Zé Mario Sperry

Zé Mario Sperry won the ultra-heavyweight division at the first Worlds in 1996, with Roberto Traven in second. The following year he won the super-heavyweight title and took open class bronze. In 1998 he won the open class after choking out Royler Gracie and beating Roberto Roleta on advantage in the final.

Born in Porto Alegre in 1966, he came to jiu-jitsu as a judo black belt and joined Carlson Gracie while still a brown belt. In 1999 he was super-heavyweight runner-up behind Leo Leite and took bronze in the open class. In the same period he dominated ADCC: in 1998 he won the under 99 kg division and the open class, and then won superfights against Enson Inoue and Roberto Traven.

In 2000 he helped found Brazilian Top Team with Murilo Bustamante and Bebeo Duarte and went on to train and manage Rodrigo Minotauro. In MMA he had 17 fights with 13 wins, and his biggest came at Pride 17 in 2001, when he submitted Igor Vovchanchyn with an arm-triangle choke.

He kept competing in the masters divisions and in 2017 won the World Master at super-heavyweight. In 2022 he was inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame. He lives in Miami, in the United States.