Fernando “Tererê” Augusto

Fernando Augusto da Silva grew up in the Cantagalo community, between Ipanema and Copacabana, and started training at 14. His nickname came from a song with “Tererê” in the chorus that he was always singing at the academy. With Alliance he won the Worlds at purple belt in 1998, at lightweight and in the open class, and at brown belt in 1999.

At black belt he became middleweight world champion right away in 2000, beating Antonio “Nino” Schembri 2-0 in the final. In 2001 he took silver behind Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro. In 2003 he returned to the top, getting past Eduardo Santoro in the semifinal and Marcelo Garcia in the final. The following year he moved up in weight and was world runner-up at ultra-heavyweight, behind Fabrício Werdum.

Trained in Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti’s lineage, he received his black belt from Alexandre Paiva. While still young he started a social project in Cantagalo to keep children off the streets through jiu-jitsu.

He went through difficult years away from the mats and returned to competition in 2012. In 2018 he beat Raphael Abi-Rihan at Gracie Pro. His story became the film O Faixa Preta, released in 2022.