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Fabrício Feliciano Souza Moreira

Brazilian black belt: head coach at Qatar MMA in Doha, competition coach to Qatar BJJ, co-founder of Vision - and he paid his athletes' way himself.

Biography

The earliest independent record of Fabrício Moreira's work in Qatar is an event report. On Friday 27 May 2016 Qatar MMA put on what ArabsMMA described as the first Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament of its kind in the country, drawing over 150 entrants, Qatari and foreign. The site identifies Moreira as head coach of Qatar MMA and as the man who organised the day. He had wanted to do it for a while and it had finally come together, he said; of everyone entered, close to a hundred came from his own team, and he treated the day as a beginning rather than a destination. Three backers were named, without whom, in his words, none of it could have happened: Faleh Nawwaf Althani, Sheikh Feleg Mohammed Al Thani and Sheikh Nasser Nawaf Althani. How long he had been in Qatar by then is not something the sources read for this profile settle. None of them gives a year for the move. A piece carried by Terra in January 2020 opens on a figure — nine years, exactly, between the planting in Doha and the first fruit — but that sentence dates the results, not his arrival, and no arrival year appears anywhere in the piece. That same January 2020 piece, which identifies him as Brazilian, has him a black belt since 2006, and elsewhere in the text puts fourteen years on the belt; the two readings land on the same year. A year earlier Lance! credited him with European and Pan titles from the IBJJF at black belt. Both pieces carry the same journalist's byline and the Terra text is licensed from Lance!, so the second mention is one newsroom saying it twice rather than a second source. No independent account read here carries those titles. Lance! sets the work out in two halves: teaching the sport to the Armed Forces in Doha and putting it about there, and, as jiu-jitsu gained standing in the country, using that to push younger athletes' careers on. Part of his week, outside the classes he taught himself, went on competition training for Qatar BJJ, a team whose roster took in Rodnei Barbosa and Victor Honório. In the spring of 2019 the target was the Brasileiro at Barueri in São Paulo, due at the start of May, and he wanted to put 250 of his students into it, children and adults alike. The team had grown quickly, he said, in Qatar and elsewhere, and new instructors had arrived that same month. What he would not claim was outside money. Nobody sponsored the competitive athletes; he paid for them himself. Entry fees, meals, getting them around and getting them there — for a picked group of thirty-five, as things stood. Set against what he was actually after, he said, thirty-five was a very small number. Asked that year how the sport was professionalising, he drew a distinction rather than a conclusion. Sports that pay a monthly wage were one thing. Jiu-jitsu was another, and the people who give up plenty in life to chase something in it were, as he saw it, competing in an amateur sport all the same. The example he gave: at a great many tournaments the only people paid anything are the ones on the podium. He did not accept that as the definition of a professional. By January 2020 the same outlet was calling him a key figure in spreading the sport in Qatar, and put the number of black belts then teaching Qataris at around seventy. Teachers in Eastern Europe and Asia had begun asking to affiliate to Qatar BJJ and get at his teaching method, and rather than bring them in under that name he started a second team with sheikh Nasser Nawaf. They called it Vision, for what he meant by the sport: always looking ahead. The reason for a fresh name, he explained, was that the incoming teachers should not be trading on what the Qatar BJJ project had built; and Vision was to reach further than Qatar — Europe too, and the Americas. A Nasser Nawaf turns up on both sides of the four-year gap in the record: ArabsMMA had named a Sheikh Nasser Nawaf Althani among the backers of the 2016 tournament. That the two are the same man is a reading of the name and the setting, and neither source says so. Businessman is the word he uses for what he does for a living. He had been in love with the sport since he was small, he said, and was now in a position to give back what it had done for him; part of why he was there at all was to change lives with it. His head for business he put down to jiu-jitsu as much as anything, since its thinking travels off the mat without much trouble. The money was his own, all of it, and he meant to keep it that way. The week that interview ran he was in Odivelas, in Portugal, with around forty-five athletes at the IBJJF's 2020 European Championship. Not a big squad, he said, but technically a very good one. Helder Júnior had already taken a double gold and he wanted that noted; Matheus 'Tá Danado' and Vinicius Marinho were among the ones yet to step on. Fifteen medals was what he expected. Two club registries carry a Doha gym under his team's name, and not identically. Smoothcomp lists a club called Visionbjj with Moreira as the person in charge; the UAE Jiu Jitsu Federation lists BJJ VISION QATAR, and puts Tacio Carneiro in that slot rather than him. Neither is an editorial source and both are filled in by the clubs themselves. What the two entries differ on is the registered contact; neither of them says anything about who founded the team.

