Janaina Lebre - An Elite BJJ Black Belt Champion

Janaina Lebre’s full name is Janina Maia De Menezes Lebre, and she is a top Black Belt fighter associated with the team Gracie Humaita under coach Regis Lebre, her husband. She won several Competitions of the International Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation and secured her gold medals. She is one of the best fighters among lightweight and won the IBJJF Pan, European Nationals, American Nationals, and Grand Prix tournaments.

Janaina Lebre was born in a small town Eusebio in Ceara, Brazil on the 14th of December, 1995. Since she was a child, she was very good at sports. She played handball in her teens before practicing Jiu-Jitsu properly.

In her teens, she used to practice with her boyfriend, Nordestina, because all the other students were too shy to train with her. On the very first day of practice, she felt at home on the mats and decided to go for Jiu-Jitsu.

Janaina started her career in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by signing herself up at a local academy in Eusebio called HC Team. There she trained under Hamilton Caminha, who was so kind and supportive and made her fall in love with this martial art. It was all because of her coach that Janaina Lebre achieved her Blue belt. After one month of training, she participated in a competition at the age of 17 and won her first gold medal which increased her enthusiasm towards this game.

After achieving her Blue belt, Janaina Lebre moved to the Capital of her state to train at a more competitive and advanced academy. She joined SAS Academy in Fortaleza under trained under coach Sergio Cardoso. Again because of her love and passion for this game, she trained hard in this academy and achieved her Purple belt.

Janaina Lebre participated in the IBJJF Worlds Championship and went to the USA to fight. During her time in the USA, she decided to come and train in the USA soon. That’s why she asked the coach of Gracie Humaita's team, Regis Lebre, to make arrangements for her stay in the USA. After that, she permanently moved to the USA joined the Gracie Humaita Team, and started training there.

After moving to the USA, Janaina Lebre started training under Regis Lebre who was already a top Black Belt Champion at the age of 24. Both of them found themselves so compatible with each other that they decided to get married. Now they had a beautiful son and they lived in the USA.

After joining his husband’s academy, Janaina Lebra practiced so hard and she got so many opportunities that she never got before. Hence, first, she raised her belt level to the Brown belt by winning gold medals in the IBJJF Tournaments in 2019. After that, in August 2019, she was promoted to the Balck Belt category.

In January 2024, Janaina Lebre announced that she was going to leave the Gracie Humaita Team and join the AOJ Team under the Mendes Brothers. She shared the news on social media by saying that it would be the best decision for her personal growth as well as for the AOJ Team. She said,

In the quarter-final of the IBJJF American National Championship 2021 in the Open Class Janaina Lebre fought with another top Black Belt fighter, Heather Woods. The whole fight lasted for almost one and a half minutes in which Janaina Lebre initiated the match with a closed guard and applied several submissions to defeat the opponent. At last, she won by Armbar Submission.

In the semi-final of IBJJF American Nationals 2021 for Absolute Class, Janaina Lebre fought with Claire North, another elite Black belt champion. In the beginning Janaina Lebre brilliantly takedowns the opponent. After that, both the players tried to defeat each other. But Janaina Lebre won the match by Straight Ankle Lock which she was attempting from the start of match. The fight lasted for almost 6 minutes.

In the final of the IBJJF Flo Grappling GP for Black Belt in the Lightweight division, Janaina Lebre competed with another black belt Champion, Anna Rodrigues. At the very start, Janaina Lebre got 4 points of back control. After that, both the players applied different submissions to win the fight. In the last Janaina Lebre secured two points of sweeps and won the fight by 6x0 and became the first woman ever to win the Flo Grappling GP.

Janaina Lebre v Heather Woods / American National 2021

Janaina Lebre v Claire North / American National 2021

Janaina Lebre v Anna Rodrigues / IBJJF FLO GRAPPLING GP 2022

Photo credit: @janainalebre