BJJ legend Vinicius ‘Draculino’ Magalhaes has just been promoted to coral belt after spending more than three decades as a black belt. It’s one of the highest ranks that a practitioner can achieve and it marks an incredible 31 years as a black belt, a rank that normally takes around a decade to achieve in the first place. For most people who manage to become one of the select few BJJ coral belts in the world, it will mean that they’ve spent the majority of their life on the mats. Even those who reach the rank at a comparatively young age, it represents tens of thousands of hours on the mat.
Magalhaes started his martial arts career with Judo as a child, like many Brazilian grapplers have done both before and after him. He started the sport at just 7 years old and eventually reached the rank of orange belt, but it was in the 1980s that he discovered Jiu-Jitsu. After almost a year of training, he found his way to the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Club; now known as Gracie Barra. It was there that he started training under Jean Jacques Machado, back when he was just a purple belt. Magalhaes reached the rank of purple belt under Machado but both his brown and black belts were awarded by Carlos Gracie Jr.
After being promoted to black belt in 1995, Maglhaes moved to Belo Horizonte and opened the very first Gracie Barra Academy outside of Rio de Janeiro. He won several major titles competing in the 90s, competed at ADCC 1999, and even went 2-1 in professional MMA as well. Although Magalhaes had a successful career as a competitor, he is best known for his work as a coach these days. He’s promoted well over a hundred black belts and has had a hand in the development of several elite competitors after him; like Romulo Barral, Alberto Crane, and Samuel Braga.
Gracie Barra Headquarters in Floripa announced the news that Vinicius ‘Draculino’ Magalhaes had been promoted to BJJ coral belt in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
