The Untamed Black Belt Hunter Rodolfo Vieira

The Brazil national Rodolfo Vieira was born on the 25th of September in 1989 At the age of 13, he joined a Jiu-Jitsu gym to reduce weight. Then he got a chance to train with the great instructors Arlans Maia and Bruno Souza. Under their instructorship, Rodalfo started his amateur jiu-jitsu career.

After achieving blue belt rank Rofolfo decided to change his training camp and moved to a better competitive environment. His next instructor was Julio Cesar Pereira in Universidade Gama Filho. The Rodolfo and Julio team was later named the Grappling Fight Team.

Rodolfo’s fame started when he won the World Cup Brazilian North Trials of ADCC, in 2009 as a brown belt and defeated 2 times black belt champion Braulio Estima in the final. Because of this surprise win, he was given the nickname of the black belt hunter’. Upon his return to Brazil at the Airport, Cesar awarded Rodolfo with a black belt. After receiving the black belt, an injury kept him from fighting during the year 2010.

Then came to the events of January 2011, when Rodolfo secured a win in an open weight division. of the Abu Dhabi World Pro and Pan American Championships. By this time he was regarded as a renowned BJJ Gi specialist fighter. Rodolfo Vieira is a four-time Jiu-Jitsu champion and a seven-time World Cup Champion.

Vieira has always been attracted to MMA. At a very young age, 25, he decided to take retirement and follow his dreams by focusing only on MMA. In his interview, he said:

After becoming a pro BJJ fighter, Roldalfo Vierira aimed to excel as a MMA fighter. He joined MMA schools, trained with pro fighters, and soon, he was able to position himself among the best MMA fighters. His debut match with Zarylbek in 2017 granted Rodolfo huge success and recognition.

In 2019, he signed a contract with UFC in the middleweight division.

As soon as I got into UFC, I had only 5 fights and maybe three years of training. I was 27 years old when I did my first sparring. Before that, only Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling.

It’s hard to get experience being inside the UFC. It’s very hard inside the most significant event in the world, the biggest company, where the best fighters are, but it is what it is.

Vieira debuted in UFC in August 2019 against Oskar Piechota. In his first bout, he won the match via submission. After that, he competed against top MMA fighters. In 2021, Vieira had a faceoff with Dustin Stoltzfus. He won the match and secured the Performace of the Night title. After the fight, Vieira changed his coach and started with Mano Santana to upgrade his fighting skills. Later in 2023, Vieira competed against Cody Brundage at the UFC on ESPN. He won the fight via submission and was awarded the Performance of the Night for the second time.

It has been officially confirmed that in February 2024, Vieira will compete against Armen Petrosyan.

Curtis remained undefeated from late 2021 and there is never a secret in Vieira's game plan but he defended takedown attempts of Curtis in the best way. When Curtis realized the falling condition of Vieira, he attacked with a variety of strikes forcing Vieira to tap out.

Curtis shared his views about the match and Vieira:

“RIP to the body, definitely [the game plan],” Curtis said afterward. “A lot of wrestling these last few months, it worked. I like violence. I’m a very nice guy. Hats off to Rodolfo, his boxing was much improved.”

UFC Vegas 31 got huge popularity Rodolfo vs Dustin. When the fight time came it was announced that:

“Be careful what you wish for.”

It was surprising when Stoltzfus refused a glove touch. Vieira blew his arrogance by launching jabs on his nose. In the second round, Vieira tried to takedown Dustin but he escaped. Finally, in the third round Dustin succeeded in takedown Vieira but Rodolfo Vieira, pro BJJ fighter jabbed Dustin and pinned him against the cage.

It was the first time that the ADCC Gold Medalist Rodolfo was forced to submit by Anthony Hernandez at UFC 258. Vieira's right hand was broken during this fight.

“I was able to get back to my feet and then on the feet I was going to get his a**, because he’s a grappler,” Hernandez said on Monday’s edition of MMA Junkie Radio. “One of the right hands. I’m pretty sure I broke the hand, it just went numb. It was like, ‘(expletive),’ but it’s a fight, you gotta keep going, it’s a pride thing. I kept throwing, it didn’t look like it was broken but it (expletive) hurt.” 

Hernandes revealed that how staying calm brought victory for him

“It was just like ‘(expletive)’ when I got taken down, but it was like, I had been practicing checking my hip with the left and he shot on my right and so he switched it up on me, which was sweet of him,” he said. “And I was just like ‘You (expletive),’ and when I was in the air I was like, ‘(expletive), I’m gonna go for a ride!’ And then I was like, ‘Be calm, stay patient in there.’ I’ve been in bad situations before in practice. When you panic, you put yourself in a worse position, so I just had to stay calm (and) get back to (my) feet.”

Rodolfo was successful enough to win the sixth submission of his career at UFC 248 against Saparbeg Safarov.

Rodolfo faced several blows in this fight which damaged his eye resulting in doctor stoppage loss. Safarov hit Vieira with a right hand and then kicked at the same place causing a serious damage to the eye. After that Rodolfo went for the takedown, Saparov tried to escape but Vieira grappled him with a headlock, lifted him up, and then slammed down with full force. By this time Saparov was desperate enough, Rodalfo took this as an opportunity and applied an arm triangle choke and forced Safarov to tap.

Rodalfo organized a live training camp in Baltimore Maryland which was greatly admired by the grappler’s family.

Rodolfo instructional DVDS are released in which all the secrets of learning to choke, smash and sweep the opponents are shared.

European BJJ 2012 Rodolfo Vieira FINAL on his weight devision

Rodolfo Vieira vs Lucio Rodrigues Lagarto Open Class Europeans 2012

Rodolfo Vieira x Diogo Araújo by X-COMBAT

Rodolfo Vieira x Mário Reis by X-COMBAT

Abu Dhabi World Pro 2011 - RODOLFO VIEIRA vs CHARLES RUBENS COBRINHA - final black absoluto

Rodolfo Vieira x Cláudio Calasans by X-COMBAT

Photo Credit: @ rodolfovieira89