Yuri Simões - 3rd-Degree BJJ Black Belt World Champion

Yuri Simões is a 3rd-degree BJJ Black Belt under Ricardo Vieira of the Vieira brothers. Ricardo Vieira is the co-founder of CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu. Simões competes in both middleweight and light heavyweight classes. His exceptional and unique fighting style awarded him fame in the BJJ community despite still being in the colored belt divisions. Simões is the adopted brother of Ary Farias, a fellow BJJ Black Belt.

Yuri Simões was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 18, 1990.

Yuri Simões was only four years old when he started judo in his early school life.

Being an active child, Simões’ father, who himself trained in BJJ, enrolled his son in a BJJ class. Simões was only nine years old when he attended his first Gi BJJ class. Simões had seen his father practicing, so he saw him as a source of inspiration.

Another reason for Simões’s interest in BJJ was because of a documentary on Rickson Gracie. Simões became fascinated by a choke demonstrated by Gracie in the documentary, watching the video many times. However, Simões’s father played the biggest role in his interest in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

While Mauricio Behring wasn’t Simões first instructor, he still taught Simões a lot. Mauricio Behring urged his student to compete in BJJ. Simões didn’t have plans to pursue BJJ professionally until Behring pushed his young charge to put his talents to use.

The untimely death of Mauricio Behring left Yuri Simões feeling all alone. Behring was murdered by a gunshot wound inflicted by his ex-fiance’s father in 2006. It was a great shock to the BJJ community and to his student Simões. Simões stayed off the mats for some time to grieve for his instructor.

After some time, Yuri Simões returned to jiu-jitsu and started training under Ricardo Vieira. Ricardo Vieira is a 3rd-degree BJJ Black Belt under Master Romero Cavalcanti.

Ricardo Vieira was Yuri Simões's coach at CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu. Simões’s time at CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu was the most significant part of his BJJ journey. Though he gave credit to Behring for convincing him to compete in BJJ, Vieira is also credited for being a good instructor.

At CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu, Simões came to know other practitioners and learned a lot from them.

In 2009, Simões went to England and competed in international BJJ competitions hosted by the IBJJF. It was the peak moment in his career as a colored belt.

Simões’s brother, Ary Farias, trained at Atos Jiu-Jitsu. In 2010, Simões left CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu and joined Atos Jiu-Jitsu situated in São Paulo.

Simões spent only a little bit of time at Atos Jiu-Jitsu before returning to CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu to resume his training under Master Ricardo Vieira.

Simões left CheckMat Jiu-Jitsu to join the Caio Terra Association in 2013.

Simões became the head instructor at Pineapple MMA, a martial arts school in Singapore. Simoes teaches Gi and No-Gi BJJ classes.

Simões was promoted to purple, then later to the brown belt by Ricardo Vieira at the Fight Zone BJJ Academy.

In 2009, Simões won first place at the IBJJF World Championship as a purple belt.

In 2009, Simões became the IBJJF European Open Champion as a purple Belt.

In 2011, Simões won the Mundial Championship in the brown belt Division.

In 2011, Simões became the IBJJF World No-Gi Champion as a brown belt.

On December 29, 2011, Simões was promoted to a Black Belt by Ricardo Vieira after his successive wins in the IBJJF Championships.

In 2022, Simões competed and defeated Nicholas Meregali at the ADCC World Championship. He had previously won the 2015 and 2017 ADCC World Championships as well.

Yuri Simões also found an interest in MMA. In 2020, Simões decided to go for his MMA debut. In August 2020, Simões signed a fighting contract with ONE Championship. His first fight was at ONE Championship: Inside the Matrix 3 against Fan Rong. The fight went on for three rounds, ending with Rong winning the fight via unanimous decision.

Simões’s next ONE Championship fight was at ONE: Full Circle in 2022. He fought against Daniyal Zainalov and lost via split decision.

After the two consecutive losses, ONE Championship released Simões from his contract.

Nicholas Meregali is a BJJ Black Belt under Mario Reis. He is famous for his lethal Omoplata attacks and dominating fighting style. The 2022 ADCC World Championship was the most anticipated event of the year. The finals was between Nicholas Meregali and Yuri Simões. Both fighters came prepared for the championship.

Simões knew about Meregali’s aggressive fighting style so he countered with the same. It was Nicholas Meregali’s tremendous No-Gi debut at ADCC. Simões went for the takedown but Meregali protected himself by sitting down, which earned him a negative point. Known for his efficient leg game, Meregali tried to take down Simões, but he proved not to be an easy contender.

Meregali earned another negative point and Simões won the fight via penalty. Yuri Simoes won the 2022 ADCC World Championship in the Open Class Division.

At the 2017 San Jose Summer Open, Felipe Abad, a BJJ Black Belt, was dominating at the start of the fight. Relying on his grip, Abad tried to keep Yuri Simoes subdued. Simões countered by going for a takedown, then a submission. Simões got around to Abad’s back, then applied a cross collar choke. Simões submitted Abad in 1 minute and 52 seconds and became the 2017 IBJJF World Champion.

At the 2018 World No-Gi, Yuri Simões competed against Scott Thometz, a strong and bulky fighter. Competing in the Open Class, Yuri was sure of his victory he submitted Thometz via a Rear Naked Choke within 2 minutes.

Yuri Simões vs Jared Dopp / NoGi World 2018

Yuri Simoes vs Scott Thometz / World NoGi 2018

Yuri Simoes vs Dean Lister Fight To Win Pro 8

Yuri Simoes vs Felipe Pena - ADCC 2017 99kg FINAL

Photo Credit: @yurisimoesdasilva