Cláudio Calasans "Juninho"

Cláudio Calasans Camargo Junior was born on October 11, 1983, in São José dos Campos, Brazil, into a family already steeped in grappling tradition. His father, Camargo Calasans, was a judo master, and Cláudio began training judo at only three years old. It was not until he was fifteen that he picked up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, initially as a way to sharpen his groundwork rather than as a separate pursuit, training at the Liga Jiu-Jitsu academy in his hometown.

Calasans rose through the belts at Liga Jiu-Jitsu and received his black belt at the end of 2006 from his longtime coach, Erivaldo Junior. Around that time he also competed for the Brazilian national wrestling team, an experience that fed directly into the takedown-heavy, top-position style that would define his jiu-jitsu career. A pivotal turn came when his friend André Galvão, who had recently founded Atos Jiu-Jitsu, invited him to join the academy; Calasans accepted and has represented Atos, alongside training partners such as Guilherme and Rafael Mendes, ever since.

After moving up from lightweight to the middleweight division around 2009, Calasans became one of the circuit's most consistent gi competitors of the following decade. He collected IBJJF Pan American titles in 2011 and 2012, European Open gold in 2011, 2013, and 2014, and repeated Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship medals through the early-to-mid 2010s. His signature year was 2015, when he added both an ADCC World Championship gold medal and an IBJJF World Championship title at middleweight to his résumé, cementing his place among the era's elite gi-and-no-gi hybrid competitors.

Technically, Calasans is best known as a wrist-lock specialist, using the submission as a constant threat from top position to force opponents into worse exchanges. That combination of judo-derived takedowns, wrestling pressure, and painful leg-and-arm attacks made him difficult to game-plan against throughout his prime years on the IBJJF and ADCC circuits.

In the 2020s, Calasans has gradually shifted his primary focus toward coaching, mentoring emerging competitors while remaining active in masters-level competition. In 2025, at age 42, he won gold in the 40-44 masters division at the Judo World Championship, a result that made him the first grappler on record to hold world titles across ADCC, IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Worlds, and Judo — an unusual triple that underlines both his judo pedigree and his longevity in combat sports.

Today, Calasans is regarded as much for his coaching and content creation as for his competitive resume, running seminars and instructional content while continuing to compete selectively at the masters level in both jiu-jitsu and judo.

A judo-rooted top game built on takedowns and pinning pressure, punctuated by a wrestling background and a well-earned reputation as one of the sport's most dan