Thalys Pontes is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, who competes mainly at featherweight in IBJJF events in the United States. His Instagram covers competition and teaching.
Background
Pontes was born on 30 May 2000. As a child he played futsal and street football and did kung fu. At 12 his uncle David encouraged him to try jiu-jitsu at a local gym under Aelcio Silva. He later represented the Cicero Costha Association in São Paulo. BJJ Heroes says he moved to Team LEAD in Texas under Bruno Bastos. Cicero Costha and Bruno Bastos promoted him to black belt together on the podium of an IBJJF World Championship. His lineage runs through Costha and Marcelo Behring to Rickson Gracie.
The BJJ Mental Coach Podcast introduced him in episode 151 as the owner of Tap BJJ Academy.
Competition highlights
- Juvenile (2017–2018): silver at the IBJJF Worlds and Brazilian Nationals in 2017, then Pan gold in 2018.
- Blue belt (2018–2019): European Open no-gi and AJP Grand Slam London titles, silver at the No-Gi Worlds (2018) and Worlds (2019).
- Purple belt (2019–2021): Pan Pacific gi and no-gi, European Open no-gi and American Nationals gi and no-gi titles, AJP Grand Slam Miami gold, and IBJJF Pan gold in 2021.
- Brown belt (2022): silver at the IBJJF Pans.
Black belt results
BJJ Heroes' black belt log is short. It includes back-choke wins over Felipe Simplicio (PBJJF World 2023) and Emilio Hernandez (Memphis Open 2024), and an armbar on Luan Gomes in the 2023 Charleston Fall Open final. His losses include Andrew Soares on advantages at the 2023 Worlds and Ademir Barreto by back choke at the 2024 Pans. BJJ Heroes' biography and results list disagree about whether he has won the Worlds, so we leave that out.
Related pages
Most of his recorded finishes come from back control; see also our rear-naked choke page. Follower counts are curated snapshots, not live data.