Skip to content
The BJJ Story
Search
Back to people
Two training partners meeting on the mat.Drawn in cream, forest green, and muted terracotta. People and objects are symbolic illustrations.
Portrait unavailable. General BJJ illustration; not a likeness of this person.Illustration: The BJJ Story

Ataíde Ludgero Júnior

Founder and head coach of Constrictor Team in Brasília, who named it after the constrictor snake and built its jiu-jitsu on the same animal.

Biography

Ataíde Ludgero Júnior founded a jiu-jitsu team in Brasília named after a snake, and the jiu-jitsu it teaches draws on the same animal. He is a black belt under Armando Wriedt. In a 2015 UFC.com piece, Rani Yahya put constrictor snakes among the things the gym drew on to make jiu-jitsu work in MMA; the article named Ataíde Junior as its head coach. He reached the art late, after almost everything else. His team's biography page has him starting judo at four, at the police precinct where his father worked, and counts two decades in the sport, the black belt arriving in the course of them, at the Miura Judo Academy, where he also competed. The same page adds capoeira with Mestre Amendoim, of Grupo Senzala, and puts his taekwondo and kickboxing at Associação Pepe. Grappling came in his teens, through luta livre, Brazil's own no-gi wrestling tradition. Jiu-jitsu came last of all. He was seventeen at the meeting with José Carneiro Vasconcelos, known as Popó; the two of them then went to Armando Wriedt for instruction. Graciemag, which calls Wriedt one of seven students Hélio Gracie gave the red belt, says he taught for sixty years, was an instructor at the Gracie academy in central Rio, on Avenida Rio Branco, and took that belt in November 1991, at the Kioto academy. But the magazine built its page around something else: Wriedt did not give belts away. Asked about rank by a student, he asked back whether the man wanted a belt or knowledge. He taught from a dojo in the open air, on a smallholding in Brasília, and was still at it at ninety-four. By his own team's account, Ataíde's black belt took ten years. The team's name comes from his other working life. Constrictor Team's own pages say he is a biologist whose field is reptiles, and that the jiu-jitsu he built out of that work is tighter and more exact, with no slack left in a position, modelled on the way snakes feed. The Australian branch page puts it in terms of the boa: close control, a pressure that shuts the space down, prey subdued without venom. The team's biography page dates an accident to 2007: an alligator he was handling at a zoo took several fingers from one hand. The same page says he kept working at the top level, coaching and training, afterward. Before 2003 the group went by Ataíde Junior Top Team, working the jiu-jitsu tournament circuit and taking the occasional vale-tudo fight, the minimal-rules format that ran in Brazil before MMA. The team dates the change of name to that year, and its first notice abroad to 2005, when Yahya won in Japan with a north-south choke, which the page calls a hallmark of the style. The hold is a strangle taken from on top, with the two lying head to toe. On Friday 19 December 2008 he promoted twelve of his students to black belt. The ceremony was held in Brasília, at the Tênis Resort academy, before a crowd Tatame put above a hundred, and with Armando Wriedt there as well. "Esse ano foi só alegria", Ataíde told the magazine — the year had been all joy. The same report has him already preparing Yahya for a run at a second title at the ADCC, the submission-grappling world championship, the following year. By the team's telling, the fifth degree came from Wriedt's own hand, in 2014. A Maranhão sports blog reprinting team material in January 2022 still had him at the fifth and counted black belts in five martial arts; the Australian branch page lists him today at the sixth. Wriedt died on 29 August 2019. Graciemag carried the news and credited it to a social-media post by Ataíde Jr., the black belt it named as Constrictor Team's leader. The base is Brasília. That Maranhão post, in January 2022, had the team working from Duello Centro de Treinamento, at 715 Norte, and listed what he taught there himself: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, a late-morning session of submission and MMA, then jiu-jitsu twice, just after midday and again in the evening. The Australian page presents the team as family-run: two of his sons, Ian Lucas Ludgero and Kim Ludgero, are named beside him, and Ian has the school in Perth. The team's Portuguese-language site says that when he was asked what Constrictor Team was, he answered: "É uma familia bem abraçada" — a family with its arms around itself. In December 2010 Sherdog reported on a Jungle Fight card, and used wins there by Francisco Trinaldo and Renato Moicano to show that his Brasília gym had produced more fighters than Paulo Thiago and Rani Yahya. UFC.com in 2011 traced Yahya's ground game back to what professor Ataíde Junior taught, and Graciemag the same year placed Moicano in a Constrictor Team room led by Ataíde Jr., a jiu-jitsu black belt, with Paulo Thiago and Yahya in it too. In 2016, with a UFC card coming to Brasília, Graciemag had Yahya and Moicano as Constrictor Team black belts under professor Ataíde Junior, both of them living in the Federal District. And when Sherdog wrote about Adriano Moraes in 2021, it said Moraes had taken his black belt from Ataíde Ludgero Junior, whom it named as the founder of Constrictor Team. He has taught outside Brasília as well. In January 2022, invited by a black belt named André, he travelled to São Luís, in Maranhão, for a seminar, and looked in on the noon training at the Ação academy. His host there was professor Léo Leite. A promotional post on the same blog three years later puts the count of black belts he has graduated past three hundred, credits him with more than twenty years at the centre of luta livre and MMA in Brazil's Centro-Oeste, and lists the team's units in Australia and, in Brazil, in the Federal District, Goiás and Ceará. It was written because Constrictor Team had just opened in São Luís.

