Carlos Henrique

Carlos Henrique Costa Campos, commonly known as Carlos Henrique, or as CH7, is a professional grappler and a jiu-jitsu black belt under Isaque Bahiense, who represents the Dream Art team in the sport’s international circuit. Carlos Henrique first made waves in jiu-jitsu at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) World Championship in 2022, a tournament he won as a brown belt by submitting all his opponents. After his performance, Henrique was promoted to the black belt rank where he continued his stream of positive results.

Carlos Henrique Jiu-Jitsu

Full Name: Carlos Henrique Costa Campos

Nickname: Henrique is often referred to by his teammates as CH7 (phonetically: “Cê-Aga-Setchee”) which is a tribute to the famous Portuguese football (soccer) player, Cristiano Ronaldo, whose nickname is CR7 (his initials and the number of his jersey). Ronaldo’s work ethic is legendary, known for always outworking his colleagues in practice, a characteristic that has also been an instrumental part of Carlos Henrique’s success and the reason behind his own epithet.

Lineage: Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti > Alexandre Paiva > Fernando Tererê > Rubens Charles > Michael Langhi > Isaque Bahiense > Carlos Henrique

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2023)
• 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2022)
• 2nd Place IBJJF American Nationals NOGI (2023)
• 2nd Place IBJJF American Nationals (2023)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• 1st Place IBJJF World Championship (2022 brown)
• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2020 purple, 2022 brown)
• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals NOGI (2022 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF American Nationals (2022 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF American Nationals NOGI (2022 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF European Open (2020 blue)
• 1st Place AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro (2021 purple)
• 2nd Place AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro (2022 brown)
• 3rd Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2019 blue)

Favorite Position/Technique: Well-Rounded

Weight Division: Peso Leve (76,00 kg / 168.0 lbs)

Team/Association: Dream Art

Carlos Henrique Biography

Carlos Henrique was born on July 06, 1999, in Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil, growing up in the city’s Bairro Alvorada neighborhood.

As a child, Carlos Henrique dreamt of being a professional football (soccer) player. He was an avid competitor, playing at a local club up until the age of 13, prior to finding jiu-jitsu, but despite his natural talent and desire to succeed, he grew disheartened with the lack of attention the sport offered in the state of Amazonas since the majority of opportunities went to more traditional soccer states such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

At the start of 2014, Carlos had his first interaction with martial arts through a friend who invited him to join his MMA class at a local sports club. There, Henrique learned a few basic concepts of striking and grappling but didn’t feel any particular connection with either.

Later that year, he saw a few of his neighbors carrying their folded kimonos, knotted by their belts, over the shoulder as they walked towards a jiu-jitsu class. Henrique didn’t know much about BJJ, but found the style curious and decided to have a peak inside the gym, a facility that turned out to be the local Nova União academy, which he joined after watching the training.

By the end of 2014, Henrique’s jiu-jitsu instructor approached the young student to inform him that he was up for his green belt promotion at the next graduation ceremony but needed a payment of 150 Real (Brazilian money) for the promotion. After talking to his mother, she explained that she could not afford the extra expense, and given that he could not be promoted, Carlos quickly lost the desire to invest his time in the sport and canceled his membership with NU.

A couple of months passed and he decided to return to jiu-jitsu with the local affiliate of team Checkmat, under the instruction of Ivaniel Oliveira and John Kleicy. Upon arrival, Henrique discovered a very different training environment from that which he had felt at NU, a jiu-jitsu fully geared towards competition, more refined and aggressive which drove Carlos to compete and invest in a grappling career.

Despite being fully invested in his jiu-jitsu career as a blue belt, Henrique did not have an easy time in the division. Manaus is well-known as one of the most thriving talent hubs in the sport and the level of competition saw Carlos win only two tournaments in 4 years.

In 2019, coach Ivaniel Oliveira relocated to the United States and the quantity of competition-minded training partners decreased substantially. Due to the change of circumstances, Carlos decided to try a different academy, returning to the Nova União flag, but with a different hub from the one he started his grappling journey. With a very clear idea of what he wanted for his career, Carlos soon discovered his new team also lacked the training quality he aspired to, which led him to reach out to Dream Art and apply for the squad, one of the first fully professional teams in the country.

On September 2019, Carlos Henrique joined Dream Art. He competed for the team in January 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic soon hit the world, and São Paulo – the city where Dream Arts were located – completely closed down. Due to these circumstances, all DA athletes were sent back to their cities as the gym was forced to close its doors.

Returning to Manaus in 2020, where rules weren’t as strict as in São Paulo, Carlos Henrique had the opportunity to train at the (then) satellite hub for Dream Art, the Escola Melqui Galvão, home to many of the sport’s rising stars. Under the guidance of coach Melqui Galvão, Carlos received his purple belt, in a ceremony led by Melqui and John Kleicy.

His purple belt career was short and successful as Carlos Henrique only lost one match (in the absolute division by an advantage). All other purple belt matches were fairly dominant victories, which propelled him to the brown belt division by the end of 2020, with less than 1 year as a purple belt.

Once the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, Carlos Henrique returned to São Paulo and to Dream Art. After many successes in the brown belt division, the young Manauara was promoted to black belt by team leader Isaque Bahiense, on November 2022.