Gabrielle Garcia (Alliance)

Gabrielle Garcia (aka Gabi Garcia or Gabis) is a Jiu Jitsu prodigy in the women’s division, having won almost every important trophy there was to win before even receiving her black belt. The “Gaúcha” (person from a southern region of Brazil) has since reached the degree of black belt under the illustrious “General” Fábio Gurgel, becoming one of the brightest stars in a Alliance BJJ camp, a camp that is already a constellation of jiu jitsu starts on it’s own.

Gabi Garcia Jiu Jitsu

Full Name: Gabrielle Lemos Garcia

Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti > Fábio Gurgel > Gabrielle Garcia

Main Titles:

• 7x World Champion (2012, 2011 & 2010 weight and absolute, 2008)
• 4x Pan American Champion (2011 & 2010 weight/absolute);
• 4x Brazilian National Champion (2011 black, 2010 brown weight & absolute, 2009 brown)
• 2x World No Gi Champion (2009, 2008);
• 2x World Jiu Jitsu Pro Cup Champion (2010, 2011);
• ADCC Champion (2011)
• European Champion (2011 absolute black)

Favourite Position: Kimura lock from side control

Weight Division: Pesado (Over 69kg/151lbs)

Team/Association: Alliance

Gabrielle Garcia Biography

Gabrielle Garcia was born on the 17th of November 1985 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She was very sporty from the get go, practicing a variety of sports like volleyball, team handball and she was a very successful hockey player in her early and mid teens, playing in a high level team.

Gabrielle moved to Sao Paulo with her family when she was 13 years of age. Her uncle trained Jiu Jitsu and she was curious to give it a try. She visited a local gym and took a class with a coach who went by the name “Johnny” and there she stayed for a while.

Gabrielle was very successful as a competitor from the start, but she didn’t seek a career as a Jiu Jitsu fighter straight away. She kept a busy schedule trying to juggle both training and her studies. She finally decided to put her advertising career on hold on the last year of her university course to dedicate herself fully to Jiu Jitsu. At the time she was already training with Fabio Gurgel and she had full support of her family, specially her father who is a big BJJ enthusiast.

Due to her size (Gabi is 1.87cm/6’2″ and around 107kg/236lbs) she always felt that more than often the audience at BJJ tournaments rooted against her. The Jiu Jitsu crowd is famed for loving to watch David vs. Goliath mismatches and always enjoys when the smaller fighter wins. This sort of adversity always brought the competitor in Gabrielle to rise to the occasion, and it is this sort of emotion that she uses to push herself even further.

In 2009 Gabrielle fought the World Nogi Championship, a competition she had won the previous year. Being the favourite to win, Gabrielle cruised to the final with ligament damage to the knee. She almost missed the final as the pain was getting close to unbearable, but again rising to the occasion, