The Europeans are the first major championship of 2023. The black belt divisions go down in Paris, France starting on Saturday January 28th. With so many high profile athletes changing divisions, we’re going to see a lot of new and exciting stylistic clashes. Diogo “Baby Shark” Reis, who regularly competes in the light feather division, will move up to featherweight in a division filled with exciting matchups for the 20 year old Manaus native.

2022 was Diogo’s first year competing as a black belt on the IBJJF circuit. His IBJJF black belt debut came at the Curitiba Open, where Diogo won his first fight via toe hold in under a minute and his second fight via choke after sweeping, passing the guard, and mounting his opponent. His next tournament would be the Brazilian Nationals, the third major gi event of the year. Diogo put on one of the best performances of his career, advancing to the light feather final to face Cleber Sousa, a 2019 Pan and Brazilian National Champion. Diogo would win the match via points, securing his first major black belt title in the gi. A third place finish at the World Championships would round out his 2022 in the gi, an excellent start for the rookie black belt.

“It was great because it was my first year competing in high level IBJJF tournaments and I had some good experiences that will make me improve more.”

The last time Diogo competed at the Europeans was in 2019 as a blue belt juvenile, where he won the featherweight and light absolute divisions. Just four years later, he’ll be competing against the best black belts in the world in Paris, France. Joining Diogo at featherweight are Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor, Fabricio Andrey, Eduardo Roque, Israel Almeida, Alex Sodre, Leonardo Saggioro, and Pablo Lavaselli, among others. Despite the deep talent pool, Diogo’s expectations are always the same.

“My goal is always to win and also I want to feel how the featherweight division is. All the matches will be a great opportunity to test myself. I don’t have any particular guy that I want to fight because in this division every fight will be like a final.”

Black belt competitors who reach a high level of technical proficiency and win major titles all have two traits in common, consistency and hard work. For Diogo, these traits were instilled in him from an early age from his coach Melqui Galvao. In addition to the individual traits Melqui has instilled in his athletes, he’s also created a group atmosphere in which everyone is striving for excellence.

“It’s the consistency that Melqui teaches us to apply in our daily routines and also he pushes us to work harder than everyone else.” Diogo shared a final message for 2023, “This year I’ll be IBJJF World Champion!!”

Watch Diogo Reis compete in the featherweight division at the 2023 European Jiu-Jitsu Championships. You can watch the event exclusively on FloGrappling.