Igor Silva - Top BJJ Heavyweight Champion

Igor Silva is regarded as the toughest competitor in close guard. This guard helped Silva win important tournaments, like the World Championship and the Brazilian Nationals.

He has competed in both the heavyweight and absolute divisions. He is also a black belt under Muzio de Angelis and got his training under Julio Cesar Pereira.

Igor is among the best heavyweight BJJ competitors. He was born on 19th April 1984. He started his BJJ training as a young teenager to gain some muscle size. But he was too young to lift heavy weights so he started practicing BJJ to get some weight.

Igor’s nickname was Igorila, which comes from Igor and Gorila. He named this because of his tremendous strength and weight division in BJJ.

Igor used to go to a gym and get his yellow belt there under Roberto Traven and Muzio de Angelis.

His first BJJ class was in the same gym under Ze Mario’s supervision. Under Ze Mario’s guidance, he gained lots of knowledge and improved his BJJ techniques.

Silva, after getting his yellow belt under Roberto Traven, continued his training at the same academy. Traven, as soon as Silva got his yellow belt, went to the US and made Muzio de Angles the head of the academy.

Angles then took charge of Silva, promoted him up to the purple belt, and later asked him to teach along with him in the same academy.

Under the training of Muzio de Angles, Silva gained two very important titles in his BJJ career. He earned the title of IBJJF brown belt World Champion and was awarded a black belt on the same day under his instructor Muzio.

In 2009, Silva competed in the Brazilian Nationals when he broke his knee, but having high spirits and continued his fight won the competition, and made a memorable appearance.

Though Silva won the fight his knee was injured quite badly and it took almost a year to recover him.

In 2010, Silva found the need to improve his skills and wanted to gain more understanding of BJJ.

He then went to the Grappling Fight Team which was one of the best competitive BJJ teams, and many friends of Silva were already there which made it more easier for Sillva to join.

But he didn’t quit completely from Brasa and still teaches there.

Silva liked to help people and started an organization by the name of Projecto Marc Romano.

The reason behind the name of this organization was Silva’s late friend who was very close to him. The organization aids in reintegrating unhelpful youth into the community.

Igor Silva is one of the most famous names in the BJJ world and it is very hard to pin his any one achievement throughout his BJJ fighting career.

Igor was a very willing and understanding tutor. He was eager to teach his students and had a keen attention to detail. He has a good attitude toward teaching and his students and is an effective and modest teacher. As a teacher, he is gentle toward his students.

The SP BJJ Pro held in 2017 between Igor Silva and Erberth Santos was a great tournament both the players played very well and gave their best but Erberth defeated Igor by using the anklelock technique and won the match.

The match started and Bryce tried to get Igor using a leglock but Igor dodged and got Bryce by his legs and then used a wristlock to win the match under 100kg weight in the final round of the Asian Open.

The 2017 Ultraheavy NoGi match between Igor and Hassine was great, both the players played very well but Igor won the match by using a Flying armbar and the bonus points were for his weight.

Erberth Santos X Igor Silva - SÃO PAULO BJJ PRO IBJJF CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 - Final

Igor Silva vs Bryce Sexton / Asian Championship 2023

Igor Silva vs Hassine Azarkan / Munich Open 2017

Photo Credit: @igorsilvabjj