Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes is a BJJ 6th degree black belt, 3 time Pan Ams champion and high level coach who comes from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Draculino started grappling at a very young age, beginning Judo at around age 5 and then BJJ aged 14. He has never stopped training since he started.
Draculino received his 6th degree from Master Carlos Gracie Jr on October 2019. Although he had officially earned the title by January 2019, he had to wait until training with his professor, as he did not want to self promote. He still trains under the legendary professor today and mentions that he is still in great shape despite his age.
Known for his early use of the spider guard at a time when it wasn’t very popular, his favorite sweep is the overhead sweep as the opponent has no base once they’ve committed their weight. Draculino is also very well versed in DLR, Reverse De La Riva and lasso positions as you would expect for someone who has been training for so long.
Draculino favors pressure passing as he believes that the opponent will be forced to make mistakes when put under pressure. Not only does this allow you to pass, but it also opens up submission opportunities. He likes any choke from any position, with his favorite method being choking from the back.
Draculino was very good friends with the Gracie family from a young age and trained at the original Gracie Barra with them. He says that the training was more serious at this academy with a lot of black belts on the mats including the Machado brothers. He has remained at Gracie Barra since he began training there in 1985, which is a total of 35 years so far!
The typical competition weight of Draculino was approximately 60-65kg. Despite his success in competition, he describes his greatest achievement as never giving up in jiu-jitsu and meeting so many great people through the art. As someone who has been in jiu-jitsu for almost 40 years, Draculino has had his fair share of injuries including 7 orthopedic surgeries. He describes his worst injury as breaking his leg into several pieces during the 2000 Worlds which required a lot of reconstruction and not being able to put his foot on the floor for 2 months.
Like many other practitioners of his age, he lists the 4 time world champion & 3 time ADCC champion Royler Gracie as his toughest opponent.
He mentions “My plan for the future is to keep spreading the jiu-jitsu gospel all over the world, represent Gracie Barra the best way I can and change peoples lives for the best.”
Q & A
What job would you do if jiu-jitsu didn’t exist?
“I actually am still a lawyer because I still have my license. I used to work with tax law, I was a trainee, working with Petrobras which is the biggest oil company in Brazil. If I wasn’t doing BJJ I would probably do a test to become a prosecutor or chief of police”
He adds “My whole family are lawyers, my daughter is an attorney in NYC, my mom is a lawyer, my sister is a lawyer and several of my uncles [are too]”.
Do you think BJJ needs some rules changing in competition to make it less boring?
“First of all it is almost impossible to make perfect rules. People will always take advantage of things which won’t look pleasant to the eyes of the [BJJ] community. One thing I believe is that it’s a little dangerous if BJJ goes away from the aspect of fighting, I don’t want to see jiu-jitsu become like what happened to Taekwondo for example.”
Regarding the new ruleset introduced by the IBJJF for nogi brown/black belt rules, he mentions “The federation did a great thing on allowing knee reaps and heel hooks. I think that’s what was missing from the IBJJF”
“I would remove the double guard pull, which in my opinion is the worst thing. But there is nothing too crazy that needs changing.”
Opinion on Combat Jiu-Jitsu
“I think it’s cool, it’s a really pleasant thing to watch. I talked with Eddie Bravo and he explained and showed me some footage, I really liked it. It should be something which is not an official part of the sport. The official rules of the sport are from the IBJJF, you can only say you’re a BJJ world champion from those rules.”
Where did the “Draculino” nickname come from and what does it mean in English?
“It would be pretty much like the smaller version of Dracula. Draculinho would be like a little Dracula, but they took out the “H” and made it more like a Spanish version”
He mentions the origins of the nickname “It was a math teacher that gave me this nickname at around 9 years old”. He adds “I didn’t like it at first, because you don’t like it, it sticks to you. Now I thank the smartass math teacher that gave me this nickname! I am known for this nowadays and it helps me a lot.”
The growth of Gracie Barra In The Future
“I really think so, I really think it will keep growing. We closed the year with 800 schools worldwide, and now it’s really close to 1000, so that says a lot (considering the 2020 pandemic).”
“I think GB found a really good system on introducing BJJ to the masses and showing how it can be beneficial. We always maintain the integrity of the art with self defence and sports jiu-jitsu. Professional MMA fighters still train under GB all over the world. It’s still going to grow and we are still going to make our mark in the sport”
You can find Draculino on instagram here and follow him on facebook or twitter. He also has an instructional based on an effective old school guard style.
He also has several GB academies including Texas, Pearland & Belo Horizonte
