On Saturday, Oct. 12 Jackson Sousa received his black belt from Ricardo Vieira of the Checkmat team. This past June he came to his first IBJJF World Championship and won the brown belt heavyweight division and placed third in the open weight.

Recently he stayed in London teaching and expanding his knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu and language. He then visited Scandinavia before returning home to Brazil.

In response to his promotion, he wrote on facebook:

“I received from the hands of my Master Ricardo Vieira Alcantara my BLACK BELT, I am very happy for this merit achieved with a lot of willpower, dedication, discipline and respect, I want to thank everyone who took part in this journey, I will not cite names, I know there were many people to the inner world (Thank you)

Now I know that many things will change, it’s already changed, now I find myself focused to prepare for the big competition in the world, and I will train very hard to get to my goal and dream. May take, I’ll be persistent as I was with my American visa, always trying and never give up.

I want to thank my whole family for the continued support, especially my mom Simone Sousa Hilario, who always believed that one day I would be a champion, I love you!”