Evandro Nunes

Evandro Nunes was born on June 12, 1990, in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Brazil. His early years were marked by movement — his family relocated multiple times within the state before settling in Ribeirão Preto, the city that would become the backdrop for his formative years in martial arts. Through those transitions, his father served as a steadying presence, instilling in Nunes a strong moral foundation and disciplined approach to life that would later define his conduct on and off the mats.

Around 2005, Nunes discovered mixed martial arts, which served as his initial gateway into the grappling arts. Through MMA, he encountered no-gi jiu-jitsu for the first time — and the exposure proved transformative. Where striking demanded a broad skillset, grappling captured his focus in a way nothing else had. That early immersion in submission-based training planted the seed of a philosophy he would carry throughout his entire career: the finish is always the goal.

As Nunes deepened his commitment to jiu-jitsu, he came under the instruction of Márcio Barão at a Ryan Gracie Academy affiliate in Ribeirão Preto. The relationship between athlete and coach became one of the most defining of his career. Barão reinforced what Nunes had already begun to embrace naturally — a rejection of the point-accumulation strategy that governs so much of competitive jiu-jitsu in favor of relentlessly hunting the submission. That coaching philosophy became the cornerstone of Nunes' competitive identity and shaped every performance he delivered on the mat.

Even as a blue belt, Nunes demonstrated an aptitude for teaching, beginning to coach others long before he had reached the upper ranks himself. That dual role as student and instructor reflected both his deep understanding of the art and his commitment to sharing it. His decision to relocate to the United States as a brown belt represented a significant bet on himself, moving to California to pursue jiu-jitsu at the highest level. The investment paid off: in December 2013, Márcio Barão awarded Nunes his black belt, formalizing a journey that had begun years earlier on the mats of Ribeirão Preto.

The 2013 competitive season stands as one of the most productive brown belt campaigns of Nunes' career, defined by a string of gold medal performances across the IBJJF circuit. The crown jewel of that year came at the 2013 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, where Nunes claimed first place in the brown belt super heavy division — finishing the tournament undefeated, with every match won by submission. The performance was a definitive statement of both technical excellence and philosophical conviction.

That title was far from an isolated result. Nunes also captured gold at the IBJJF American Nationals in both gi and no-gi formats, swept the IBJJF Miami Open, and added a Las Vegas Summer Open title to his résumé. The cumulative picture was of an athlete who did not merely win tournaments — he won them on his own terms, through submission finishes that left no ambiguity about his dominance. The consistency of those finishes across different formats and opponents validated every choice he and Márcio Barão had made in building his game.

A Competitive Identity Built on the Finish

Nunes' reputation within the BJJ community rests as much on how he wins as on how often he wins. His unwavering commitment to finishing by submission — rather than managing leads through the points system — sets him apart in an era where strategic point accumulation has become increasingly prevalent at the elite level. For Nunes, this approach is not a stylistic preference but a competitive identity forged through years of coaching under Márcio Barão, who emphasized the submission as the only true measure of a match's resolution.

The Triangle Choke as a Defining Weapon

At the center of Nunes' technical arsenal sits the Triangle Choke — his most identifiable and frequently deployed weapon. The technique reflects the broader character of his jiu-jitsu: guard-based, offensively minded, and oriented toward control that ends in a finish. His ability to threaten the triangle from multiple entries and setups forces opponents into defensive postures that compound over the course of a match, creating the openings his style is built to exploit. The sweep of the 2013 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, completed without a single match going to a decision, remains the clearest illustration of that philosophy translated into results.

Establishing Roots as Competitor and Educator

Nunes' relocation to California marked the beginning of a new chapter in which his roles as competitor and educator became equally central. He established himself as an instructor at Gracie University, embedding himself in an institution that places the transmission of jiu-jitsu knowledge at the heart of its mission. That position reflected the full arc of his development — from a blue belt who began coaching in Brazil, to a black belt contributing to the professional structure of one of the sport's recognized academies.

A Dominant 2015 Season at the Black Belt Level

On the competitive side, the 2015 season demonstrated that Nunes had made a seamless transition into the black belt division. He swept the Gracie Nationals by capturing gold in both the gi and no-gi championships, then backed that up with two NAGA Las Vegas titles in the same year — confirming his effectiveness across formats. At the IBJJF level, he reached the podium at the Pan Championship and the American Nationals, events that draw some of the most competitive fields in the world. The 2015 results confirmed that the submission-focused approach he had refined as a brown belt had lost none of its potency at the sport's highest tier.