Rafael Vasconcelos
Address
San Diego County, California, USA
Phone
About Us
Rafael Vasconcelos was born on November 04, 1992 in Fortaleza – the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil.
During his formative years, Rafael gained some weight and as a way to shed the extra pounds, he decided to join a jiu-jitsu class. Vasconcelos was 16 years old at the time (2009).
Ricardo Costa of team DBK in Fortaleza was Vasconcelos’ first instructor and the man in charge of his jiu-jitsu up to purple belt. At this point Rafael was already a rising star in the Ceará grappling circuit and, believing in his potential, he decided to move to São Paulo where he could work full time on his jiu-jitsu career at Cicero Costha‘s PSLPB academy.
During his time at PSLPB, two groups started being formed inside the team. Master Cicero’s and that of the academy’s star pupil Leandro Lo. When the environment became too volatile for the two to coexist, Leandro opened his own academy (New School Brotherhood) and Vasconcelos followed him there.
At New School Brotherhood (NsB) Rafael earned both his brown and his black belts, the latter on October 30, 2017.
While competing in the international BJJ circuit Rafael befriended professors André Galvão and Angelica Galvão. The two would (on February 2018) open the doors of their academy to Vasconcelos, who from then on started representing them internationally.
