Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza is the ultimate grappler with world class ground game and fantastic stand up takedown game. He is a BJJ and Judo black belt formed at ASLE academy with his first instructor Henrique Machado. Contrary to popular belief, Jacare did not have a classical Judo background where one would start training Judo and then transition to BJJ (Saulo Ribeiro for example). He was always training BJJ and Judo at the same time at ASLE academy with Machado who believed in his students having a complete game. His priority was always BJJ.

Souza was born in Vila Velha, Brazil, was raised in Cariacica, Brazil until the age of 15, and competed in football as a goalkeeper. Souza had a rough upbringing, and on the day he turned 15, he saw one of his good friends get shot to death. After this event, Souza’s mother moved him to Manaus to go live with his brother and started training Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he was 17. He is a five-time World Jiu-Jitsu Champion, including gold medals in the Openweight class in 2003, 2004 and 2005. His other credentials include the 2005 77–87 kg ADCC Champion and the 2005 ADCC Absolute Division runner-up, only losing to Roger Gracie who outweighed him by approximately 25 lbs. Along with Roger Gracie and Marcelo Garcia, Souza is widely considered to be among the greatest BJJ practitioners of his time.

Jacare’s takedown game was so dominant in high level BJJ competitions that many wondered if he could have the same success if he transitioned to high level Judo. In 2004’s there was talk of organising a grappling superfight between Brazil’s Olympic bronze medalist Flavio Canto and Jacare, who was then the world bjj champion. The project never came to life.

Jacare’s background and success is a good indicator that having an academy with a good all around game and teaching modified Judo throws and takedowns for BJJ on a regular basis is the way to go.

Check out this amazing takedown highlight of Jacare over the years.

You can see Jacare’s specialities of uchi mata, harai goshi, o soto gari, ko soto gari, o uchi gari, de ashi barai, yoko tomoe nage, some seoi nage attempts.

Learn how to wrestle in the gi from one of BJJ’s most successful champions ever, Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida.
Buchecha explains his concepts around how to read his opponents and choosing which takedown is best, how he breaks stubborn grips, and how even much smaller fighters can still find success by focusing on these fundamentals.