Who Are the Miyao Brothers? Paulo, João, and the Berimbolo Life
Twin brothers slept on the mats of a São Paulo social project and decided the answer to every question was another training session. The Miyao brothers' rise from PSLPB to world titles, the berimbolo-as-worldview style, and jiu jitsu's most monastic lifestyle.
Every academy has that one person who trains too much. Brazilian jiu jitsu, as a sport, has two — and they're twin brothers.
Paulo and João Miyao slept on the mats of a São Paulo social project, trained morning to night because there was nowhere else to be, and berimbolo'd their way from poverty to podiums in New York City. Along the way they became modern jiu jitsu's favorite monks: no hobbies, no nightlife, no plan B — just guard, inversion, and an almost unsettling politeness. This is who the Miyao brothers are, and why the sport reveres them.
The Short Answer
Paulo and João Miyao are Japanese-Brazilian twin brothers from São Paulo, black belts under Cicero Costha, and two of the defining competitors of the berimbolo era. They came up sleeping at Costha's academy alongside Leandro Lo, tore through the colored-belt divisions with a berimbolo and 50/50 game pushed further than anyone had taken it, and became world champions at black belt — stacking No-Gi Worlds golds between them before Paulo finally added the gi Worlds title in 2021. Today they teach and train out of Unity Jiu-Jitsu in New York City. Their names: Paulo (POW-loo), João (zhoo-OWN), Miyao (mee-YOW).
The Mats They Slept On
The Miyao story starts at PSLPB — Projeto Social Lutando Pelo Bem, "the social project fighting for good" — the no-frills São Paulo academy of Cicero Costha, famous for turning kids with nothing but time and hunger into world champions. The brothers didn't just train there; they lived there, literally sleeping on the tatame, training multiple sessions a day because the mats were both their bedroom and their future. Beside them was another kid on the same schedule: Leandro Lo, who would become one of the greatest competitors ever. One gym, one generation, no shortcuts — it remains the most remarkable single room in modern jiu jitsu history.
The Colored-Belt Terror Years
From blue through brown belt, the Miyaos were less competitors than a weather system. They entered everything, often the same division, and won almost all of it — double-gold runs, absolute divisions against bigger men, weekends with more matches than most people's seasons. Their marathon 50/50 and berimbolo battles with Keenan Cornelius became cult classics of the era: chess games played upside down, argued about on every forum in the sport. By the time Cicero Costha promoted them to black belt in 2012, they were already two of the most-watched grapplers alive — famous belts before the black one, which almost never happens.
The Style: Berimbolo as a Worldview
The Mendes brothers proved the berimbolo could win world titles. The Miyaos turned it into a complete philosophy. Playing in the sport's lightest divisions — the rooster and light-feather classes — they pull guard instantly, attack the legs into De la Riva or 50/50, and start spinning, chaining inversion after inversion until the back appears. No takedowns, no apologies, no wasted motion. Critics called it one-dimensional; the Miyaos answered by doing the one thing better than everyone, forever. In a sport that rewards mystery, they became unstoppable while being completely predictable — the purest technical statement anyone has made since.
The Lifestyle: Train, Eat, Sleep, Repeat
What made the Miyaos legends beyond their medals is the life itself. They are jiu jitsu's great ascetics: training twice or three times a day, every day, competing somewhere in the world nearly every weekend — João especially, whose competition schedule became a running joke and then a form of awe. No trash talk, no persona, the same soft-spoken thank-you in broken English after every war. In an era of grappling influencers, two brothers who only train became the most credible brand in the sport.
Black Belts, World Titles, and New York
At black belt the hardware kept coming: No-Gi world titles stacked between them through the mid-2010s, Pan and European golds deep enough to lose count, and the one that took the longest — Paulo's gi world championship at black belt in 2021, a decade of finals and near-misses finally converted. By then the brothers had moved their monk's routine to Unity Jiu-Jitsu in New York City, the Murilo Santana-led competition room they helped make one of the toughest in America. The mats changed continents; the schedule never changed at all.
Portuguese Vocabulary from the Miyao Playbook
The Miyao method fits in five Portuguese words:
| Portuguese | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| irmãos | eer-MOWNS | brothers |
| guarda | GWAHR-dah | guard |
| treino duro | TRAY-noo DOO-roo | hard training |
| disciplina | jees-see-PLEE-nah | discipline |
| técnica | TEHK-nee-kah | technique |
Every word above — and hundreds more — is taught with native-speaker audio and mat-ready phrases in the Fala BJJ app.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the Miyao brothers? Paulo and João Miyao, Japanese-Brazilian jiu jitsu black belts under Cicero Costha — berimbolo and 50/50 specialists who rose from sleeping on their academy's mats in São Paulo to world titles and a home at Unity Jiu-Jitsu in New York City.
Are the Miyao brothers twins? Yes — Paulo and João are twin brothers, with the matching games, matching haircuts, and near-matching results to prove it. Opponents have joked that the hardest part of a Miyao match is knowing which one you're facing.
What team are the Miyao brothers from? They came up at PSLPB Cicero Costha in São Paulo — the same room that produced Leandro Lo — and received their black belts from Cicero Costha in 2012. Today they represent and teach at Unity Jiu-Jitsu in New York.
What are the Miyao brothers known for? The berimbolo, the 50/50 guard, an all-inversion bottom game played in the lightest weight classes — and a train-eat-sleep lifestyle so extreme it became part of jiu jitsu folklore, including João's habit of competing nearly every weekend.
What titles have the Miyao brothers won? Between them: IBJJF No-Gi world championships at black belt, stacks of Pan and European golds, near-total domination of the colored-belt divisions — and Paulo's IBJJF world title in the gi at black belt in 2021.
How do you pronounce Miyao? mee-YOW. The first names: Paulo is POW-loo, João is zhoo-OWN — that nasal ão is the classic Portuguese sound worth learning early.
The Bottom Line
The Miyao brothers are what happens when talent is given nothing except a mat and takes the deal. No connections, no famous surname, no plan B — just twin brothers who decided the answer to every question was another training session, and berimbolo'd from a social project's floor to the top of the sport. In a game full of shortcuts, they are the proof that the long way still works.
Their story runs on the exact Portuguese the mats speak — treino, disciplina, guarda, irmãos. Fala BJJ teaches that language in short daily lessons built for grapplers, so the culture that built the Miyaos comes through in the original.
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