About Us
Eduardo Lopes was born on July 06, 1989 in Pompéia, a small town located inside the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Already very big for his age during his infancy, Lopes was incentivized by his family to practice physical activities from the get-go, particularly once he achieved school age. As a result of this positive reinforcement to sports, 6-year-old Lopes was initiated in the Japanese art of throwing – judo. One year later Eduardo also joined the local sumo team, another traditional martial art from the Land of the Rising Sun which he practiced in parallel with judo for many years.
Extremely capable in both grappling environments, Lopes went on to play for his school up until his teenage years, earning several judo tournaments as well as 3 São Paulo State and 4 Brazilian National sumo titles in the pre-teen division.
In 2003, 14-year-old Duzão Lopes moved from Pompeia, settling in São Paulo. He continued practicing and competing locally in judo as a teenager until 2006 when he earned a scholarship for one of the most successful judo training centers in the world, the famous Projeto Futuro (PF). Training alongside some of the best Brazilian athletes of his time, Eduardo made a big leap in his sporting career and was invited to be part of the Brazilian National Judo Squad, an honor he kept up until 2013 when issues of a personal nature drove Lopes away from the sport.
His grappling hiatus didn’t take too long as in late 2014 Eduardo returned to the mats, only this time to jiu-jitsu, joining Marco Barbosa‘s BJJ team – another former international judoka who had made the switch to jiu-jitsu during the 1990s.
At the time when Lopes joined Barbosa’s team (B9), Eduardo planned to enter the world of cage fighting. Luckily for grappling fans, Master Marcos convinced Duzão to keep the gi and continue training to his full potential in the grappling world, starting his jiu-jitsu “journey” already as a blue belt given his status as a former international judo player.
In 2015, after two years with Barbosa, Duzão decided to switch camps and join Luiz Guigo‘s team. Guigo was one of the top teams in the São Paulo circuit and had the advantage of being represented by a wide group of larger competitors. The fact that Lopes could train on a daily basis with men of his size played an important role in Lopes’ decision of leaving B9.
It was with Guigo that Eduardo Lopes had his best years in the colored belt divisions of BJJ, later re-establishing his bond with judo, both as a student and a competitor. After a wonderful career in the colored belt divisions of BJJ, on December 2018, Duzão Lopes was awarded his black belt from the hands of Luiz Guigo.
