Samuel Canquerino

Samuel Canquerino was born in February 1985 in Caxias do Sul, a city nestled in the Serra Gaúcha region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The region had little established jiu-jitsu tradition during his youth — a reality that shaped the conditions of his early development as a grappler. Before finding the mats, Canquerino channeled his athletic energy into football (soccer), competing extensively through his early and mid-teens. Despite moderate success on the pitch, he found himself searching for a deeper sense of purpose that the sport could not provide.

At 16, in 2001, Canquerino took a decisive step and joined a local jiu-jitsu club run by Rodrigo Dias and Alex Silva — both purple belts at the time. Their club was affiliated with Academia Sul Jiu-Jitsu, a pioneering team from southern Brazil founded by Ze Mario Sperry and Walter Mattos. That his first instructors had not yet reached black belt rank speaks directly to how underdeveloped the BJJ landscape was in southern Brazil during that era. Training far from the established centers of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Canquerino nonetheless found immediate competitive footing on the CBJJ circuit, Brazil's premier domestic league.

His colored belt career produced results that belied his peripheral training environment. At blue belt, he placed 2nd at the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals in 2005 and earned 3rd at the IBJJF World Championship that same year. Advancing to purple belt, he claimed gold at the CBJJ Sul Brasileiro Championship in 2006, further demonstrating his ability to perform at a national level despite the structural limitations of training in Caxias do Sul. On September 18, 2008, Alex Silva and Rodrigo Dias formally promoted Canquerino to black belt — a recognition earned through a competitive record built entirely under their guidance.

Following his black belt promotion in September 2008, Canquerino continued training while navigating the realities of building a competitive career without access to the professional infrastructure that defined BJJ in Brazil's major cities. His transition to the black belt division began with immediate validation: he won the IBJJF South American Championship in 2008, signaling that his potential would translate well beyond the colored belt divisions.

The trajectory of his career shifted fundamentally in mid-2009, when Canquerino accepted an invitation to relocate to the United Arab Emirates. The opportunity involved contributing to a government-backed nationalized jiu-jitsu program — one of the earliest and most ambitious state-sponsored initiatives to integrate BJJ into a country's public institutions, including its school system. The move placed Canquerino at the center of an emerging global BJJ hub at a formative moment in the sport's international expansion.

Despite the significant coaching and administrative responsibilities that came with the UAE program, Canquerino remained an active competitor. He placed 2nd at the AJP Asian Summer Cup in 2009, demonstrating competitive sharpness shortly after his arrival. Through sustained performance on the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation (UAEJJF) circuit — the body that would later evolve into the AJP Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Pro Tour — he built a reputation as one of the prominent grappling figures associated with the UAE's burgeoning scene. Those early years in Abu Dhabi laid the foundation for what would become his most defining competitive chapter.

The Abu Dhabi World Pro became the most significant competitive stage of Samuel Canquerino's open division career, and his performances there defined his standing in international BJJ. In 2012, Canquerino claimed gold at the 2012 AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro in the -70 kg division, defeating Isaque Paiva by a dominant 15-0 points margin. The one-sided scoreline reflected not merely technical superiority but a commanding performance against an opponent of genuine caliber. Worth noting, this victory came in the -70 kg division — a category distinct from and below the Peso Leve/Light division (70–76 kg) — a distinction material to understanding the weight class context of his achievement.

The 2012 title was no isolated flash of brilliance. Canquerino returned to the Abu Dhabi World Pro in 2013 and again reached the final, finishing as runner-up and demonstrating the kind of sustained elite performance across consecutive years that separates genuine contenders from one-time successes.

Years later, transitioning through the Masters divisions, Canquerino produced one of the more remarkable bookends to an AJP career when he won the 2020 AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro in the Masters 2 division. Two Abu Dhabi World Pro titles separated by eight years — one at the peak of his open division career, one at the summit of Masters 2 competition — form the structural pillars of a career arc defined by consistency across very different competitive eras.

Rather than tapering off as he moved through the Masters divisions, Canquerino's competitive output remained prolific and his results consistently strong. In 2016, he won the 2016 AJP Grand Slam London in the Masters 1 division, claiming gold at one of the AJP circuit's flagship Grand Slam events. The following year, at the 2017 AJP Grand Slam Abu Dhabi No-Gi, he reached the final again in the Masters 1 category, finishing as runner-up and reinforcing his versatility across both gi and no-gi formats.

In 2019, Canquerino competed at the IBJJF German Nationals and produced a strong double-podium performance — winning gold in the no-gi division while earning silver in the gi — demonstrating competitive range at a significant IBJJF event in Europe and underlining the continued depth he faced at the highest levels of age-bracket competition.

His Masters circuit record continued to grow in the years that followed. He finished 2nd at the 2020 AJP Asian National Pro in the Masters 2 division and 2nd at the 2021 AJP UAE National Pro in the same category. At the IBJJF level, he reached the podium at the 2021 IBJJF Pan Championship (3rd place, Masters 2) and the 2022 IBJJF Masters World Championship (3rd place, Masters 2). Taken together, this body of work through his late thirties reflects a competitor who maintained elite training standards and continued to test himself against the strongest fields in Masters competition well beyond the point at which many grapplers step back from serious contention.

Samuel Canquerino's contribution to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu extends well beyond his competitive record. When he relocated to the United Arab Emirates in mid-2009, his arrival was tied directly to a government-initiated nationalized jiu-jitsu project — an ambitious program designed to embed grappling into the UAE's public institutions, including the national school system. It stood among the earliest examples of a state formally adopting BJJ as part of its cultural and educational infrastructure, and Canquerino was among the coaches brought in to help build and execute it.

Serving as an instructor across multiple institutions in the UAE, Canquerino occupied a dual role that few competitors manage: remaining an active, medal-contending athlete while simultaneously shouldering the responsibilities of a full-time coach within a nationally significant development program. His presence on the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation circuit gave him visibility as both practitioner and representative of the program's broader ambitions.

Across different phases of his career, Canquerino has represented Sul JJ, BTT, and Fight Sports — a trajectory that mirrors his journey from a small affiliate club in southern Brazil to one of the world's most active BJJ environments. The nationalized program he helped establish in the UAE contributed directly to the country's emergence as a global hub for the sport, setting the conditions that made events like the Abu Dhabi World Pro and the broader AJP circuit possible in their current form.