Zeca Floriano

José Floriano Peixoto, known as Zeca Floriano, was the youngest son of Marshal Floriano Peixoto, Brazil's second president (1891-1894), and Josina Vieira Peixoto. Born August 5, 1887 in Rio de Janeiro, he grew up in privilege but rejected a military career at age fifteen to pursue the circus.

Zeca became one of Brazil's first true sportsmen—a medalist in approximately eighteen disciplines including boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, weightlifting, swimming, football, athletics, and Olympic gymnastics. At a time when the ideal Brazilian physique was lean, Zeca cultivated a strong, muscular body that was considered extravagant and even shocking.

His combat credentials were extraordinary. He won Brazil's National Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship at São Paulo's Politeama theater between 1908 and 1909, defeating renowned international wrestlers like Austrian George Rihsbacher, German Scharmann, and Italian Segatto. He famously entered a lion's cage (the animal named Marrusko) for a prize and fought a bear named Kluka in circus performances.

But Zeca also carried his father's legacy in a more clandestine art. Marshal Floriano Peixoto himself had been documented as a practitioner of capoeiragem—that violent underground fighting tradition that the very government he led had criminalized in 1890. Zeca inherited this knowledge and continued practicing pernada and capoeira carioca, the distinctly Rio de Janeiro fighting style that combined leg sweeps, kicks, and unbalancing techniques.

In 1908, when young Agenor Moreira Sampaio's family moved to Rio de Janeiro, they found themselves neighbors with the president's son. Agenor—who would become Mestre Sinhozinho—trained with Zeca for several years, learning pernada and the local capoeira carioca tradition. This transmission occurred just before Sinhozinho witnessed the legendary Cyriaco-Sada Miyako fight in May 1909, which would inspire him to systematize his own approach.

Beyond fighting, Zeca founded and directed the "Pavilhão Floriano" or "Circo Floriano", touring Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Pernambuco, and Paraíba. He established several athletic institutions: the "Escola Atlética Modelo José Floriano Peixoto" (1915), the "Esporte Clube S. Cristóvão", and a "Escola de Cultura Física" in Recife (1933). In 1939, he was appointed Chief Instructor of Physical Education for Rio's Security Directorate, a position he held until at least 1955.

In March 1911, he performed a heroic rescue, saving approximately 80 people from a shipwreck in Salvador, Bahia. His boxing career recorded 7 wins, 1 loss, and 4 draws, with his last documented fight on January 20, 1933 against João Baldi at Circo Nerino in Recife.

Zeca Floriano lived into his eighties. Researchers have found birthday greetings published for him as late as August 1966, but his mentions in the press cease by November 1972. The exact date and location of his death remain unknown.