The Master Who Trained Capoeiras to Beat Jiu-Jitsu

WHY THIS ARTICLE

The capoeira/jiu-jitsu confrontations are read as a simple clash of styles. The thesis shows a deliberate strategy: masters like Sinhôzinho hybridised capoeira to make it competitive.

A deliberate armament

Sinhôzinho — Agenor Sampaio — trained his capoeiras in Brazilian wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling. In the Sudeste, sporting competitions with capoeiras were launched by jiu-jitsu professors. In São Paulo, the challenges thrown by the Japanese champion Géo Omori led capoeiras Oswaldo Caetano Vasques and Argemiro Feitósa to enter competition.

A field of direct rivalry

In Rio, professor Donato Pires dos Reis, assisted by Carlos and George Gracie, opened a jiu-jitsu academy in September 1930. To publicise it and supplant capoeiragem — their direct competitor in the field of self-defence — they challenged the representatives of the national wrestling to prove the superiority of the Japanese method. In Bahia, matters were nearly identical.

Why it matters

The capoeira that met jiu-jitsu was not a pure ancestral art but a game deliberately armed for competition. The confrontation was a strategy of masters, not a natural test of pure styles.

SOURCES

La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles (1905–1984), thèse de doctorat, Université des Antilles, 2020 (Part II, on Sinhôzinho / Agenor Sampaio and the capoeira/jiu-jitsu competitive field).

IN THE CORPUS

→ The Kick That Cyriaco Made Famous

→ The Man Who Invented a Rule to Make Capoeira a Sport

→ The Book That Fused Capoeira and Jiu-Jitsu into a 'National Gymnastics'

HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

MALO, Olivier. The Master Who Trained Capoeiras to Beat Jiu-Jitsu. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 75. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/the-master-who-trained-capoeiras-to-beat-jiu-jitsu. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.