Fabio Alano
Address
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Phone
About Us
Fábio Alano was born on November 20, 1991, in Porto Alegre, the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil.
Martial arts entered Fábio’s life at the young age of 4, through kung-fu, a sport he practiced for many years, later adding karate to his curriculum. While growing up, Alano gained interest in other activities, going on to play basketball semi-professionally for a short period, and lastly joining hapkido – a Korean martial art with a sporting outlet that allows strikes, throws, and groundwork.
During his hapikido days, Fábio became invested in competition. His rise in this sport drove Alano to important wins which included 3 world titles with the World Olympic Hapkido Federation (WOHF).
With an extensive striking background, Fábio’s weakest area when competing in hapkido was his groundwork. For that reason, his coach incentivized Alano to seek a BJJ school with which he could work his ground game separately from his day-to-day hapkido training. At the time, Fábio was 21 years old and a student of physical education in college with very little money to spare. He sought the help of his friend, BJJ black belt Daniel Dier, reaching out to his academy a few times for advice and training.
While training at Dier’s gym, Fábio was spotted by one of Mario Reis‘ brown belts, Mr. Leandro Frois, who saw great potential in the young athlete. He invited him to come and train with him on a free scholarship, as Fábio could not afford the membership. It was while training with Frois that Kamikase fell in love with jiu-jitsu, choosing to quit hapkido altogether to focus on his grappling.
Alano’s potential continued to rise and soon coach Frois decided to hand his talented student’s tuition to the team’s head-coach, Mário Reis, who opened the doors of his gym to Fábio. Due to his low-income family, Alano could not afford to live outside his parent’s home, closer to the academy. Instead, he made the gym (Alliance Porto Alegre) his home, moving to the premises where he lived from white to black belt.
With a wealth of talent and experience in a variety of sports, Kamikase quickly climbed the ranks of jiu-jitsu, conquering the international circuit in the lower belt divisions. A testament to his talent was his 2014 performance. That year Alano conquered the UAEJJ World Pro as a white belt, in his weight class and absolute and was promoted to blue belt. 20 odd days later he entered the toughest tournament on the BJJ calendar, the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in California, USA, and did the unthinkable by winning gold in his new division.
2018 was one of the best years of his brown belt career, and by the beginning of May, Fábio looked well on his way to a Grand Slam title (a combination of the Euro, Pan, Brazilian and World titles), having already won the European Open, Brazilian Nationals, and Pan tournaments. Unfortunately for Kamikase, the Grand Slam dream would not come to fruition as Alano lost in the quarter-finals of the ‘Worlds’. This was the first time Fábio came out of the tournament without a medal around his neck, and his shortcoming came drove to an emotional backlash that was followed by the decision to take some time off of competition to re-gather his thoughts.
During his time away from the tournament scene, Kamikase was selected to participate in the world-famous reality Tv show, Big Brother. One of the most popular programs in South America. The opportunity meant possible life-changing financial benefits for Alano, reasons that pressed him to accept the offer. The deal fell through right before the series started, on January 2019, due to a sponsorship issue, but the media frenzy continued for the following months and kept the talented athlete from competing during this period.
Fábio made his return to competition on time for the 2019 Brazilian Nationals (March), a competition in which Alano suffered a severe knee injury with damage to his patella, tendon and 3 ligaments. Nurturing the injury Alano opted to compete at the World Championship (20 odd days after the Nationals), where the possibility of worsening the damage did not stop him from reaching the final, which he lost by a split referee decision. The bravery shown on the mats led to his black belt promotion, a ceremony led by his longtime Master, Mario Reis on June 2019.
