Rafael "Formiga" Barbosa "Formiga"

Rafael Barbosa was born January 8, 1983, in Rio de Janeiro, and got his now-famous nickname almost by accident: he started training jiu-jitsu at eleven years old, the smallest and youngest body in a class full of grown men, and his coach began calling him "Formiguinha" — little ant. Teammates shortened it to "Formiga," and it stuck for the rest of his career. He earned every belt, including his black belt in 2002, under André "Dedeco" Almeida.

Formiga built his competitive reputation almost entirely around one guard: the butterfly. Long before the butterfly guard became a staple of modern lightweight and welterweight jiu-jitsu, Formiga was using it — paired with an equally sharp X-guard — to sweep and control opponents who often outweighed and out-ranked him. Over a career spanning two decades, that guard game turned him into one of the most decorated masters-division competitors the IBJJF has ever produced: he has collected double-digit master world titles, more than a dozen Pan American gold medals, multiple European titles, a World Pro title, and Brazilian national championships, along with notable wins over younger black belts including Clark Gracie.

In 2007 and 2008, Formiga joined forces with Bruno "Tank" Mendes, Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes, and Leandro "Tatu" Escobar — with Master Álvaro Mansur joining shortly after — to found Soul Fighters, a team that grew into one of Brazil's most competitively successful academies during Formiga's more than a decade there. In 2019, he left the team he had co-founded to start a new chapter, partnering with João Gabriel Rocha to launch Double Five (D5), an association that has since expanded from its original Connecticut roots into Texas, where Formiga now runs the Rafael Formiga Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

What makes Formiga unusual among fighters his age is that he never really stopped competing. Long after most of his contemporaries moved into full-time coaching, Formiga kept entering — and winning — IBJJF Masters divisions well into his forties, holding a No. 1 ranking in the IBJJF Masters rankings and still appearing on 2026 competition brackets, including an IBJJF Master International event and a spot in a BJJ Stars Masters grand prix. That combination of longevity and a guard style built on timing and hip movement rather than raw strength has made him something of a template for how to keep competing at a high level deep into a masters career.

Away from the competition mats, Formiga has become a respected instructor in his own right, teaching seminars across the U.S. and building Double Five into a growing regional presence in American jiu-jitsu. His social media, run through @rafael_formiga, bills him bluntly and accurately as a multiple-time world master champion and Double Five head coach — a fair summary of a career defined less by a single signature tournament win and more by two decades of remarkably consistent excellence in one of the sport's most competitive age brackets.

Butterfly and X-guard specialist built on timing, hip movement, and sweeps rather than strength