Gabrielle Lemos Garcia - Brazilian Martial Artist Hall of Fame

Born on November 17,1985, Gabrielle aka “Gabi” Garcia is one of the most prominent Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Brazilian Martial Artists. She has won multiple ADCC World Championships in the 60+kg division and is a member of IBJJF Hall of Fame. Gabi has achieved the degree of black belt under Fabio Gurgel.

In December 2021, Garcia announced her retirement during the IBJJF World Championship 2021.

Garcia’s early and mid-teen years were spent participating in a variety of sports, including team handball, volleyball, field hockey and basketball. Gabrielle and her family relocated to Sao paulo when she was 13 years old. Gabrielle’s uncle assisted her in the beginning of her training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Gabrielle was in her last year of a university semester in advertising when she decided to pursue a full-time career in Jiu-jitsu.

She went to a local gym and attended a lesson with a coach named ‘Johnny”and she stayed there for a bit.

Gabrielle was a very successful competitor from the start but she had no plans to pursue a professional career in the sport. She somehow maintained a hectic schedule while attempting to balance her training and university both. After some time she came to grips with the fact that she would have to put her advertising career on hold during her last semester. She was already practicing with Fabio Gurgel at the time and had the full support of her family, especially her father who is a huge BJJ enthusiast.

Garcia quickly rose to the top of the female grappling rankings in Brazil after committing herself to full-time training. She dominated every tournament she entered, whether it was a blue belt or a purple belt.

Gurgel saw that Gabrielle was wayahead of her opponents and presented her with a Black Belt.

Gabrielle was already recognised as one of the greatest female BJJ athletes in the world when she earned her brown belt. She was eager to prove to the rest of the world that she was the finest in the world after achieving her black belt.

Gabrielle was on the mat training 2-3 times a day, in addition to doing her strength and conditioning workouts including other activities. Maintaining a competitive edge at all the big BJJ tournaments.

She earned a gold medal for a strong performance at the Brazilian Nationals.Then, at the IBJJF Pans Championship, she won another double gold medal for the second time.

Earlier in 2009, Garielle competed in the World No-Gi Championship, a tournament she had already won in 2008. Despite having ligament injury in her knee, Gabrielle glided to the finals. She was on the verge of missing the final because the pain was becoming intolerable, but she rose to the occasion once more and managed to fight and win in the last match against Emily Wetzel.

Gabrielle continued running through the heavyweight women’s division.

In just 2 years, Grabrielle won UAEJJF World Pro Championship 2 times.

While she was competing in her debut ADCC, she was considered the favorite to win the 60+ kg division.

Gabriella dominated the year 2011 as she had in previous years. She won all of the major titles once more before making her professional debut at the ADCC competition.

Gabrielle competed in her second ADCC event after earning double gold at the Pan American games and the World Championship.

In 2021, Garcia began calling for bouts to be set up between her and various high-profile male grapplers, notably Gordon Ryan, after failing a professional Jiu-jitsu match against Amanda Leve for the first time in two years.

Despite the fact that the bout has not yet been formally booked for promotion, she was able to convince ADCC champion Craig Jones accept to participate against her for an intergender match after only a few days.

Gabrielle was submitted for the 1st time in the history of her competitive career at Black Belt by Yara Soares at the 2021 IBJJF World Championship and she announced her retirement from IBJJF competition at the conclusion of the championship.

Gabriella Garcia has won more World Championships than any other female BJJ athlete in history.

In November 2015, it was announced that Garcia will compete for Rizin Fighting Federation on 31st December,2015, during Bellator 145. Garcia will face Lei'D Tapa for the first time. She won the fight by technical knockout in the first round.

Gabrielle faced Anna Malyukova at Rizin Fighting Federation 1, in April 2016, in her second bout. She won both fights. In the second round, she was able to submit her opponent with an armbar submission.

Gabrielle fought Destanie Yarbrough on September 25, 2016, in the first round of the Rizin World Grand Prix 2016: 1st round, which was her third bout with the promotion. She was victorious in the first round by way of an Americana submission.

In her next fight, Gabrielle fought against Russian boxer Oksana Gagloeva in July,2017 at the 6th Rizin Arena. In the first round, It happened just 14 seconds into the round, there was an eye poke that caused the match to terminate in a No Contest.

• In a battle fought on December 29 at Rizin World Grand Prix 2017; 2nd round. Gabriella was scheduled to face Shinobu Kandori, but the match was scrapped after she failed to make weight by 28 pounds.

In December 2018, Gabriella fought Barbara Nepomuceno at Rizin in a catchweight battle weighing 226 pounds. She was able to submit her opponent in the first round.

Garcia became the 1st woman to earn 4 ADCC gold medals in 2019 as she submitted Carina Santi in the finals of the tournament in Las Vegas.

It was announced in february 2014 by the USADA( United States Anti-Doping Agency) the agency responsible for testing the athletes of the IBJJF for the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED), that Gabrielle Garcia had used such chemicals during the course of her 2013 championship campaign. Despite the fact that she was discovered to have used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). She was not as such suspended from the organization.

• 9x World Champion Black Belt
• 11x Pan American Champion
• 8x World Champion Pro
• 5x ADCC Champion

Gabi Garcia (Brazil) vs Oxana Gagloeva (Russia)

Photo Credit: @gabigarciaofficial