Arley Pacheco

Arley Pacheco was born on March 02, 1999, in Pedra Azul, a city in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Growing up, he channeled his athletic energy into football (soccer), envisioning his future firmly planted on the pitch. That trajectory shifted decisively in 2012, when his neighbor — local black belt Roberto Andrade — persuaded the then-13-year-old to step onto the jiu-jitsu mats for the first time.

What began as curiosity quickly evolved into commitment. Under Roberto Andrade's guidance, BJJ gradually eclipsed football as Pacheco's primary sporting focus. Andrade shepherded him through the junior, juvenile, and blue belt stages, laying the technical and competitive foundation that would define Pacheco's rise through the sport.

After earning his blue belt, Pacheco's ambitions outgrew his original training environment. With a clear goal of pursuing jiu-jitsu as a full-time career, he sought a more competitive setting — and found it at Cassão Team, the Gracie Barra satellite gym in Minas Gerais run by Cassio Francis, an academy recognized as one of the sport's most productive talent incubators. Under Francis' instruction, Pacheco earned his purple belt and continued to sharpen his game against high-level training partners.

His development reached its next stage at FP Gold Team, the hand-picked squad of full-time competitors sponsored and led by Felipe Pena and Felipe Preguiça. The team's rigorous, competition-oriented environment proved an ideal proving ground. Felipe Pena promoted Pacheco to brown belt, and their training relationship reached its milestone on December 24, 2022, when Pacheco received his black belt — the culmination of a decade's dedication since first stepping onto the mats in Pedra Azul.

The 2022 competition season represented the defining chapter of Arley Pacheco's pre-black belt career. Competing in the Peso Médio division (82.30 kg / 181.5 lbs), Pacheco delivered his most commanding performances on the sport's biggest stages. His season peaked with a gold medal at the 2022 IBJJF World Championship — the most prestigious title in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — announcing him as one of the most dangerous competitors of his generation. He also reached the podium in the absolute division at the same event, earning third place against a field cutting across multiple weight classes.

The World Championship title was not an isolated result. Earlier in 2022, Pacheco secured first place at the AJP Brazilian World Pro Qualifier and added podium finishes at the IBJJF Pan Championship and the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals, both at brown belt. The consistency of his performances across multiple formats and organizations made a compelling case for his readiness for the sport's highest rank — a readiness that Felipe Pena formalized on December 24, 2022, with Pacheco's black belt promotion.

Long before his brown belt campaign, Pacheco had already demonstrated the competitive instincts that would carry him to world-level success. As a blue belt in 2019, he reached the final of the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals — earning second place — and collected a third-place finish at the 2019 IBJJF European Open, a result that signaled his international competitiveness well before his move to the sport's elite training circuits.

The purple belt years brought further validation. In 2021, competing through Gracie Barra-affiliated programs, Pacheco won gold at the AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro and claimed first place at the CBJJ South American Championship in the no-gi format — results that demonstrated his versatility across both gi and no-gi competition. From the earliest stages of his career, Pacheco displayed the technical precision and podium reliability that would later make him a brown belt world champion and set the stage for his black belt career with FP Gold Team.