Paulo Miyao


Paulo Henrique Bordignon Miyao is a Brazilian BJJ black belt with a notable competitive record. He and his brother João Miyao have a competitive rivalry with Keenan Cornelius: after several defeats to Cornelius in 2012, Paulo would go on to defeat Keenan at the 2013 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in the brown belt absolute division, a remarkable feat for his given weight-class. Paulo trains under Cicero Costha alongside his brother João and world champion, Leandro Lo.

Black belt career

In 2012, Paulo won his first black belt tournament while still a brown belt at the ADCC tryouts in Natal, Brazil. He and his brother were promoted to black belt on June 25, 2013.
Paulo was invited to a submission-only, no-gi, super-fight match against UFC veteran Jon Fitch at the 2013 World Jiu-Jitsu Expo. Although Paulo was able to keep Fitch on the defensive for the majority of the 20-minute round, the match ended in a draw.

Doping

Paulo Miyao tested positive for clomiphene, a Specified Substance in the class of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators on the WADA Prohibited List and prohibited at all times under the World Anti-Doping Code and the USADA Protocol, which applied to the 2016 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Miyao had challenged the validity of the test via an arbitrator, leading to an extensive process that could have negated the positive result. The crux of Miyao's argument was centered on the fact that the IBJJF has two waiver forms as part of the registration for Worlds, one in English and another in Portuguese. His claim was that as a non-native English speaker who used the Portuguese waiver, he was not aware of the anti-doping rules and therefore not subject to USADA jurisdiction. The USADA doping sanction has resulted in Miyao being suspended from WADA Code Signatory events for a period of two years, with the period of ineligibility beginning on September 29, 2016.
Miyao forfeited his gold medal from the IBJJF 2016 World Championships. He was eligible to compete in WADA Code Signatory events effective September 2018.