14 Facts About Mestre Sinhozinho

Agenor Moreira Sampaio, most commonly known as Mestre Sinhozinho, was a mestre or master practitioner of the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira.

Mestre Sinhozinho was the main exponent of the fighting-oriented style known as capoeira carioca.

Mestre Sinhozinho was one of the eight children of Brazilian military officer and politician Jose Moreira, who descended from Francisco Manoel da Silva.

Mestre Sinhozinho had his first national exposure as a fighter in 1917, when he accepted a challenge by wrestling champion Joao Baldi to avoid being taken down for five minutes.

Mestre Sinhozinho worked as a teacher, being present in Mario Aleixo's capoeira school in 1920.

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However, his carioca school was not based on a single place, as Mestre Sinhozinho taught in several sport clubs and terrains borrowed from his benefactors, usually around the rich neighborhood of Ipanema beach.

Also, unlike most capoeira mestres, Sinhozinho favored combat effectiveness over artistic expression, ditching entirely the art's music and rituals and mixing it liberally with wrestling and other fighting styles.

Mestre Sinhozinho was a hand-to-hand instructor of the Policia Especial created by President of Brazil Getulio Vargas.

Mestre Sinhozinho cultivated the psychological aspect of self-defense, instructing his students to laugh at their attackers before fighting in order to confuse them and dissipate their own fear.

Mestre Sinhozinho was known himself as an excellent athlete and fighter.

Mestre Sinhozinho ended up being more influential as a physical education teacher whose training methods benefitted many Brazilian athletes benefitted of, like future judo champion Rudolf de Otero Hermanny, wrestlers Reinaldo Lima and Paulo Paiva, athletes Paulo Amaral and Paulo Azeredo, musician Antonio Carlos Jobim and future Olympic Committee president Sylvio de Magalhaes Padilha.

In 1953, Mestre Sinhozinho next challenged the Gracie family, inviting them to send two of their Brazilian jiu-jitsu representatives to a vale tudo charity event in the Vasco da Gama stadium on March 17.

In June 1953, Mestre Sinhozinho's school was challenged by Artur Emidio de Oliveira, Capoeirista Regional from Bahia and a popular vale tudo fighter himself.

Mestre Sinhozinho was one of the first to popularize capoeira as a legal, sanitized art before Mestre Bimba.