“Diego has this amazing potential and can do so much more than he has already done. Even with several titles, including a Worlds at black belt, I believe he's not even close to reaching his maximum potential. My goal is to expand his technical vision and create new training scenarios for him. He will evolve a lot and shine even brighter in competitions.”
-Guilherme Mendes

At the age of 24, Diego "Pato" Oliveira recently arrived at Art Of Jiu Jitsu (AOJ), after carrying out some camps with the team in 2022 and now seeking out a new career challenge. Under the command of Guilherme and Rafael Mendes, along with his training with Tainan Dalpra, Johnatha Alves, and longtime friend Thalison Soares, Diego has all the resources to reach even greater heights in the sport. He commented on his arrival at the Costa Mesa team and what it was like to join AOJ.

“Before training at DreamArt, I already had an athlete visa to train in America. As a result, I spent more time in the US than in Brazil, but DreamArt still didn't have an academy here. I came to California to stay two months and sent a message to Professor Guilherme to train during that time at AOJ. I created roots here in California and opportunities arose. Professor Guilherme helped me a lot, talking and pushing me through training, adjusting details and strategies, which created an important connection. That’s when we decided I should migrate to AOJ.”

Representing a new team filled with champions can be an arduous task for a newcomer like Diego. But for the featherweight athlete, the only responsibility is to train well and improve every day, so he can show his very best performance at competitions.

“My responsibility rests only with the academy, training early every day," he said. "The competition training starts at 7 am. It's challenging for me, I've never trained that early and it takes me out of my comfort zone. I feel like it'll help me get where I want to be. The responsibility is to always try to evolve and absorb as much as the teacher gives us day after day. I don't bring any of this pressure to the competition.”

With a more intense training schedule for Pans, Diego's plans for this season are to focus on the gi, leaving most of his no-gi ventures for the next year, in which he intends to return to ADCC mats, aiming for the gold after taking home the silver in 2022.

"I want to compete as much as possible in the gi this year," he said. "I'll fight in all the big events besides the Pan, like the Brazilian Nationals, the Worlds, and the AJP World Pro. Plus, I'll also fight some Opens in between the bigger tournaments. I will save some of the nogi competitions for next year when I will be preparing for the ADCC.”