Roberto Leitão
Brazilian mechanical engineer Roberto Leitão, a 10th-dan holder in luta livre, developed hundreds of leverage techniques and led the development of luta livre in the 1970s.
Quick Facts
BrazilBiography
Roberto Leitão, full name Roberto Cláudio das Neves Leitão, was born on 15 May 1937 in Laguna, in the state of Santa Catarina, and moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro as a small child, where he died on 28 November 2020. In luta livre he was recognised as a specialist in leg locks, and in the 1970s he led the development of the style.
He began with judo at sixteen, and in the early 1950s he began wrestling in Rio de Janeiro. He devoted himself to luta livre for 60 years and reached 10th dan (red belt) in it; in judo he earned 4th dan. He studied mechanical engineering and taught it as a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).
He applied the principles of leverage from mechanical engineering to luta livre and developed hundreds of leverage techniques: leg holds, guard breaks and controls. He trained Luta Livre Esportiva as well as Olympic wrestling. In 1979 he founded the first Olympic wrestling federation in Brazil and created the Federação de Lutas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FLERJ).
His students included Renato “Babalu” Sobral, whom he guided to a submission victory over Mikhail Ilioukhin, Pedro Rizzo, Marco Ruas, Gustavo Machado and Antoine Jaoude. Jeff Blatnick, the 1984 Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, also prepared for an MMA career with him. According to some reports he also taught José Aldo, but we have not been able to verify this in other sources. His son Roberto Neves Filho represented Brazil in wrestling at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and became superintendent of the Brazilian Wrestling Confederation.
Associated Martial Arts
Ranks and titles
- 10th dan
- 4th danJudo