Rafael Cavalcante is a highly touted Brazilian MMA prospect currently signed to the Strikeforce roster. Cavalcante is best known for his dangerous standup abilities and devastating muay thai potential, and training out of the famed Blackhouse camp is often mentioned as being the protege of Brazilian legends Anderson Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. In terms of size, he's a legitimate light heavyweight who packs a solid 205 pounds onto his 6'1" frame and works hard on his strength and conditioning. Cavalcante is well known and relatively polished for a prospect, and is only a few key wins away from emerging as a contender in the division.

Cavalcante possesses good handspeed, excellent punching power and a very good repertoire of kicks on his feet. He's a very aggressive and exciting striker who's usually pushing an extremely high pace and looks to finish his fights emphatically. With a powerful right hand and heavy leg kicks, Cavalcante is very well equipped to handle himself from the outside. To compliment that, Cavalcante also has a very diverse and effective clinch game and likely does his best work from in close. First and foremost, Feijao is very adept at ensnaring his opponents in his explosive thai clinch where he's shown he's capable of teeing off on them with a series of vicious knees to the head and body. Cavalcante's clinch game might be his most effective weapon on his feet, which when combined with his dangerous striking skills from the outside makes him a complete and multi-dimensional MMA striker whose standup skills are extremely dangerous. Given his explosive striking repertoire, Cavalcante holds exciting potential in his overall standup game.

While Cavalcante's striking skills are definitely explosive from in close, he's also proven very effective with trips and takedowns from the clinch. From top position Cavalcante can unload a relentless barrage of punches and displays promising ground and pound potential. In addition, Cavalcante is a BJJ black belt who possesses very strong technical ground skills and a sound understanding of submissions. Cavalcante also has excellent balance and very good takedown defense, and appears to have all the tools necessary to develop into a very well rounded and dangerous mixed martial artist.