Sources for this profile

  • Sherdog, "5 Things You Might Not Know About Adriano Moraes", Brian Knapp, 26 June 2021.(opens in a new tab)

    • Sherdog's editorial feature on the ONE flyweight champion Adriano Moraes reports that Moraes took his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Ataide Ludgero Junior, and identifies him as the man who founded Constrictor Team.

      Where in the source: Numbered point 1 of the list - "under Constrictor Team founder Ataide"

      Accessed:

  • UFC.com, "Rani Yahya - One Dimensional No Longer", Martins Denis, 30 July 2011.(opens in a new tab)

    • UFC.com's 2011 feature on Rani Yahya calls the fighter a product of Constrictor Team and credits his ground game to what professor Ataide Junior had taught him.

      Where in the source: Opening paragraph - "taught to him by professor Ataide Junior"

      Accessed:

  • UFC.com, "Yahya Forcing Taps Any Way He Can", Jordan Newmark, 15 July 2015.(opens in a new tab)

    • In a 2015 UFC.com article Rani Yahya says his gym counts constrictor snakes among its inspirations for putting jiu-jitsu to work in mixed martial arts, and the same passage names Ataide Junior as head coach of the Brasilia team.

      Where in the source: Quote from Rani Yahya - "inspirations is definitely the constrictor snakes"

      Accessed:

  • Graciemag, "Feras do Jiu-Jitsu, Yahya e Moicano lutam em casa no UFC Brasilia", Redacao Graciemag, 3 August 2016.(opens in a new tab)

    • Ahead of the UFC card in Brasilia in September 2016, Graciemag described Rani Yahya and Renato Moicano as jiu-jitsu black belts of Constrictor Team under professor Ataide Junior, both living in the Federal District.

      Where in the source: Body text - "do professor Ataíde Junior, residem"

      Accessed:

  • Graciemag, "UFC fighters teammate Moicano moving up the ranks", Redacao Graciemag, 28 June 2011.(opens in a new tab)

    • Graciemag's 2011 piece on Renato Moicano places him in Constrictor Team and identifies the team's leader as jiu-jitsu black belt Ataide Jr., with Paulo Thiago and Rani Yahya training in the same room.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph - "led by Jiu-Jitsu black belt"

      Accessed:

  • Sherdog, "'Crocota' and 'Sergio Junior' Draw, Prospects Shine at Jungle Fight", Marcelo Alonso, 19 December 2010.(opens in a new tab)

    • Reporting a Jungle Fight card in December 2010, Sherdog wrote that wins by Francisco Trinaldo and Renato Moicano showed Paulo Thiago and Rani Yahya were not the only fighters coming out of trainer Ataide Junior's Brasilia gym.

      Where in the source: Report body - "tough guys produced by trainer Ataide Junior"

      Accessed:

  • Graciemag, "O adeus ao grande mestre Armando Wriedt, aos 94 anos", Graciemag Newsroom, 29 August 2019.(opens in a new tab)

    • When grandmaster Armando Wriedt died on 29 August 2019 aged 94, Graciemag credited the news to black belt Ataide Jr., whom it called the leader of Constrictor Team, announcing it on social media.

      Where in the source: Lead paragraph - "Ataíde Jr, líder da Constrictor Team"

      Accessed:

    • The same Graciemag notice describes Armando Wriedt as one of seven students to receive the red belt from the hands of Helio Gracie.

