A luta livre and BJJ black-belt, Miltinho Vieira fulfilled his greatest dream three years ago: to have his own school. Located in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Fighters has classes in BJJ, luta livre, boxing, Muay Thai, judo and MMA. Graciemag recently paid him a visit and had a long conversation with Vieira.
The former Pride and UFC fighter says he advises newcomers to train at least three times a week. “That’s a good start for the guy who’s starting to adapt to new exercises,” he explains.
His team of professional MMA trains daily, including weekends. Miltinho says he makes athletes drill quite a bit in order to memorize the position, be it an attacking or defensive one. “The more you train and dedicate yourself to one position, be it fast or slow, you will learn.”
Known as the creator of the anaconda choke, Vieira walked us through how that came about. “When I started wrestling at Gama Filho University, I learned the 3-point roll, which theoretically is the same grip as the hand triangle, and from there I went to the gym, started seeing that there was a neck adjustment, started adapting, and thenceforth a lot of variations began arising.”
After chatting with our team, Miltinho showed an inverted triangle with the help of one of his most promising students, black-belt Adriano Capitulino, who’s currently undefeated in MMA and just signed to fight at Titan FC. Take a look.
