Erberth Santos

Erberth Santos de Mesquita rose from a social sports project in Boa Vista, Roraima, where he began training jiu-jitsu at age nine, into one of the most dynamic super-heavyweights of his generation. Coming up under Luiz "Guigo" Guilherme, Santos built a reputation for an unusually fast, scrambly game for a man his size, favoring explosive guard passes and back takes over the grinding pressure typical of the division. By his mid-twenties he had become a fixture on IBJJF podiums, culminating in a super-heavyweight World Championship title in 2017, the same year he also competed internationally as a partner athlete for Atos Jiu-Jitsu before eventually starting his own team, Esquadrão Brasileiro de Jiu-Jitsu.

Santos's competitive resume also includes a runner-up finish in the 2016 IBJJF World Championship absolute division, where he lost a close 6-4 decision to fellow Brazilian standout Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida, along with multiple Pan American and South American titles. Alongside his results, he earned a reputation as jiu-jitsu's self-styled "bad boy," known for trash talk, feuds with rivals, and a polarizing public persona that made him one of the sport's more talked-about figures even outside of his matches.

Santos's career was brought to an abrupt and permanent halt by a criminal case that has been extensively documented by both Brazilian and English-language BJJ media. On August 24, 2023, Santos and training partner André Pessoa were arrested in Boituva, São Paulo, accused of committing a series of armed robberies and at least four rapes involving knives, threats, and violent assault. Police recovered roughly two dozen cell phones believed to have been stolen from victims, and both men were ordered held in preventive detention the following day. On November 16, 2024, a judge in the 2nd Criminal Court handling the case convicted Santos of robbery and rape, sentencing him to 14 years, 7 months, and 21 days in prison; Pessoa, convicted of robbery but not rape, received a sentence of just over 8 years.

Following a period of public silence, Santos posted from custody expressing remorse and describing a personal reckoning with his actions and his faith. As of this writing in 2026, there is no public record of an appeal overturning the conviction or of any release, and Santos remains incarcerated. He is no longer an active competitor, and his case stands as one of the most serious criminal matters to affect a prominent competitor in the sport's modern era. This entry documents his competitive record honestly alongside the facts of his conviction, without minimizing either.

Technically, Santos will be remembered for a genuinely unusual combination of size and speed: a super-heavyweight who passed guard like a much smaller athlete and hunted the back relentlessly in scrambles. That legacy, however, is now inseparable from the criminal case that ended his career and, more importantly, from the harm inflicted on his victims.

An explosive, scramble-heavy super-heavyweight known for fast guard passing, torreando passes, and relentless back-attack hunting rather than a slow, positional