Romero Cavalcanti

Romero Cavalcanti (born October 22, 1952), nicknamed Jacaré because he used to wear Lacoste polo shirts in his younger years, is a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the founder-head coach of the prestigious Alliance Jiu Jitsu Team. He is one of the six people to have been promoted to Black Belt by the famous Rolls Gracie prior to Gracie's death in a hang gliding accident. Romero has coached many of today's top Black belt competitors and black belt coaches, and was a significant influence on the US Army Combatives Program through his student Matt Larsen.

Romero began training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at 11 years old. By the age of 16, Romero regularly attended jiu jitsu classes at the famous Gracie School in Copacabana where he grew up, alongside Carlos Gracie, Jr., Crolin Gracie, Mario Claudio Tallarico, Fábio Santos, Mauricio Motta Gomes, the Machados, and Rickson Gracie. After extensive competition from 1972 to 1985 and working as an assistant instructor at the Gracie school, Romero opened his first school in Ipanema, Brazil. Romero had studied in New York in the 1970s, and in 1995 he moved back to the US with his family and opened a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school in Miami. He later moved to Atlanta where he established a school in late 1996.

Mitsuyo "Count Koma" Maeda → Carlos Gracie, Sr. → Helio Gracie → Rolls Gracie → Romero "Jacaré" Cavalcanti