulo at 88 kg. That earned him a place at the ADCC World Championship in Anaheim that year, where he lost to Josh Hinger in the round of 16.
In 2024, he came one match short at both South American trials. He took silver in Belo Horizonte, after five submissions on the way to the final, and silver in Sao Paulo. He was still invited to the ADCC World Championship in Las Vegas. He beat Santeri Lilius in his first match and lost in the quarterfinals to Giancarlo Bodoni, who went on to win the division.
The surgery and the comeback
Between his two ADCC appearances, knee surgery kept him out of competition. He came back in February 2024 and won the Copa Elite 3 belt in Virginia with two submissions. “I’m coming back from surgery, after a long time off. I’ve been doing intense recovery and strength work, so I’ve been competing to feel good and get back to the competition scene,” he told VF Comunica at the time, in Portuguese.
In the same interview, he explained why he focused his career on no-gi. “There is definitely a lot more financial incentive in no-gi today, and that helps. But I think the gi will always have its place,” he said. He also left the door open to compete in the gi again: “I trained in the gi my whole life. It’s where I come from, so the technique is there.”
A reputation as a finisher
His style helps explain what happened to Burns. People who follow the competition circuit know Almeida as an athlete who goes for the submission all the time, in the gi or without it. “This is a side of my Jiu-Jitsu that I value a lot. Attacking the submission can end the match, and it also helps open up space in the opponent’s game,” he told VF Comunica.
Before UFC BJJ 12, Burns himself had described his opponent as an athlete with good takedowns, a good top game and dangerous leg attacks. That is exactly how the match ended. Almeida got a takedown near the end of the round, went after the neck, switched to the left leg and adjusted the heel hook.
The road to UFC BJJ
The Meta APEX was already a familiar place. In 2024, Almeida had two matches there at the UFC Fight Pass Invitational, the UFC grappling event that came before UFC BJJ. He beat South Africa’s Johan Oosthuysen and lost to Ryan Aitken, both on points. Today he lives and trains in Long Beach, California.
After Thursday’s win, UFC BJJ wrote that the Brazilian “put the Middleweight division on notice.” His full career, with titles and record, is on Gabriel Almeida’s athlete page on VF Comunica, and the other results of the night are in the UFC BJJ 12 play-by-play.
