An upkick from Gegard Mousasi foiled Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza’s best-laid plans to capture the vacant Dream middleweight championship in September 2008. Nevertheless, Souza left the ring with a check for three million yen and unknowingly stirred the competitive spirit within Cleiver Fernandes—a teenager thousands of miles away in his native Brazil.
“I wanted it for me, too,” Fernandes told Sherdog.com. “It would change my life and that of my family. I decided to go to the academy and check it out. A week turned into two and more. I fell in love with the art of jiu-jitsu.