Marcus Ribeiro “Scooby”

Marcus Vinicius Ribeiro was born on November 17, 1996, in Mogi das Cruzes, a city situated near São Paulo, Brazil. His path to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was organic — drawn in by the enthusiastic accounts of school friends who trained and couldn't stop talking about their time on the mats. Around the age of 13 to 14, that curiosity turned into commitment, and by 2010 Ribeiro had taken his first steps onto the mat.

His first coach, Luciano Marcos, trained Ribeiro in their shared hometown of Mogi das Cruzes. Over approximately two years, Luciano laid the technical and competitive groundwork that culminated in Ribeiro's promotion to blue belt. With that foundation established, Marcus made the move to the Alliance Academy, where he began training under coach Rodolfo Ionta and set his sights on a serious competitive career.

Rodolfo Ionta played a key role in shaping Ribeiro's early development at the Alliance Academy, but it was his increasing involvement with Alliance's affiliate gym in Mooca that accelerated his rise on the international stage. Alliance Mooca earned a reputation during this period as one of the premier grappling schools in the world, driven by the exceptional coaching of Luciano Nucci, Juan Kamezawa, and Rodrigo Siqueira.

Training daily alongside elite teammates such as Dimitrius Souza and Guilherme Augusto provided the high-level competition necessary to sharpen every dimension of Ribeiro's game. The results were immediate and impressive: as a brown belt, Marcus earned medals at all four of the major IBJJF tournaments — the European Open, the Pan Championship, the Brazilian Nationals, and the World Championship. That sweep of consistency marked him as one of the most promising heavyweights of his generation.

On June 10, 2019, Luciano Nucci and Alliance team leader Fabio Gurgel formally recognized Marcus Ribeiro's decorated colored belt career by promoting him to black belt, closing one chapter and opening another.

Ribeiro wasted little time establishing himself at the black belt level. One of his earliest major titles came at the 2022 IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship, where he claimed gold — a result that announced his arrival as a serious contender in the elite division.

Absolute Division Runs

Campaigning in the open-weight absolute division became a defining feature of Ribeiro's black belt career, reflecting both his physical capability and his willingness to measure himself against the full spectrum of elite competition. At the 2023 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, he advanced through the absolute bracket all the way to the final, where he faced Victor Hugo Costa. Costa secured the gold via a combination of triangle choke and armbar, with Ribeiro earning silver — a result that carried added weight given that this came in the absolute division, separate from his super-heavyweight weight category.

2024 Season

Ribeiro carried that momentum into a strong 2024 campaign across multiple tournaments. He captured gold at the 2024 IBJJF American National Jiu-Jitsu Championship and reached the absolute division final at the 2024 IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship, earning silver. Later that year, he claimed absolute division bronze at both the 2024 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship and the 2024 IBJJF European Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Taken together, these results paint the picture of a competitor whose ambitions extend well beyond his weight class — one who has firmly established himself among the elite heavyweights on the global IBJJF circuit.