Yara Soares - Fastest Promoted BJJ Black Belt

Yara Soares is a BJJ Black Belt under Luiz Guilherme, who is a former IBJJF World Champion. She is now associated with The Dream Art Team and has won many Gold and Silver Medals. She is one of the most recognized female BJJ fighters in the super heavyweight division of the IBJJF.

Yara Soares was born on 7 November 1995 in Guarapari. It is a big town located in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.

Soares belongs to an extensive line of athletes. She actively participated in long-distance running. This athleticism resonated with her BJJ career.

She also earned many titles in running at the age of 8 and hence, appeared on the podium for the very first time. She was an excellent and fast runner.

Yara also competed in Handball. She continued playing for a few years. It increased her flexibility and grip strength. These skills, later on, helped her to excel in BJJ. It also taught her to defend and stay in a balanced position.

When Soares turned 18, she realized that there was no financial career in Handball. She was a good player in Handball but the realization of having no career in it made her very upset.

She took the leap of faith and decided to try something new, she joined BJJ in April 2014. Her coach was Tony Bergamo who trained her and later she became a BJJ star.

She wanted to join an academy that was more focused on the competition side of sports Jiu-Jitsu. She then joined The Striker Academy. Thiago Oliveira was the owner and head coach there. She developed an interest in BJJ and decided to pursue it as a professional career.

The Striker Academy is one of those academies which produced excellent BJJ fighters such as Fernanda Mazzelli and many more like him. Yara spent 18 months at The Striker Academy.

Yara Soares got her Blue Belt from Thiago Oliveira.

She only spent 1.5 years at The Striker Academy. It is because she was offered a scholarship by Luiz Guilherme to train at his academy in Sao Paulo and it was an opportunity to upscale her BJJ game and training opportunity with legends of BJJ. Luiz Guilherme is a former IBJJF World Champion. Being under such a coach, Soares decided to compete in São Paulo which was also called the center of Grappling in Brazil.

Under the guidance of Luiz, Soares won many championships as a BJJ colored belt. As a Blue Belt, she earned the 3rd position in the 2017 IBJJF World Championship.

After the merger of Guilherme and Lloyd Irvin, Soares took training from Lloyd Irvin and competed in the US under the banner of Team Ll’s.

She won double gold at the Pan American Jiu-Jitsu Championship in 2019. Lloyd Irvin promoted her to Brown Belt in March 2019.

Only after 2 months, she won the World Championship as a Brown Belt. She became extremely victorious at the Sao Paulo Open and Sao Paulo BJJ Pro. This led to her promotion to Black Belt in December 2019. She went from Brown to Black Belt in just 9 months.

It takes 3 to 5 years for a Brown Belt to become a Black Belt in BJJ. But for Soares, it took only a few months. Due to this, she was blocked from competing in the tournaments organized by IBJJF for some months.

She was the IBJJF Pan Champion in 2021 and won the 1st position.

In 2021, Soares joined The Dream Art Team whose head coach was Isaque Bahiense.

The match was a historic fight for Yara Soares. IBJJF Hall of Famer and multiple times world champion, Gabi Garcia was heavier and stronger than Yara. Gabi Garcia is a potentially strong opponent tried many times to take down Soares.

But the balance of Soares kept her safe. Soares secured 2 points against Gabi by applying a sweep. Soares grabbed the collar and the leg of Gabi to gain a dominant position. And then applied the collar choke and submitted the legend, Gabi Garcia. Soares submitted Gabi in just 8 minutes.

The triangle and spin game of Soares is very refined. When Ana tried to apply guard, Soares passed right underneath her and gained the dominant position.

Having long legs makes it easy for Soares to apply the Lasso Guard. She pointed her right knee out which tilted Ana to the left side and hence did not allowed her to make moves. Soares elevated Ana with one leg and Ana was imbalanced. It showed the strong balance game of Soares and how composed she is in her movements.

She then got the Lasso sweep she was trying to apply from the advent of the match and got 2 points. She also gained 1 advantage point.

This was the most anticipated match of the 2021 Pan Championship. An interesting turn of events made Yara Soares face Ana Vieira in the finals for the Gold. In previous matches of Pan 2021. Ana defeated Gabi Pessanha. Gabi Passanha defeated Yara Soares and in the Final, Yara defeated Ana Vieira.

The fighting style of Gabrieli was very explosive. Both fighters tried to gain the dominant position throughout the match. Soares earned 2 points by applying a sweep from the guard position. She then again secured 2 points but this time by taking down Gabrieli. She also gained 1 advantage point. Soares gained 2 more points for the successful takedown and Won the Gold.

The Lasso Guard of Soares was a very refined and lethal weapon in the arsenal of her techniques. She gained an advantage point in the start of the match because of her Lasse guard and Lasso hooks. She gained 2 points for the sweep. The match ended in almost 8 minutes when Soares applied the Cross Collar Choke from mount and Custodio Tapped.

Soares dominated the fight and couldn't let Sarah to even get comfortable. She won the match by Cross Collar Choke from Back and Sarah tapped out. The match ended in only 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

• IBJJF Pan Champion (2021)
• IBJJF South American Champion (2016, 2017)
• CBJJE World Champion (2018)

Yara Soares v Gabi Garcia / World Championship 2021

Yara Soares VS Sarah Rice / World Championship 2019

Yara Soares v Sarah Rice / Pan Championship 2021

Yara Soares v Mayara Custodio /World Championship 2021

Photo credit: @yabjj