Roberto Satoshi: The BJJ Coach and The World Champion

Roberto Satoshi also known as “Toshi” is a Black Belt and World Champion. He was born on 19th September 1989 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is a BJJ coach and runs his own academy “Bonsai Academy”  in Japan along with his brothers.

He started training in MMA in his childhood under his father, Adilson de Souza. His father was a Judo instructor and one of the big names in MMA. He trained his sons for MMA.

Roberto opened his eyes to a family who is dedicated to MMA. He has four other siblings, all are associated with the grappling world. Roberto also trained in Judo and later, diverted to Jiu-Jitsu.

In 2006, Roberto was a World Champion in the middleweight and absolute weight category with Blue Belt. Toshi won many World Championships when the BJJ World Championships were held in Brazil.

Unfortunately, Roberto could not partake in BJJ World Championships due to the unavailability of sponsorships when the BJJ World championships were rescheduled to California, USA.

Roberto decided to go to Japan as his brother Mauricio settled there. Mauricio opened an academy in Japan and was teaching grappling arts. Roberto liked his visit to Japan and started living there.   

Roberto started living in Japan but did not have any financial support. In the beginning, he did work in factories to make a living along with competing and coaching grappling art.

After some time, Roberto took flight in his BJJ career in Japan and allocated his time and energies solely to BJJ. He started running the academy with his brother.

In his interview, he stated that people think Jiu-Jitsu cannot be continued in Japan, but rather we (Satoshi brothers) are giving training to many students in our academy. Many of them are world-class athletes. He also won many World Championships while training in Japan.      

Roberto had a good friendship with Atos since he was a blue belt. He mentioned in an interview that if any competitors from Atos visit Japan, Roberto offers them his house to stay and continue their training.  

Sponsorship was a big issue for Roberto when he was in Brazil. When he relocated to Japan, the Bull Terrier brand supported him when he was at the purple belt level. According to Roberto Satoshi, the Bull Terrier brand helped Toshi in his journey to success.

Roberto Satoshi was promoted to Black Belt by his father on 1st May 2011. Just after some hours of giving a Black Belt to Roberto, Adilson de Souza passed away due to long-term illness. 

Roberto Satoshi is a Brazilian BJJ competitor but also has a Japanese ancestor as well. His mother belonged to Japan. In 2007, he left Brazil and relocated to Japan. Now he lives in Shizuoka, a city in Japan.

This fight was between Roberto Satoshi and Pedro Bessa in the 2012 IBJJF European Championship.

Roberto Satoshi applied a Flying Guard Sweep. Pedro tried his best to escape. Robert Satoshi surprised his fans by submitting Pedro Bessa just in just half a minute with a Flying Armbar. 

This match was between Roberto Satoshi and AJ Agazarm in the World Championship 2014.

Both fighters showed great spirit from the start of the match. Roberto started by applying a full guard. Agazarm tried to escape and applied a leg lock. Roberto took some time to get himself free. Agazarm again tried to take down Roberto but this time Roberto did not give his control to Agazarm and succeeded in strangling him with the Lapel Choke

At the end of the match, Roberto submitted Agazarm with Choke from the back.

This match was between Roberto Satoshi and Lucas Lepri in Abu Dhabi World Pro 2012.

This is one of the exciting matches as this match was between two great BJJ competitors. Lepri has been a World Champion since 2006 and Roberto was just promoted to Black Belt a month ago.

At the start of the match, Roberto Satoshi was taken down by Lucas Lepri. But Roberto did not allow him to take control and after a few minutes countered by takedown and Satoshi scored two points. Lepri managed to escape and strangled him from the back. Roberto escaped and again managed to be on top of Lepri. Lepri tried his best to escape and put him down.

Lepri succeeded to sweep him to get two points but did not manage to keep him in that position. Roberto played fabulous and did not allow Lepri to dominate.

At the end of the match, Roberto won by two points.            

ADW Pro 2012 Final Roberto Satoshi vs Lucas Lepri

Roberto Satoshi VS JT Torres / World Championship 2012

Roberto Satoshi v AJ Agazarm / World Championship 2014

Roberto Satoshi v Tatsuya Kaneko / World Championship 2014

IBJJF Euros 2012 Adult Black Belt: Roberto SATOSHI de Souza vs. Pedro Bessa

Photo credit: @robertosatoshi