Rikako Yuasa – Top BJJ Black Belt World Champion

Rikako Yuasa is a Japanese BJJ competitor and a well-known submission grappler. She is a renowned black belt fighter under Yukinori Sasa. She is famous by the name ‘Lady Sasa’. She won several BJJ international tournaments and won gold medals. Yuasa won the World, European, and Asian championships in the category of colored belts. She got the privilege to become a four-time black belt World champion. 

Rikako Yuasa was born in Saitama, Japan on 12 April, 1991. She began swimming at the age of four, and when she reached the sixth grade she was selected as the Junior Olympics participant. In secondary school, she started freestyle wrestling and kudukan Judo . She joined the club named Pogona where she discovered BJJ . 

When Rikako Yuasa was 17 years old, she intended to lose weight. She joined the gym and soon discovered the fact that many women are losing weight with the martial art of jiu-jitsu. Another thing that she has noticed is that with BJJ , women are acquiring the perfect figure. Yuasa initiated the training of jiu-jitsu with the instructor Makoto Ikuta.

She joined the Pogona club and began her BJJ training under Ichiro Kaneko. Rikaku was diving deep into the art of BJJ and became more proficient day by day. Soon she become the most prominent Japanese BJJ grappler.

Yuasa was a quick trainee and had the passion to reach beyond the boundaries. She was stepping on to reach the height of her BJJ career. She was promoted to the blue belt then purple in the year of 2009. Thereafter she competed in grappling at the event of Tokyo Jewel.

Rikako Yuasa entered in European and Asian Championships in 2012, her passion and dedication led her to the list of top BJJ fighters she won the world championship in the open weight division. In the year of 2014, she was promoted to brown belt.

In progression, to compete and win in the vast platform of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, she switched to one of the best academies of grappling. Her coach was Yukinori Sasa, known as the most commanding and strongest jiu-jitsu fighter in the world. After achieving a massive victory in the IBJJF World Championship in California, Rikako Yuasa earned the black belt on June 7, 2014.

Rikako Yuasa is the first Japanese BJJ athlete who won the IBJJF Black Belt World Championship in 2015. She defeated Gezary Matuda in the Light Featherweight division Finals. Yuasa Also won the Silver medal in the IBJJF Asian Championship 2015.

Rikako Yuasa is among the most proficient and skilled BJJ athletes. She proceeded in the field and won the gold medal in the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Yuasa's tremendous performances made her way to open up the avenue of victories, she won ADCC Asia two times in 2017 and 2019. With her consistency and passion, she won the IBJJF World titles in the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. 

An electrifying competition of grappling occurred between the two dynamic grapplers Rikako Yuasa and Patricia Fontes. It was an enormous fight as each grappler wanted to submit the opponent. Yuasa’s armbar submission made the way to victory. 

In the World Championship 2017, the final match was held between Rikako Yuasa and Rayanne Amanda. Both grapplers tried well to achieve the points or submission but Yuasa was super technical, Yuasa used the technique of lapel choke to submit the opponent. 

In the World Championship 2018, Rikako Yuasa competed against Serena Gabrielli. Both of the fighters applied distinct submission techniques to win the fight. Serena defended herself from submission but In the end, Yuasa won the match based on points. 

Rikako Yuasa vs Serena Gabrielli / World Championship 2018

Rikako Yuasa vs Rayanne Amanda / World Championship 2017

Mayssa Bastos VS Rikako Yuasa / World Championship 2019

QUINTET Fight Night 3 - Rikako Yuasa vs Grace Gundrum

 Photo Credit: @grapplerinfo & @AbsoluteMMAStKilda