{"id":39212,"date":"2026-07-10T20:34:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Former-PFL-fighter-shot-twice-in-sensitive-area-after-football-club-dispute-201841"},"modified":"2026-07-10T20:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:34:01","slug":"former-pfl-fighter-shot-twice-in-sensitive-area-after-football-club-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/former-pfl-fighter-shot-twice-in-sensitive-area-after-football-club-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Former PFL fighter shot twice in sensitive area after football club dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Hang on tight.<\/p>\n

Manager Jorge Nojikoski posted on social
\nmedia<\/a> Friday morning announcing that ex-Professional Fighters League<\/a> athlete Bruce Souto<\/a>
\nhad been shot Thursday reportedly following a disagreement
\ninvolving the sport of soccer. Per the manager, Souto was struck in
\nthe buttocks by two of the six rounds fired by the shooter while
\nrunning away.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Souto was rushed to the Joao XXIII Hospital in his home city of
\nBelo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he has been treated and
\nis in stable condition. He is expected to be discharged soon and
\nhis representatives have already posted on social media calling out
\nthe alleged shooter.<\/p>\n

Bruce is fine<\/h2>\n

A member of his team posted a statement on Souto\u2019s Instagram Stories<\/a>
\nafter the shooting, where they confirmed his non-life-threatening
\nstatus in the hospital while declaring that they knew who the
\nshooter was. \u201cFolks, Bruce is fine, thank God. He’s out of danger,\u201d the post
\nwrote in Portuguese, as translated by Sherdog staff. \u201cWe are
\nthankful, from our hearts, to all the people who have been praying
\nand sending messages of support. This chain of faith has been very
\nimportant to us. We trust in the justice system and believe that
\nthe responsible party will answer for everything he did. He won’t
\ngo unpunished.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post continued, \u201cThe facts are clear: six shots were taken
\nagainst Bruce. There were about 100 people nearby. The perpetrator
\nacted without hiding his face, without any concern about hiding his
\nidentity. Everyone present saw him, and many people there know him.
\nWe are confident that the justice system will work as intended and
\nthat this criminal will be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per Brazilian news outlet
\nO Tempo<\/a>, Souto was shot during a soccer match between local
\nteams. A fan of the Cruzeiro Esporte Clube team in Belo Horizonte,
\nthat team is rivals with Atletico Mineiro. To support his team of
\nCruzeiro EC, he is a member of Mafia Azul, a fan club with
\npassionate supporters. On the other side of the equation, Atletico
\nMineiro has its own fan support with a group called Torcida
\nGaloucura. It was suggested that it all came to a head after
\ndebating who would be the new president of Mafia Azul, in which a
\nmember of the Torcida Galoucura approached him.<\/p>\n

The police report indicates that the shooter came up to Souto and
\nasked him, \u201cDo you have a problem with me?\u201d The suspect allegedly
\ndrew a revolver and chased after Souto, firing it six times at the
\nfleeing athlete. Brazilian news site
\nEstado de Minas<\/a> went on to state that Souto identified the
\nshooter to the police, a man whom he knows personally.<\/p>\n

Is this democracy?<\/h2>\n

Another post was shared on Souto\u2019s Instagram profile on Friday,
\nthis one a hard
\nlink<\/a> rather than a Stories post that disappears over time. In
\nit, a member of Souto\u2019s team claims the identity of the shooter,
\nwhile demanding justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOWARD!\u201d they alleged on his profile. \u201cThey just tried to take
\nBruce’s life. The person responsible for this attack was \u2018Vinicin\u2019
\nCaveira from the Galoucura organized fan group. He fired several
\nshots at Bruce, hitting him twice. Let’s pray for his life and that
\nthis thug, this criminal, is arrested and never gets out of jail
\nagain, which is where this animal belongs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this democracy? Is this how someone should be treated for
\nexpressing their opinion and defending what they believe in? Is
\nthis the PRESIDENT YOU WANT TO SUPPORT? Enough of the violence.
\nEnough of the impunity. We hope that the authorities act quickly,
\ninvestigate all the facts and arrest this thug,\u201d they concluded,
\ntagging a government organization and the local military police\u2019s
\nprofile.<\/p>\n

News organization Record Minas<\/a>
\nindicated in 2024 that the man known as \u201cVinicin\u201d Caveira, born
\nMarcos Vinicius Oliveira de Melo, works as an \u201cadvisor\u201d to local
\npolitician Cesar Gordin. Gordin is also the owner of the Gordin
\nFight Team, a gym in which Souto has since departed. \u201cVinicin\u201d
\nholds a criminal record that includes a sentencing of 17 years
\nimprisonment in 2013 for his involvement in the death of soccer fan
\nOtavio Fernandes in 2010. Additionally, police reports have
\nindicated that \u201cVinicin\u201d allegedly prevented another individual,
\nLucas Elias Viera Silva, from receiving medical treatment after
\nbeing shot, in which the victim died shortly thereafter. Those
\ncharges were dismissed.<\/p>\n

Briefly speaking with Sherdog on Friday, sources close to the
\nsituation provided an additional comment on the story.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Vinicin\u2019 Caveira was indeed responsible for those two previous
\ncrimes [against the aforementioned Fernandes and Silva]. Caveira
\nhas beef with Mafia Azul, which is the fan group that roots for the
\nCruzeiro soccer team. Bruce Souto is a fan of Cruzeiro. Cruzeiro is
\nAtletico Mineiro\u2019s biggest rival,\u201d they explained.<\/p>\n

The sources went on to reiterate that Souto\u2019s condition is not
\ncritical, but could not provide any further information as to his
\nexpected release from the hospital. They could not confirm whether
\nSouto was running for the position of president of Mafia Azul, or
\nif he was just a member involved in the process. It has been
\nreported that military police have investigated the suspect’s
\ndomicile, who has yet to be located.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old light heavyweight last set foot in a cage in March,
\nbattling Lukasz
\nOlech<\/a> in Polish promotion FEN and coming up short by decision.
\nHe entered the major stage in 2022 when he appeared on the first
\nepisode of PFL\u2019s Challenger Series and scored a contract by
\nsparking Travis
\nDavis<\/a> with a flying knee and follow-up punches. A pair of
\nappearances in the 2022 regular season did not go his way, as he
\nwas matched against former or future tourney champs Rob
\nWilkinson<\/a> and Antonio
\nCarlos Jr.<\/a>, losing both.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hang on tight. Manager Jorge Nojikoski posted on social media Friday morning announcing that ex-Professional Fighters League athlete Bruce Souto had been shot Thursday reportedly following a disagreement involving the sport of soccer. Per the manager, Souto was struck in the buttocks by two of the six rounds fired by the shooter while running away. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}