Gabriel Arges got his black belt at the end of 2015, and the Gracie Barra athlete proved in his very first season that he was a world-beater. 

He would close out the European Championships with his friend and teacher Romulo Barral in January of that year. In April he beat Roberto Satoshi in the final of the Abu Dhabi World Pro to become champion, and then just weeks later he closed out Worlds with GB teammate Otavio Sousa after one of the greatest middleweight runs we’ve ever seen. 

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The one major tournament Arges didn’t make the final was Pans, where he faced off with Leandro Lo in the quarterfinal of the medium-heavyweight division. Though he took the L that day, Arges walked away with a great lesson that helped him have a breakout year and put his name up here with the best black belts in the world. 

"He was my idol, I alway used to look up to him so much. I walked into that fight not knowing the outcome, I started fighting with no game plan. We just went at it. 

"It turned out to be a great match, event though I lost I realized I belonged there at that level. So that was a turning point for me in my black belt career. Man, I’m hanging with Leandro Lo! That boosted my confidence, it made me realize I could do anything at that point. 

"I always have that muscle memory of what I do automatically that works in tournaments, but man, I just went at it the first five minutes. It’s not the best strategy against Leandro! You’ve got to plan it out a bit better, I started super excited, I was like “man I’m beating Leandro Lo!” I think back then nobody had scored a sweep on him for a year or something, some crazy stat like that, and I scored three sweeps on him right off the bat. I got so excited! But I got too excited, and he outscored me and passed my guard. But It was a great match for me, I learned a lot. 

"It was the point where I knew I could hang with those guys. Leandro was for sure in my opinion one of the best pound-for-pound at that moment, he went on to win the weight class. Having fights like that, with the big names like that, it made me super confident for the rest of the season. And I won some big ones after that."

WATCH: Leandro Lo vs Gabriel Arges 2016 IBJJF Pans

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