Fernando Terere started training Jiu-Jitsu as a way to escape the drug traffic and violence on his streets, training with Master “Lelo” and staying with Lelo until he reached his green belt. After that, his instructor stopped coaching for financial reasons and Terere had to halt his training. Fernando returned a while later after an invitation made by Otavio Couto to come and train at the Academia Strike with the likes of Roberto Traven and Alexandre Paiva. His unnatural athletic ability made him a success in competition from the start, winning every major tournament there was to win and by the time he reached his blue belt he was already one of the toughest rolls at the gym (even with several world-class black belts on the mats daily). He stated in an interview that he always liked to fight from the top position because he is slightly claustrophobic and being on the bottom causes him significant distress, and so every time he hit a bad position he would spin out of it as fast and explosively as possible. He is considered still today the most charismatic Jiu-Jitsu fighter to have stepped on a mat, and he often brought the crowd to a roar when he fought.
One of the examples of how Terere played along with the crowd occurred in 1998’s World Championships when he was still a purple belt. Both Alliance and Gracie Barra were equal in team points going to the final of the Purple Belt Absolute Division (open weight class), in that final fight, Tererê (Alliance) were matched against a much larger Rolles Gracie (Gracie Barra), but that didn’t stop him from trying his best and the “Tijuca Tenis Club” almost went down as the Alliance supporters celebrated when Terere won the match (Rolls Gracie was disqualified halfway through the fight) and team Alliance won the event.
Although always focused in competition, Terere also found time to promote the sport amongst those less privileged creating an academy in the “Morro do Cantagalo” the Favela (slum) in which he grew up. The purpose of this academy was to take kids off the streets and off gun crime and this academy proved to be a huge success doing just that. When Terere moved to Sao Paulo a few years later, he left his friend Ricardo Vieira in Charge, and the project still stands today in the hands of Ricardo.
In 2000 Terere got to the final of the Middleweight Black Belt division (in his first year as a black belt), he faced Nino Schembri who had submitted almost everyone on his way to the final and was a heavy favorite. Terere, however, did not tremble and using his cleaver tactics (something he was famous for throughout his career), he took two points for a throw and defended inside Nino’s guard to win his first major title as a Black Belt, celebrating in the end with some Elvis Presley dance impersonation, mocking Schembri (whose nickname is Elvis).
In 2002 Fernando was part of an elite group of Alliance Jiu-Jitsu black belts who left the team after a dispute with one of the headmasters of Alliance, Favio Gurgel. The dispute was over which tournament the team should focus their training for, the World Championships or the World Cup as they occurred a week apart from each other. As the World Cup offered good prize money to its competitors and the Championships didn’t, Terere and his teammates felt they should support this organization (CBJJO – Confederação de Jiu-Jitsu Olimpico) and compete in it, Gurgel, however, decided against it, as he felt that competing in the Cup was less prestigious then competing in the World Championship. The fighters did not agree and a split was inevitable. And so Master Team was formed. The team that would later split leaving Terere to form a team with another teammate (Eduardo Telles) forming the TT Team.
In 2003 Terere started his MMA career, with a first bout (and only bout so far) against a veteran by the name of Gleison Tibau (today fighting in the UFC). The fight was very even but the split decision went to Tibau. After dipping his toes in Mixed Martial Arts, he went on to win his second World Championship reaching the final with Marcelo Garcia and submitting Marcelo with a triangle (see fight video at the bottom of the page). In 2004 Terere decided to try his luck in the Super Heavyweight Division and he almost pulled it off, losing in the final to an immensely larger opponent in Fabricio Werdum.
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