Samir Chantre is one of the top athletes in the IBJJF’s featherweight (64kg / 141lb) division. An active competitor, his major successes have come in no-gi competition – 2014 World champ, two-time PanAm champion, three-time American Nationals champ. 

Living in the US since 2009, Chantre is an IBJJF referee as well as student of the game. Originally from Rio de Janeiro he came up through the ranks at the Carlson Gracie Academy in Copacabana, a legendary academy that ran for over 40 years in the same location. 

Interview by Hugo Miranda

FloGrappling: Recently we heard about the closing of the original Carlson Gracie Academy in Rio de Janeiro. What are your thoughts on that?

Samir Chantre: It made me very sad. It’s where I’ve trained for the most of my journey, where I was graded from blue to black belt, and from where a lot of my idols came from. Now we just have to keep Master Carlson’s name alive through his jiu-jitsu.

In the past few years lightweight jiu-jitsu has been dominated by incredible and almost impassable guards. Coming from a school with a reputation for producing guard passers, how do you see this?

I come from a guard passing school but my teacher, Alan Moraes, has always been a guard player, so I played on the bottom my whole life. It was only in the past few years that I started playing more from the top. There are some exceptional guard players today, like there were in the past, but jiu-jitsu is in constant evolution, both on the bottom and on top. I don’t think it is a guard players’ world – it’s who is the better-rounded fighter. 

Keeping on the same subject, how do you feel when people say that lightweight matches have a lot of stalling and are boring to watch? 

In my opinion, for those who understand, it is awesome! But if you don’t it can get tiring. If you know jiu-jitsu, each grip, each turn had a lot of study and hard-work behind it. It’s one of the beauties of BJJ.

Every day it seems there some new talent, young kids reaching the black belt with the goal of dominating the jiu-jitsu world. Has the level increased or is it just publicity? What did you feel when you were graded to black belt at such a young age (20)?

I think the level has gone up. Jiu-jitsu grew a lot and there are a lot more people reaching the black belt, and when they get there they’re already at very high level, thanks to the evolution and how the sport spread. When I got my black belt at only 20 years old I was afraid I’d take a lot of time to adjust, since I’d be fighting the guys I had watched since blue belt. But thank God that I had good fundamentals that I got from Alan Moraes. And I have also improved a lot here in the U.S., especially in my first years here with Caio Terra and then also with ‘Queixinho’ and Milton Bastos, among others. And I keep that fire alive today, trying to improve, not only as an athlete but also as a teacher.

You recently competed at the LA Grand Slam and took silver in the 69kg (152lb) category. What are your thoughts on that event, and what’s next for you?

The Grand Slam was a top-level event. Very well organized and with good prize money for the competitors. I had three tough matches against excellent athletes. I lost in the finals against Paulo Miyao, on points. For the rest of the year I still have some commitments, like a few IBJJF opens, the no-gi worlds and a superfight in Russia all before the end of the year. 

Samir Chantre will compete in the IBJJF World No-Gi Championships on Nov 7-8, watch it here with a FloPRO account.