Sodré will be vying for his first brown belt world championship. IBJJF
This year the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship has one of the best crops of brown-belts we’ve seen. Among the talent is 21-year-old Alex Sodré from the state of Amazonas. A student under Rodrigo Feijão at Nova União, he will be shooting for gold in the light featherweight division, meaning he will be up against Pablo Mantovani (Atos), Kennedy Maciel (Alliance), Yago Rodrigues (Marcio Rodrigues) and more.
“I’m feeling very well in general,” Sodré said in an interview this week. “I’ve already hit my weight. In fact I’ve never hit weight so well like this, because I always hit it one day prior to a competition.”
About the training he did recently at GD Jiu-Jitsu in Arizona, he added: “The camp was very good for me, because the quality of the training was great. The guys’ energy was incredible. I prepared like always, training to diversify more and more. I like to go through many situations, so that I don’t get surprised when it’s time to fight. I think that, when you try to play just one game, you end up limiting yourself. So it’s always good to practice everything and study a lot. I really like passing guard using the mobility of my legs.”
Sodré also talked about what was going on in his mind right before hitting the mat at the Worlds. “I don’t really like to think about the fights,” he said. “However, as soon as I saw the brackets, I saw myself doing well in every match. The biggest lesson that Feijão imparts to me is that the Sun shines for all, and that it is up to you to make your dreams and goals come true.”
To date, Sodré has collected two Brazilian Nationals titles, one title at World Pro and several triumphs in open IBJJF tourneys. You can check out his style right here:
