Maurício Oliveira Neto

Maurício Oliveira Neto is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Júlio César Pereira who represented the GFT academy in the sport’s international circuit during the early stages of his career, later switching to the Dream Art Project team in São Paulo, Brazil. Maurício Oliveira made a name for himself as one of the sport’s biggest stars after sequential International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) World titles in the blue, purple and brown belt divisions (2016, 2017, 2018) becoming instantly recognized as one of the top grapplers of his generation.

Maurício Oliveira Jiu Jitsu

Full Name: Maurício de Oliveira Santos Neto

Nickname: N/A

Lineage: Luis França > Oswaldo Fadda > Monir Salomão > Júlio César > Maurício Oliveira

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2021)
• 1st Place AJP Grand Slam, AD (2021)
• 1st Place AJP Grand Slam, LA (2019)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• 1st Place IBJJF World Championship (2016 blue / 2017 purple / 2018 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF Pans Championship (2018 brown)
• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2016 blue)
• 1st Place UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro (2017 purple)
• 1st Place UAEJJF Grand Slam – RJ (2016 purple)
• 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2016* blue)
• 3rd Place IBJJF World Championship (2018* brown)

Favorite Position/Technique: Back Attack

Weight Division: Meio Pesado (88,30 kg /195.0 lbs)

Team/Association: Dream Art

Maurício Oliveira Biography

Maurício Oliveira Neto was born on October 24, 1997 in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia. Growing up in an impoverished area (São Caetano) of Salvador, Maurício spent his days playing street soccer and didn’t see his life without this activity.

The always present street violence felt in his neighborhood helped Oliveira’s brother-in-law convince Maurício to try a jiu-jitsu class when he was 14 years old, under the pretext of learning self-defense. Coach Zé Carlos taught BJJ classes for free at a local association and it was he who initiated the young teenager in grappling.

Carlos was forced to abandon the project after a few months, leading Maurício to join Zé Carlos’ own instructor Master Sinho Baiano. He stayed with Master Sinho for over 1 year, and in the meantime befriended another well-known Salvador instructor, Mr. Grimaldo Oliveira a GF Team representative in the region.

Grimaldo saw tremendous potential in Maurício Oliveira and invited him to come and train at the GFT headquarters in Rio. Given that Maurício was just 16 years old, Master Oliveira helped convince the boy’s mother who allowed Neto to come and live his dream in the big city.

Maurício Oliveira arrived as a blue belt and spent the following 3 years living at GFT’s academy, in a room the students nicknamed “Cachanga” which was located above the mats (Cachanga usually translates to a place inhabited by people of lower social strata). There Maurício had the opportunity to live and breathe jiu-jitsu 24 hours per day, training under Júlio César.

In 2016 a good friend and teammate of Maurício – Gutemberg Pereira moved to Ohio in the United States. Gutemberg knew Oliveira from the days of Salvador when they had trained together, having also been a part of the same GFT flag also for a few years. The friendship between the two athletes kept very much alive and in 2017 Pereira invited Maurício to visit the United States to train in Ohio at the local GFTeam camp, an offer accepted by the young grappler. After this first contact Oliveira remained as a regular member and representative of the Ohio-based GFT.

In June 2018, after conquering his third IBJJF world title in a row, Maurício Oliveira Neto was promoted to black belt by his longtime instructor Júlio César Pereira. In 2020, however, after returning to Brazil, Oliveira joined the São Paulo based team, Dream Art.