Sources for this profile

  • Terra / TATAME, «Com Jiu-Jitsu 'sólido' no Catar, brasileiro anuncia criação de equipe e projeta medalhas no Europeu», av Vitor Freitas, 24.01.2020 (TATAME, lisensiert fra Lance!).(opens in a new tab)

    • The Terra/TATAME piece identifies him as Brazilian.

      Where in the source: o brasileiro também revela o porque tem tanto prazer em investir no Jiu-Jitsu.

      Accessed:

    • The same piece dates his black belt to 2006.

      Where in the source: Faixa-preta de Jiu-Jitsu desde 2006, Moreira tem um trajetória de respeito dentro do esporte.

      Accessed:

    • In January 2020 the article describes him as a black belt of fourteen years.

      Where in the source: explica Fabrício, faixa-preta há 14 anos.

      Accessed:

    • Writing in January 2020, the piece says it took exactly nine years for what he had planted in Doha to start bearing fruit.

      Where in the source: Foram necessários exatos nove anos para que Fabrício Moreira começasse a colher os frutos que plantou em Doha, no Catar.

      Accessed:

    • It calls him central to spreading the sport in Qatar and says around 70 black belts were by then teaching Qataris.

      Where in the source: Pelo país árabe, o faixa-preta é peça chave na propagação do esporte e, por conta disso, a procura pela modalidade aumentou bastante. Já são cerca de 70 faixas-preta lecionando para os catarianos.

      Accessed:

    • Interest from teachers in Eastern Europe and Asia who wanted to affiliate to Qatar BJJ and use his teaching method led him to set up a new team together with sheikh Nasser Nawaf, named Vision for the idea of always looking forward.

      Where in the source: Por conta do sucesso e resultados de sua equipe, a Qatar BJJ, Fabrício notou interesses de professores do Leste Europeu e Ásia para se filiar à sua escola e ter acesso sua metodologia de ensino. Foi a partir desse desejo que ele resolveu criar, junto com o sheik Nasser Nawaf, uma nova equipe com o nome Vision, onde expressa a sua intenção com o esporte: olhar sempre para frente.

      Accessed:

    • He explained that the new name was chosen so the incoming affiliates would not be trading on the Qatar BJJ project's name, and said Vision was meant to carry the work into Europe and the Americas as well.

      Where in the source: O sucesso do nosso trabalho gerou todo esse interesse de novos professores radicados em outros países e nós estamos felizes por poder compartilhar nossa visão com outros praticantes do esporte. A Vision será uma total expressão e expansão do nosso projeto passando pela Europa e América também

      Accessed:

    • He said he had loved the sport since he was small, that he owed much of his success as a businessman to it because its ideas carry off the mat, that everything he put in was his own money and would stay that way, and that changing lives through jiu-jitsu was part of what he was there for.

      Where in the source: Eu sou apaixonado pelo esporte desde pequeno e hoje posso retribuir tudo o que este esporte fez por mim. Devo muito do meu sucesso como empresário ao Jiu-Jitsu, pois suas filosofias são facilmente aplicadas fora do tatame. Todo o investimento que faço é com meu próprio dinheiro e seguirei fazendo. Parte da minha missão é mudar vidas através do Jiu-Jitsu

      Accessed:

    • That week he was in Odivelas, Portugal, with around 45 athletes competing at the IBJJF 2020 European Championship.

      Where in the source: Nesta semana, em Odivelas, Portugal, para ser mais preciso, o professor está acompanhando cerca de 45 atletas que estão competindo no Campeonato Europeu 2020 da IBJJF.

      Accessed:

    • He rated the squad modest in numbers but strong technically, singled out Helder Júnior's double gold, named Vinicius Marinho and Matheus 'Tá Danado' among those still to compete, and put the target at fifteen medals.

      Where in the source: Estamos com um time razoável em quantidade, mas muito muito bom em nível técnico. Quero parabenizar o Helder Júnior pelo duplo ouro e ainda citar outros bons nomes da equipe que vão lutar como, por exemplo, Vinicius Marinho e Matheus 'Tá Danado'. Nós temos uma expectativa de 15 medalhas

      Accessed:

  • ArabsMMA, stevnerapport, Arabs MMA Staff, 29.05.2016.(opens in a new tab)

    • Qatar MMA staged the first tournament of its kind in the country on Friday 27 May 2016, drawing more than 150 entrants from Qatar and abroad.

      Where in the source: the country’s presiding martial arts facility, Qatar MMA, has hosted this Friday [May 27, 2016] the first of its kind and biggest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament which saw participation of more than 150 local and international competitors.

      Accessed:

    • ArabsMMA names him head coach of Qatar MMA and the event's organiser. He said he had wanted to run it for some time, that nearly a hundred of those entered came from his own team, and that this was a beginning rather than an end point.

