Michael Langhi

Michael Langhi arrived at the 2015 Worlds fresh from knee surgery and so focused on the event that he skipped Pans to prepare. In Long Beach he beat Arthur Dominick in the lightweight round of 16, Samuel Hertzog on advantages in the quarterfinals and JT Torres in the semifinal, after a 2-2 match also settled on advantages. The final was closed out with his Alliance teammate Lucas Lepri, and the gold went to Langhi, his third black belt world title.

Born on April 2, 1985, in São Carlos, São Paulo state, he was doing capoeira when he met Rubens Charles, known as Cobrinha, who invited him to a Jiu-Jitsu class at the end of 2001. Under Cobrinha he won Worlds at blue belt in 2004, purple in 2006 and brown in 2007, and received his black belt from him in 2008. He is the older brother of Michel Langhi, also a world champion.

At black belt he won the lightweight world title in 2009 and 2010, a stretch in which he also piled up Pans and European titles, plus the 2009 Abu Dhabi World Pro. At Worlds he also took bronze in 2011, silver in 2013, when he lost the final to Leandro Lo, and bronze in 2014, after losing the semifinal to JT Torres on advantages. In 2015, besides the world title, he won the Europeans and No-Gi Worlds. Later he won the Brazilian Nationals again in 2016 and 2017 and the Europeans in 2018, and competed at his last Worlds in 2019, going out in the quarterfinals against Renato Canuto.

Away from competition, he took over Alliance São Paulo, the academy founded by Fabio Gurgel, and now runs the Vila Olímpia and Jardins schools, as well as being a partner in Alliance São Carlos. In 2022 he was among the coaches of Alliance’s 13th world team title. Looking back on his career as an athlete, he wrote that he sweated, cried and bled, and that in the end it was all worth it.