Diego Vivaldo was born on February 8, 1985 in São Paulo – Brazil, growing up in the city’s Pinheiros borough where he became increasingly fascinated by combat sports and martial arts. This interest started during his toddler years leading his parents to enrol Diego in judo classes at the age of 5, adding shotokan karate two years later.In 2002 Luiz Guilherme – commonly known as Guigo, opened a martial arts gym in the Bairro dos Pinheiros area. Vivaldo was solely training at a fitness gym and was convinced by friends to give Guilherme a try. As Diego was not a fan of jiu jitsu he opted to train boxing at Guigo’s, a decision he regretted within a month, relegating the striking game to a background and BJJ to the foreground.Gavião started making a name for himself in the lower belt divisions of jiu jitsu’s sporting circuit, particularly in Brazil where he beat names such as Leandro Lo, Leo Nogueira, Cassio Francis, Yuri Simões, Dimitrius Souza or Kayron Gracie. These wins led his instructor Luiz Guigo to promote young Diego Vivaldo do black belt on July 25, 2010.Although well respected by São Paulo’s BJJ community, financial difficulties led Vivaldo to make a pragmatic decision and shortly after receiving his black belt belt Diego started working at his father’s business, relegating BJJ to a hobby status while competing sporadically. This lasted up until 2012, a time when Gavião quit competition life altogether.By 2014 Vivaldo realized he was not happy with his decision to quit the sport he loved and made his return, picking up a job as an instructor at Guigo to help pay the billsDuring his return to competition, while preparing for a big tournament Diego met and befriended an athlete from Chile by the name of Alejandro Zuñiga. Alejandro taught in his hometown of Antofagasta and invited Gavião to come and coach there, establishing a strong connection with the country’s BJJ community and later setting affiliations in other Chilean towns such as Mejillones, Arica and Los Andes.