      Where in the source: Lead paragraph - "sete alunos a receber a faixa-vermelha"

      Accessed:

  • Graciemag, "Armando Wriedt - O doce mestre que nao concedia faixas" (feature page, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Graciemag's feature page on Armando Wriedt says he taught jiu-jitsu for sixty years, was one of the instructors at the Gracie academy on Avenida Rio Branco in Rio, and received his red belt from Helio Gracie at a ceremony at the Kioto academy in November 1991.

      Where in the source: Body text - "Em novembro de 1991, em cerimônia histórica"

      Accessed:

    • The same Graciemag feature is built around Wriedt being a teacher who did not hand out belts, and quotes his reply to a student who asked about rank: whether he had come for a belt or for knowledge. It places his teaching at an open-air dojo on a smallholding in Brasilia, where he kept teaching until he was 94.

      Where in the source: Headline and body - "atrás de faixa ou conhecimento"

      Accessed:

    • Graciemag's feature page carries a photograph from a tribute event in Brasilia, captioned as showing Armando Wriedt with his student Ataide Jr., credited to the photographer Mateus Bonomi.

      Where in the source: Opening photo caption - "com seu aluno Ataide Jr"

      Accessed:

  • Tatame, republished on the Vicente Cavalcanti Jiu-Jitsu blog, "Ataide Junior gradua 12 faixas-pretas", 28 December 2008.(opens in a new tab)

    • A December 2008 report credited to Tatame magazine introduces Ataide Junior as a student of Armando Wridt - spelling the teacher's name that way - notes that Wridt held his black belt from Helio Gracie, and calls Ataide the master of Rani Yahya, then a world jiu-jitsu and ADCC champion.

      Where in the source: Opening sentence - "Aluno da lenda viva Armando Wridt"

      Accessed:

    • The same 2008 report says Ataide Junior promoted twelve new black belts on Friday 19 December that year at the Tenis Resort academy in Brasilia, with more than a hundred people present and Armando himself among them.

      Where in the source: Body text - "100 pessoas presentes, além do grande mestre"

      Accessed:

    • In the same report Ataide Junior is quoted saying the year had been nothing but joy, and is described as already preparing Rani Yahya for a second ADCC title in 2009.

      Where in the source: Direct quote - "Esse ano foi só alegria"

      Accessed:

  • Constrictor Team Australia, "Master Ataide Ludgero Junior" (team's own biography page, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • The same page lists capoeira under Mestre Amendoim of Grupo Senzala, and kickboxing and taekwondo at Associacao Pepe, as the arts he took up alongside judo in his early years.

      Where in the source: Second paragraph - "Capoeira under Mestre Amendoim (Grupo Senzala)"

      Accessed:

    • Conflicting accounts

      According to the same page his interest turned to grappling and submissions as a teenager, and he trained luta livre with Julio "Pudim" Cesar and with Cesar's brother, Sandro "Bala".

      Where in the source: Second paragraph - "train Luta-Livre under Júlio"

      Accessed:

    • The page says that at seventeen he met Jose Carneiro Vasconcelos, known as Popo, that the two of them went looking for instruction from Armando Wriedt, who held a red belt awarded by Helio Gracie, and that ten years of work followed before Wriedt gave him his black belt.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph - "At 17 years old, Ataíde met"

      Accessed:

    • The same page traces the team's name to his working life as a biologist specialised in herpetology, and describes a jiu-jitsu built from the way boa constrictors subdue prey without venom, holding tight control and a pressure that closes off space.

      Where in the source: Fourth paragraph - "biologist specialized in herpetology"

      Accessed:

    • The team own biography page records an accident in 2007 at a local zoo, where an alligator he was handling cost him several fingers on one hand, and says he carried on coaching and training at the top level afterwards.

      Where in the source: Fifth paragraph - "handling an alligator at a local zoo"

      Accessed:

    • The same page says Armando Wriedt himself awarded him the fifth degree on his black belt in 2014, and that he now holds the sixth degree.

      Where in the source: Closing paragraphs - "received his 5th-degree black belt directly"

      Accessed:

    • The same page puts a span on the judo years rather than only naming them: it says two decades followed the start at four, given over to the sport, with his judo black belt earned in the course of them.

