WBC Muaythai Worlds 2025: Balneário Camboriú on the Verona podium

In June 2025, Balneário Camboriú stepped onto the podium twice at the WBC Muaythai World Championship, in Verona, Italy. A 16-year-old athlete from the city came home with the youth world title, and Leandro Veiga with the silver medal in the adult division. Both were called up by FECAMTT, the Santa Catarina Traditional Muaythai Federation, chaired by Mestre Paulo Ribeiro, who traveled with the team.

A World Championship with 900 athletes

According to the newspaper Página 3, the championship brought together about 900 athletes from 80 countries. Reaching one final in a tournament of that size would already be an achievement for a city in Santa Catarina. Balneário Camboriú reached two.

The results

• Youth world champion: the 16-year-old athlete from Balneário Camboriú beat a Russian athlete in the deciding bout. Because she is a minor, she is not identified by name on this site.
• Adult world runner-up: Leandro Veiga reached the final of the adult category and took silver after losing to England’s representative.

The team behind the medals

The two athletes traveled with coach Diego Sprote, of the Sprotethai team, and with FECAMTT’s president, Paulo Ribeiro. According to Página 3, they were sponsored by Fundesporte and by the Fundação Municipal de Esportes de Balneário Camboriú (FMEBC, the city’s sports foundation).

The coach told the newspaper that he has lived Muaythai for 20 years and that the champion joined the team in her early teens, shy and very eager to learn, until she became a disciplined student who never misses training.

“We broke a paradigm”

For Mestre Paulo Ribeiro, the medals opened a new door. “We broke a paradigm and brought home unprecedented medals,” he told Página 3. In the same interview, he said the results would give the athletes grounds to earn the Bolsa Atleta (athlete grant) program in 2026.

The achievement carries special weight for those who fought for Muaythai to be recognized as a sport in Santa Catarina. The request to include the sport in the Santa Catarina Open Games was submitted to FESPORTE, Santa Catarina’s state sports foundation, in 2013, and the debut at the games took place in 2019. Read more on the Muaythai page.

After Verona, Thailand

The result in Italy had consequences right away. In July 2025, a delegation of 30 Brazilians, with six coaches and 24 athletes aged up to 22, took part in the WBC Muaythai Summer Camp, in Ayutthaya, Thailand, the birthplace of Muaythai. The head of the delegation was Mestre Paulo Ribeiro.

According to Página 3, it was a technical update seminar, and the trip was organized through an agreement between FECAMTT and the Thai government’s tourism authority, which helped with the airfare. “We were called up based on the result of the World Championship held in Italy,” the Mestre explained.

Coaches Elza Christine, from Itajaí, and Alexis Frederico Panossi, from Camboriú, also took part from the region.

Want to be part of this story?

FECAMTT organizes state stages, qualifiers and courses, and runs the Muaythai nas Escolas (“Muaythai in Schools”) project. Santa Catarina companies can support approved sports projects with part of their ICMS (state tax on goods and services): see how to support. To train or learn about the Mestre’s work, talk to him.