Ruan de Oliveira

Ruan de Oliveira is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Múzio de Angelis and Leandro Escobar. Ruan stood out in the lower belts of the sport, particularly during his brown belt campaign (2014/2015) for his success on the mat, as well as for his eye-pleasing grappling style, with which he conquered important medals at the World Championship, Rio International Open as well as the UAEJJF Grand Slam Tour (Rio).

Ruan de Oliveira Jiu Jitsu

Full Name: Ruan Marques de Oliveira

Nickname: n/a

Lineage 1: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti > Roberto Traven >Múzio de Angelis > Ruan de Oliveira

Lineage 2: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie >Carlson Gracie > Crézio de Souza > André Almeida > Leandro Escobar > Ruan de Oliveira

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place FJJR Rio State (2014**)
• 1st Place Copa Podio Trials (2019)
• 1st Place BJJ Tour (2014**)
• 2nd Place South American (2018)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Rio Summer Open (2016)
• 2nd Place UAEJJF Brazil National Pro (2015)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Sao Paulo BJJ Pro (2016)
• 3rd Place UAEJJF Grand Slam – RJ (2017/2015)
• 3rd Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2016)

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian National Champion (2010 blue)
• 1st Place IBJJF Rio BJJ Pro Champion (2014* brown)
• 1st Place FJJR Rio State (2012** purple, 2013 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF Rio Open (2008 blue)
• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2014 brown)
• 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2015 brown)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Brazil Nationals No-Gi (2009 blue)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Rio BJJ Pro (2014 brown)
• 2nd Place IBJJF Rio Open 2nd Place (2012 purple)
• IBJJF Rio Fall Open 2nd Place (2015 brown)
• 2nd Place CBJJ Juvenile Brazilian Nationals (2008)
• 3rd Place UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Pro (2014 brown)
• 3rd Place CBJJ Juvenile Brazilian Nationals (2008*)

* Absolute
** Weight and absolute

Favorite Position/Technique: Closed Guard

Weight Division: Meio Pesado (88kg/194lbs)

Team/Association: Soul Fighters

Ruan Oliveira Biography

Ruan Oliveira was born on the 25th of June, 1992 in Rio de Janeiro – Brazil.

Growing up Ruan tried different martial arts such as capoeira (age 7) and judo (age 10),though he did not give continuity to either.

The opportunity to train jiu jitsu occurred when he was 13 years old through a friend of Ruan’s father. The story goes that after his father’s store computer broke down an IT expert friend came to the rescue. This friend (João) who came by to fix the PC, brought his kimono with him, wrapped up in his brown belt as he was on his way to jiu jitsu practice. Ruan was curious about jiu jitsu as his cousins practiced the art but had never seen it, so he asked if João could take him to watch a class.

It was a wednesday when João took Ruan to watch a training session at his academy, “Gávea Gym”. Ruan immediately fell in love with the art and by the following monday he was turning up to a class with a gi in his hand. At Gávea gym Ruan’s first class was taught by Igor Silva, who taught the afternoon classes there. Soon the illustrious Múzio de Angelis took over, awarding all of Ruan Oliveira’s belts up to brown.

Quickly becoming a very dedicated jiu jitsu practitioner, in 2011 Ruan started working his strength and conditioning with Itallo Vilardo, one of the most famous PT’s in Rio de Janeiro, who specializes in grappling and mixed martial arts (MMA). Following Vilardo’s “S&C for BJJ” program were big names of the sport such as Osvaldo Moizinho, Raphael Abi Rihan, Felipe Costa, Marcos “Sonk” Antelante and many others. In the process Ruan became good friends with Antelante who invited Oliveira to come and train at the Soul Fighters headquarters in Tijuca.

Although highly talented, Ruan had never trained with a high level competition team and struggled to survive the class at Soul Fighters. He quickly understood there that he would need to train more regularly with a team such as SF to achieve success at a high level in the sport, but his school schedule did not allow him to train there without dropping the Gávea Gym. For this reason he continued training sporadically at the Tijuca academy (more regularly only when on school holiday).

After one year training under these circumstances, coach Múzio de Angelis had a serious conversation with Ruan, helping him recognize a shift to Soul Fighters would be in his best interest. Oliveira then joined SF, where his grappling abilities were sharpened by Leandro “Tatu” Escobar.

Although keeping his coaching position at Muzio de Angelis’ academy, Ruan did his competition training with Leandro Escobar at Soul Fighters. This symbiosis between Angelis and Escobar reaped many benefits, with Ruan de Oliveira breaking out as a brown belt in the top tournaments of jiu jitsu’s international circuit.

On July 4th, 2015, after a 2nd place at the IBJJF World Jiu Jitsu Championship,  Múzio de Angelis and Leandro Escobar surprised Ruan de Oliveira by awarding him his black belt in a combined coaches effort at Gávea Gym.

Original banner picture taken by William Burkhardt of BJJPix.com

Ruan Oliveira at Minas Gerais State Championship (2014)

Ruan Oliveira vs Cantidio Sentena (2014)