Rodrigo Cavaca

Rodrigo Henriques Cavaca was born on January 27, 1981, in Santos, Brazil. A lifelong futsal player, he did not start jiu-jitsu until he was 19, drawn in after years of hearing his blue-belt friends talk about the sport. He began at a branch academy of Alliance in Santos under Professor Sarruco, but within two years moved to Team Integração, also in Santos, in search of more resources and higher-level training partners.

At Integração, Cavaca found a lasting mentor in Élcio Figueiredo, a black belt under Carlson Gracie. Five years of training under Figueiredo culminated in his black belt promotion on October 28, 2005. Cavaca went on to compete at the highest levels of the sport as a heavyweight, and 2010 stands as the peak of his competitive career: he won both the IBJJF World Championship and the CBJJ Brazilian National title in the same year, cementing his place among the elite super-heavyweights of his generation. He also collected European titles in 2009 and 2010 and reached the World final in 2009.

Technically, Cavaca became closely associated with the straight ankle lock, a leglock he helped bring into the modern gi meta at a time when the position was still underused at the highest levels. That specialization, combined with his physical pressure game, made him a distinctive competitor among the sport's super-heavyweights.

In October 2013, Cavaca left Checkmat, where he had been running an affiliate academy, to co-found Zenith BJJ alongside longtime friend and fellow competitor Robert Drysdale, with whom he had trained at Brasa. The two split leadership of the new team geographically: Drysdale built out Zenith in Las Vegas while Cavaca took charge of Zenith's flagship academy in Santos, Brazil. Zenith has since grown into an international affiliation network with academies across the Americas, Europe, and Australia.

Today Cavaca is best known not for active competition but for his work as a coach. He is credited as a key figure in the development of Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida, a 13-time world champion widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history, as well as IBJJF Hall of Famer Michelle Nicolini. His current role centers on running the Santos academy and continuing to produce high-level competitors for Zenith.

A heavy-framed guard passer and leglock specialist whose game is built around pressure passing into the straight ankle lock, a submission he helped popularize o