Keen eyes have been closely following the rise of 22-year-old Uanderson Ferreira, who — as a brown belt — demonstrated the potential to be a big name among the world's jiu-jitsu elite. 

The athlete, born in Rio de Janeiro and now living in the United Arab Emirates, proved he could live up to the hype at the 2023 IBJJF London Open last Saturday.

The key marker for Uanderson was the nature of his debut. Only 14 days after being promoted to black belt, Uanderson joined the medium heavyweight bracket at the London Open where he faced three opponents — submitting two — and securing the necessary ranking points to register for the IBJJF Pans, which starts on March 21st.

“Since it's closer to Abu Dhabi, my teacher Marcio Carreira scheduled me to compete at the London Open after the Europeans,” Uanderson said in an interview with Flograppling. “The intention was to win the championship and add up points to fight the Pan as a black belt, and everything worked out.”

Uanderson started to make waves against well-known black belt names after winning the AJP’s Abu Dhabi World Pro Jiu-Jitsu 2021 as a brown belt. After winning AJP gold in the brown belt ranks, Uanderson became ineligible to continue competing among brown belts, instead being forced to face black belts in future tournaments. One of those was the AJP King of Mats, where he competed and won against four top-flight black belts. Earning this kind of experience early in his brown belt days paved his way toward a successful black belt debut.

“The time at the black belt matches is longer, and the opponents are very cautious," Ferreira said. "It's harder to get my game up and running right from the start. Everything has to be better planned. I studied a lot and adapted my game to be able to face the black belts after moving up the ranks in the AJP. This evolved my game a lot faster than expected. I arrived much more prepared at black belt."

Uplifted by his victory at the Jiu-Jitsu European Championship in Paris, where he won double gold, Uanderson won three bouts on his way to the medium heavyweight podium in London.

“They were three very tough fights," he said. "The first, against Erick Souza, I took him down, got his back, and finished with a collar choke. In the semifinal, against Jansen Gomes, I managed to score the takedown to win 2-0 on points. The title fight was against Faris Benlamkadem, he pulled guard and worked at the one-leg guard, and I countered by attacking the armbar from that position, to win by submission."

With his successful debut and the rankings points secured to compete the Pans, Uanderson took yet another step towards his more ambitious and greater goal: to stand alongside the greatest names of the Jiu-Jitsu elite.

“I was very happy with the gold medal, it was a childhood dream of mine. But I am not satisfied with just this title. The year is just beginning, and I want to go even further. The work continues.”