Judo black belt (Pan Amareican Champion and member of Brazilian national judo team), BJJ black belt (World champion 2000) and now MMA fighter, Leo Leite debuted with a victory in mixed martial arts, this past Sunday (23), at the Festival of Fights Against Crack in the Tijuca Tennis Club Gym in Rio de Janeiro, and took a liking to the new profession. Leite defeated Alessandro Macedo, with a rear naked choke in the first round, and began his career with a positive result.

In an interview with tatame (in Portuguese), Leo said that even his father, was afraid the choice of his son, supported him after the match.

Photo: Tatame

“My dream was to go to the Olympics, I was in the reserve for the Olympic team in Beijing and London. My body can not take one more Olympic training cycle, then after five years after first receiving an invitation to fight MMA, I decided to accept. I’m quite happy, stoked. After the fight, I talked to my father (BJJ black Belt Aguinaldo Leite), who was aloof, ‘Dad, climbing on top of the octogon in victory is too good, I loved it.’ He replied, ‘Son, go for it, because I liked also.’ ”

The athlete, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of Murilo Bustamante, leader of the Brazilian Top Team, where he trains, also said that continuing to compete in the World Jiu-Jitsu is in his plans.

“I want to fight in Jiu-Jitsu yet, because I felt this year that I can still compete at a high level. At age 35, I was third in the absolute, butting heads with guys like Bernardo Faria, Rodolfo Vieira, Buchecha, who are much younger. I like MMA, I want to continue and follow the steps from Murilo (Bustamante), who was champion of the UFC with 37 years old and Randy Couture, which started in MMA with 35. I want to win half of what they got. “