      Where in the source: First paragraph - "Over the next two decades, he dedicated"

      Accessed:

    • Constrictor Team Australia's biography page for Ataide Ludgero Junior says martial arts entered his life at four years old, when he began judo at the police station where his father worked, and that he later took a judo black belt while training and competing with the Miura Judo Academy.

      Where in the source: First paragraph - "Judo at his father’s police precinct"

      Accessed:

  • Constrictor Team Australia, "Constrictor Team" (team's own page, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Constrictor Team Australia team page presents the group as family-run: Ataide Ludgero Junior leads it, two of his sons are named beside him as Ian Lucas Ludgero and Kim Ludgero, and Ian runs the Australian branch in Perth.

      Where in the source: Opening sentence - "Ludgero Junior alongside his sons"

      Accessed:

    • The same page says the group first went by the name Ataide Junior Top Team, concentrating on jiu-jitsu tournaments while sometimes competing in vale-tudo, took the Constrictor Team name in 2003, and drew its first international attention in 2005 when Rani Yahya won in Japan with the north-south choke the page treats as a signature of the style.

      Where in the source: Second and fourth paragraphs - "Originally established as Ataíde Junior Top Team"

      Accessed:

    • The team page names Adriano Moraes, noted there as a former ONE flyweight champion, and alongside him Paulo Thiago, Luigi Vendramini, Rani Yahya, Francisco Trinaldo and Renato Moicano, as athletes representing Constrictor Team.

      Where in the source: Fifth paragraph - "Notable names include Rani Yahya, Renato Moicano"

      Accessed:

  • Constrictor Team (constrictorteam.yolasite.com), "Quem somos? / Nossa Filosofia" (team's own site, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Constrictor Team's own Brazilian site describes the jiu-jitsu he adapted as tighter and more exact, leaving no slack in the positions, modelled on how snakes feed, and ties that to his training as a biologist specialising in reptiles. Asked what Constrictor Team was, it reports him answering that it is a family holding each other close.

      Where in the source: Sections Quem somos? and Nossa Filosofia - "sem folgas nas posições"

      Accessed:

  • Blog do Olivar, "Mestre Ataide Jr. visita a Acao", Olivar Leite, 27 January 2022.(opens in a new tab)

    • A Maranhao sports blog carried a team profile in January 2022 saying Ataide Junior held black belts in five martial arts and a fifth-degree jiu-jitsu black belt from Armando Wriedt, and that the team's headquarters operated out of Duello Centro de Treinamento in the 715 Norte block of Brasilia, where he taught on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

      Where in the source: Team profile block - "faixa preta 5 grau de jiu-jitsu"

      Accessed:

    • The same post reports him in Sao Luis, in Maranhao, to give a seminar in January 2022 at the invitation of a black belt named Andre, visiting the Acao academy where professor Leo Leite received him at the midday session.

      Where in the source: Opening lines - "capital do Maranhão para ministrar"

      Accessed:

    • The same 2022 post sets out what he taught himself at the Brasilia headquarters at that time: three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with a submission and MMA session late in the morning and two jiu-jitsu sessions, one just after midday and one in the evening.

      Where in the source: Class schedule - "SEGUNDAS, QUARTAS e SEXTAS nos seguintes"

      Accessed:

  • Blog do Olivar, "Constrictor Team Maranhao: chegando com forca!!!", Olivar Leite, contribution by Fabiano Soares, 6 February 2025.(opens in a new tab)

    • A February 2025 post about a new Constrictor Team branch says Ataide Junior came up through capoeira, taekwondo and judo and developed his jiu-jitsu under grandmaster Armando Wriedt, a red belt and direct student of Helio Gracie, and that the team he leads grew out of Brasilia.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph - "do Grande Mestre Armando Wriedt"

      Accessed:

    • The same 2025 post credits his work with more than three hundred jiu-jitsu black belts and with two decades of weight in the luta livre and MMA scene of Brazil's Centro-Oeste, and says the team keeps branches in the Federal District, Goias, Ceara and Australia, with the Sao Luis unit opening that February.

      Where in the source: Fourth paragraph - "mais de 300 faixas pretas"

      Accessed:

    • Conflicting accounts

      The same 2025 post says he began his no-gi path with Mestre Damiao, described as the only luta livre black belt in the Budokan team in Brasilia.

      Where in the source: Third paragraph - "luta sem kimono com o Mestre Damião"

      Accessed:

Lineage

View in lineage tree

Trained under

Students1