Placido Santos, the most famous uke in BJJ, has just been promoted to black belt by his long-time coach and one of the greatest minds in the sport; John Danaher. Although Santos is a very popular figure, the majority of his notoriety comes from his repeated appearances in Danaher’s instructionals over the years. Not only has he obviously learned a lot from Danaher himself but he’s also been training alongside a number of elite competitors like Gordon Ryan and Giancarlo Bodoni as a member of his team. Exposure to a training room with levels that high for years on end obviously turns anyone into an excellent grappler.
Santos might share the mats with some of the best competitors in the world but he actually has a full-time job and a large family around him that he dedicates his time to. That’s exactly what makes his consistent drive for improvement as a grappler all the more impressive. Although Santos might be known as the man that Danaher uses to demonstrate techniques, he’s also put in some great performances on the competition mats recently too. His journey through the colored belt ranks has been a long one but he reached the final step a little under a year ago when he was awarded his brown belt.
He registered his biggest achievement at the time just a few months after this, when he managed to win the under 91kg division at the ADCC US National Championship 2025. He soared beyond that before the end of the year to hit a whole new level though, as he submitted every single opponent in his weight class at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship 2025. With a brown belt world title to his name, this meant that Santos was eligible to skip the mandatory time restrictions on belt promotion. Danaher has now used that ability and awarded him his black belt after just 11 months as a brown belt.
Placido Santos announced the news that he had been promoted to BJJ black belt by John Danaher in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
