'Jacare' and Jiu Jitsu's Circle of Virtue

On Tuesday, 41-year-old Ronaldo Souza announced his retirement from MMA competition during a podcast appearance with Brazilian sports outlet Combate. “Jacare” retired from the sport with 26 wins, including 14 by submission, 10 losses and one no contest. During his 18-year career, Souza won the Strikeforce middleweight belt, and spent most of his Ultimate Fighting Championship run agonizingly close to a title shot. Several times, he was ranked No. 1, but a variety of injuries and other circumstances prevented him from fighting for the belt. Most notably, in 2016 he declined to replace an injured Chris Weidman in a fight against then-champ Luke Rockhold, due to Souza himself needing surgery. Michael Bisping ended up taking the shot, and the belt, for the signature win of his career.

But if in MMA, “Jacare” certified himself one of the best middleweights of his era, in the grappling world he has printed his name among the greatest of all time. Between 1999 and 2005 Souza fought and defeated the very best of his generation, in his weight category as well as absolute, with and without gi. Names like Demian Maia, Fabricio Werdum, Xande Ribeiro, Andre Galvao, Saulo Ribeiro, Fernando Margarida, Marcelo Garcia and even the one considered by many as the best jiu-jitsu fighter of all time, 10-time world champion Roger Gracie, against whom “Jacare” went a more than respectable 2-3. The talent from Manaus also won over the crowd more often than not, due as much to his “alligator chomp” celebration as to his aggressive, offensive style, bent on submitting his opponents. It is a feature that carried over to his MMA fights.

An Escape from Criminality

In a country with high rates of poverty and crime, “Jacare” is another great example that sport can literally save lives.

Living in a very violent neighborhood in the southeast Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, the 14-year-old Souza came under bad influences and had begun to shoplift when his best friend was shot and killed in front of him. In order to save his life, his mom sent him north to Manaus to live with his older brother Reginaldo, who had been transferred there a few months before by the Navy.

As a gift for his 15th birthday, Reginaldo enrolled his younger brother in ASLE Academy where he started to train jiu-jitsu with Master Henrique Machado. From that point on, the young Ronaldo started to live for jiu-jitsu and, when his brother was transferred to another state, he was invited by Master Henrique to stay, helping him and living at the academy. “I have the biggest bed on the planet,” he told me when I went to Manaus to interview him for the first time in 2002 after his impressive performance in the 7th World Jiu-Jitsu Championship as a brown belt.

At that time he took me around Manaus and I was impressed to see how popular he was among local kids. The example of a poor boy who lived in the academy and transformed himself into a world jiu-jitsu champion and later, in one of the best MMA fighters in the world showed them that anyone who trained hard could reach their dreams.

Thanks to his outstanding career, “Jacare” can provide a far more secure and comfortable life than his own for his three boys, who live in a mansion in Florida and will be able to study in excellent universities. Now he intends to keep using the sport that changed his life to help other kids. In January of 2022 he plans to open a huge jiu-jitsu academy in Florida, where, besides finding new talents, he will conduct a program for children with special needs, including attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism, among others. Thanks in part to “Jacare,” jiu-jitsu’s circle of virtue will keep producing champions and saving lives.