Is The Great Brazilian Champion Forever Gone?

By JM “Shade” Daguio

Brazil’s contribution in the forefront of MMA cannot be denied, MMA’s roots can be traced to the “vale tudo” (anything goes) events held in brazil where fighters compete with little to no rules, it is widely considered to be MMA’s precursor. UFC’s co-founder was also a Brazilian named Rorion Gracie who was the first born son of Brazilian Jiujitsu Master Helio Gracie and nephew to Helio’s older brother Carlos Gracie, both of whom developed Brazilian Jiujitsu (or Gracie Jiujitsu). Rorion Gracie was also the older brother of first UFC tournament champion Royce Gracie.

With the rise of MMA, the nation of Brazil and the Brazilians have forever been part of MMA history but is it the beginning of the end for Brazilian champions? At present, there is only one Brazilian champion in the UFC, lightweight king Rafael Dos Anjos.
Dos Anjos teammate Fabricio Werdum had just been recently dethroned by Cleveland’s own Stipe Miocic via KO, which made Dos Anjos the only Brazilian title holder.

What happened to the great Brazilian champion? Since the UFC installed their unified rules in 2000 there have been 10 Brazilians who held the UFC title at least once (not counting interim titles). At their best, there would be at least 3 Brazilian champions sitting on different weight classes simultaneously and others would either be an interim champ, contender or top-5, at present, it’s not looking good for Brazil.

Some speculated that the great Brazilian champion archetype was terribly damaged by the incessant anti-doping campaign by the UFC partnered with USADA, since the emergence of the tests, Brazilian champions either kept losing or just regressed in their respective fighting abilities. To their defense, younger, faster and athletic fighters had emerged in the UFC and toppled the more traditional based Brazilians as oppose to just blaming it on PED use. These Brazilians fought the cream of the crop.

Case in point: Anderson Silva loses to Chris Weidman via KO after a 7-year reign, 17-fight career win streak and 10 UFC title defenses at middleweight, Werdum KO’d by Miocic, Jose Aldo KO’d by Conor McGregor after a 10-year reign, 18-fight career win streak and 7 UFC title defenses, Junior Dos Santos grounded by Cain Velasquez and Renan Barao destroyed by TJ Dillashaw TWICE (Barao never lost in 33 straight fights for 9 years), their luck could not have gotten any worse.

Still, everything has a silver lining, yes the days of a saturated Brazilian pool of champions may be over but the days of THE Brazilian champion may just be in the horizon.

Enter Thomas Almeida. He is from Sao Paulo, Brazil and an absolute beast. Almeida is undefeated in 20 fights, 80% of which comes from stoppage, 16 KO/TKO, 3 submissions and 1 decision. WOW. Fights aggressively but very smart with his approaches, sometimes flashy but also very technical.

Almeida is on a four fight winning streak in the UFC and may be on his way to a title shot. If Almeida gets pass Cody Galbrandt, a fellow undefeated fighter, he will add to a very tightly contested elites of bantamweights such as Dominick Cruz, Urijah Faber and TJ Dillashaw.
Brazil will also have something to potentially celebrate in the women’s division, Claudia Gadelha is set to fight straw weight queen, Poland’s Joanna Jędrzejczyk for the title while Amanda Nunes will face newly crowned bantamweight champ Miesha Tate in UFC 200.

Yes, the pool is gone, no more “sharktank” of Brazilian champions, but with that change comes evolution and the Brazilian’s will evolve to be able to catch up to their counterparts, Rafael Dos Anjos showed that by becoming the king of the most competitive weightclass, he may never get the long reign his predecessor’s had but Brazilians will be here for a while and they will sure as hell give you one hell of a fight.

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