Ronaldo Junior has just received the first degree on his BJJ black belt in a ceremony led by ATOS founder and the head coach of the organization, Andre Galvao. As with all degrees given to black belts, this was based on time spent at that level as Junior has now been a black belt for four years now. Regardless, he’s a top competitor in the sport and in that relatively short space of time he’s had over a hundred matches against some of the best grapplers in the sport.
His crowning achievement came in 2020, when he won the IBJJF Pan Championship both in the gi and in no gi in the same year. He regularly reaches the podium at major IBJJF events too, although he is one of many competitors at middleweight who has been prevented from winning those events by Tainan Dalpra on several occasions. Junior wins the vast majority of his matches regardless and has managed to defeat some huge names over the last few years like Johnatha Alves, Manuel Ribamar, and Elder Cruz. He’s notoriously difficult to submit too, and has only been forced to tap twice in his black belt career.
He’s established himself as one of the top competitors in his weight class over the last few years and a recent move to medium-heavyweight has been paying off with some great results. Although Ronaldo Junior was the only athlete to receive his first degree in the ceremony at ATOS, he wasn’t alone entirely alone as JT Torres received the fourth degree on his black belt. There were a few coloured belt promotions handed out to top young prospects at the same time too, along with a pair of exciting grapplers joining the ranks of ATOS black belts.
Ronaldo Junior announced the news that he had received the first degree on his BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
