In a recent and candid interview on the “Pura Connection” podcast, Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu revealed that his youth was filled with adversity…
Including a period when he was involved with drugs.

The BJJ legend made the decision to move to the United States, because he wanted to escape the negative influences that surrounded him in Brazil.
According to Cyborg, this move was a turning point in his life – allowing him to focus on personal growth and development, as well as pursue his goals in Jiu-Jitsu.

Here is what he had to share in the interview:

We have the chance to develop in life. The guy I am today is not the guy I was when I was a boy.

I did sh*t, I used drugs.
Jiu-Jitsu saved me from all this, literally, to make me develop as a better person.

When his father visited him in the USA, after a long period of time, he was happy for his son:

My father didn’t visit me for five years, but when he came, he didn’t know what I had achieved for me to become a reference.

I was fighting for Metamoris, with an entire gym shouting my name, and he could witness it.
He always believed in me and my potential.

And he shared profound words of wisdom with him:

I had the opportunity to apologize to him for the son I was, and he told me something that moved me a lot…

“Son, if you hadn’t lived everything you lived, if it hadn’t been the sh*t you did, if you hadn’t gone through everything you went through, what kind of master would you be? You are not only a master on the mat, you are a master in life.”

 

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