      Where in the source: Fabricio, head coach of Qatar MMA and organizer: “The event was a great success, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and finally it came to life. We had more than 150 competitors of which almost a 100 were from team Qatar MMA. This is a great step for BJJ in Qatar, and that’s only the start.

      Accessed:

    • Three backers are named, without whom he said the event could not have happened: Sheikh Nasser Nawaf Althani, Faleh Nawwaf Althani, and Sheikh Feleg Mohammed Al Thani.

      Where in the source: Of course none of this would have been possible without the support of Sheikh Feleg Mohammed Al Thani, Sheikh Nasser Nawaf Althani and Faleh Nawwaf Althani.

      Accessed:

  • Lance!, «Professor de Jiu-Jitsu no Catar prepara time para o Brasileiro», av Vitor Freitas, 02.04.2019.(opens in a new tab)

    • Lance! describes his work as teaching and spreading jiu-jitsu to the Armed Forces in Doha, and using the sport's rising standing there to push younger athletes forward.

      Where in the source: Com a missão de ensinar e propagar o Jiu-Jitsu para as Forças Armadas em Doha, no Catar, o faixa-preta Fabrício Moreira tem aproveitado a valorização do Jiu-Jitsu para auxiliar na carreira de jovens talentos do esporte.

      Accessed:

    • Alongside his own classes he ran competition sessions for the Qatar BJJ team, whose members included Victor Honório and Rodnei Barbosa.

      Where in the source: Fabricio dedica parte do seu tempo em aulas de competições para o time Qatar BJJ, que reúne craques como, por exemplo, Victor Honório e o galinho Rodnei Barbosa.

      Accessed:

    • The target was the Brasileiro in early May 2019, at Barueri in São Paulo, where he wanted to field a squad of 250 children and adults.

      Where in the source: Para o Campeonato Brasileiro, programado para o início de maio, em Barueri, São Paulo, Fabrício quer mostrar a força do seu time com seus 250 atletas entre crianças e adultos.

      Accessed:

    • In his own words the plan was to bring 250 students that year, children and adults alike; he said the team had grown fast both in Qatar and elsewhere, and that new instructors had arrived that month.

      Where in the source: A princípio, estamos nos organizando para levarmos 250 alunos este ano no Brasileiro e isso envolve crianças e adultos. O time vem crescendo muito em um tempo muito curto, tanto no Catar como em outras partes do mundo. Este mês, recebemos novos professores aqui no Catar, que irão agregar muito aos treinos. Mal posso esperar para ver todo mundo competindo

      Accessed:

    • He said the support for his competitive athletes came out of his own pocket with no sponsor behind it — entry fees, food and travel for a group of 35 — and called that a small number against what he was aiming at.

      Where in the source: A respeito do apoio aos atletas profissionais, este é pago particularmente pela minha pessoa e não temos patrocínio algum. Eu pago inscrição, alimentação, transporte e translado a um seleto grupo de 35 atletas hoje em dia. É um número muito pequeno se considerado ao meu objetivo

      Accessed:

    • Lance! calls him a black belt and credits him with IBJJF European and Pan titles at that rank.

      Where in the source: Dono de importantes títulos, como o Europeu e Pan da International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (IBJJF) na faixa-preta

      Accessed:

    • Asked about professionalisation he drew a line between sports that pay a monthly wage and jiu-jitsu, where in his view athletes who give up a great deal to chase the sport full time are still competing in an amateur one.

      Where in the source: Existem, sim, muitos atletas profissionais que se dedicam e abdicam de muitas coisas nesta vida para alcançarem um sonho ou objetivos, mas estes participam de um esporte amador.

      Accessed:

    • His example was that at many tournaments only the medallists are paid at all, which he did not accept as a definition of who counts as professional.

      Where in the source: O perfeito exemplo é que em muitos campeonatos, apenas os medalhistas são renumerados financeiramente. Então, apenas esses são profissionais? Não penso assim.

      Accessed:

  • Smoothcomp, klubboppføring «Visionbjj», Doha, lest 20.09.2026.(opens in a new tab)

    • Smoothcomp's club registry lists a club called Visionbjj in Doha with Fabrício Moreira as the person in charge.

      Where in the source: Person in charge Fabrício Moreira

      Accessed:

  • UAE Jiu Jitsu Federation, klubboppføring «BJJ VISION QATAR», Doha, lest 20.09.2026.(opens in a new tab)

    • The UAE Jiu Jitsu Federation registry lists a BJJ VISION QATAR club in Doha whose person in charge is given as Tacio Carneiro, not Moreira.

      Where in the source: Person in charge TACIO CARNEIRO

      Accessed:

Lineage

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Open lineage