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Photos: Ingrid Anne Jacobsen
Eduardo Roque cut to the featherweight division to claim a gold medal at the 2021 IBJJF Worlds, a title Roque has coveted since he was a kid.
The brown belt from Start Jiu Jitsu has been living in Florida with his coach professor Gordinho Lima. He spends his time working odd jobs and traveling to any and every jiu jitsu tournament he can.
Don’t get confused by his blonde hair and blue eyes, and typical “playboy appearance” that earned him and his sister the nickname “Abercrombie and Fitch”. These two know how to scrape! Roque and his sister Camila were raised on the Gigoia Island in Barra da Tijuca where there wasn’t much else to do but train.
“Jiu Jitsu”, he says in an interview on Flograppling, “has changed his life in ways you can’t even imagine”.
The kids from the social project where Roque and his sister Camila come from are, in fact, some of the most disciplined kids you’ll ever see run through a warm up. All under the watchful eye of Neovan Oliveira da Costa aka Perninha.
Perninha is a black belt under Eduardo Lima from Gordo BJJ. He alternates between teaching kids classes at the academy in Barra and running his own project on the island not far away.
It was there at the project that is now called Start Jiu Jitsu Gigoia, that Eduardo received his black belt, in a packed house full of family and friends who he hasn’t been able to see for the last 2 years.
Eduardo Roque Returns to Brazil for His Black Belt
