Robson Moura

Robson Moura, also known as “Robinho”, is one of the greatest competitors in jiu jitsu’s super featherweight division, a weight class he dominated for years achieving 6 world titles in his career. After retiring (unofficially) from his competitive career, Robson Moura dedicated his full attention to his coaching activities in the United States where he developed his own association RMNU (Robson Moura Nations United) one of the most respected grappling affiliations in the US.

Robson Moura Jiu Jitsu

Nickname: Robinho is a friendly way of saying robson in Portuguese, kind of like “Little Robson”

Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Carlson Gracie > Andre Pederneiras > Robson Moura

Main Achievements:

• IBJJF World Champion (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007)
• CBJJO World Cup Champion (2002)
• CBJJ Brazilian National Champion (1998)
• IBJJF World Championship 3rd Place (2001)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• IBJJF World Champion (1996 purple)
• IBJJF Pan American Champion (1996 brown)
• CBJJ Brazilian National Champion (1996 brown)

Weight Division: Super Featherweight (64kg-161lbs)

Favourite Technique: Good overall game

Affiliation: RMNU

Robson Moura Biography

Robson Moura was born on the 23rd of March, 1978 in Brazil. He started training Jiu Jitsu very early in life, when he was just 10 years old with his father’s backing. His very first instructor was Ailson “Jucao” Brites in his hometown of Teresópolis, which is located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Robson wanted to follow the footsteps of his BJJ idols, so he started training 2 and 3 times per day and competed for the first time in a local competition when he was only 13 years of age.

Unforeseen circumstances had “Jucao” moving away from Teresópolis, leaving “Robinho” without a coach. This however did not detour Moura from his path to becoming a Jiu Jitsu black belt. With the BJJ bug already fully installed in him he sought out the best lightweight team in the World at the time, the famous Nova Uniao led by André Pederneiras and Wendell Alexander. This new partnership proved to be very fruitful as Robson kept on winning tournaments left and right, culminating this great period with a fantastic win at the World Championships in 1996 as a purple belt.

Going against the minimum time frame guidelines approved by the Jiu Jitsu Federation, his coaches decided to promote Robson Moura to black belt the following year to compete at the highest level possible, the Mundials (World Championships). Robinho did not disappoint winning the tournament in amazing fashion.

An interesting story came with Robson Moura came out in 2010, issued by Tatame Magazine, regarding Moura’s 1999 world title campaign. Robson told the acclaimed source that:

In 1999, we were going to Rio to compete in the world championship. There was me, ‘Demente‘, my wife and a student, Rodrigo Ribas. We left Ribeirão Preto (E.N.: where Robson lived and taught BJJ at the time) and suffered a bad car crash, I was driving. We capsized, it was very ugly, the car was destroyed, I do not know how we came out alive. I looked at him (Ricardo) and said “I guess we will need to take the bus”. Rodrigo was hurt and had to stay home Demente and I caught the bus and headed to Rio. We did not mention it to anyone and achieved great results. If I remember correctly, the Ricardo placed second in blue youth category I was champion.

During the following years, this Nova Uniao prodigy had successive wins in the Mundial and lot’s of other important championships like the CBJJO (World Cup). He stopped competing for a few years in an attempt to establish the RMNU association (Robson Moura Nations United) in the United States. Robson had already some well established schools in Brazil, being his Ribeirao Preto academy the most famous one, but decided the USA was the future of the sport and embarked on the project of building a successful academy there.

After establishing his school, Robson decided to have another stab at the World Championship Gold Medal, it had been 5 years since his last attempt but Moura and his amazing technique came through as he won the 2007 Gold. Not only is Robinho a master competitor, but he is also a successful coach being Augusto Cruz and Ricardo Abreu his most acknowledged standouts.

Robson MOura vs Armando Conde – 1997 World Championship Final

Robson Moura Video Highlight from Grapplers Quest