Braulio “Carcará” Estima

Braulio Estima earned the nickname Carcará, a bird of the Brazilian northeast, long before he became a global reference for triangles and foot locks. He won the black belt world title three times: at medium-heavyweight in 2004 and 2006 and at heavyweight in 2009. On the way to the 2006 title he submitted Rogel Alexandre and Alexandre Souza with triangles and beat Delson Heleno 6-4 in the final. In 2009 he got past Rodrigo Pinheiro and Alexandro Ceconi and beat Alexandre Souza 2-0 in the final.

Born on June 10, 1980, in Recife, he received his black belt from Carlos Gracie Jr. in January 2004, months after a Worlds bronze as a brown belt, and won gold in his first black belt Worlds. At the end of 2002 he moved to Birmingham, England, where he runs the local Gracie Barra with his brother, Victor Estima. The foot lock he used so often became known as the Estima lock.

He also won Worlds silver in 2005, 2008 and 2013, all at medium-heavyweight, and bronze in the 2005 open class. He was Pan champion in 2006, won the Europeans in 2007, 2009 and 2011 and the Abu Dhabi World Pro in 2014. At ADCC 2009 in Barcelona he won both the under-88 kg division and the absolute, beating André Galvão, Marcelo Garcia, Vinny Magalhães and Xande Ribeiro. In 2011 he beat Ronaldo Jacaré in an ADCC superfight.

At the 2014 Worlds he reached the medium-heavyweight final, but the result was voided. A sample collected on June 1 in Long Beach tested positive for methylhexaneamine, a banned stimulant, and he accepted a two-year suspension starting August 1, 2014, with results from the collection date onward disqualified.

He had one MMA fight, in 2012, submitting Chris Holland in the first round at Titan FC 24. He still leads Gracie Barra Birmingham and teaches seminars around the world.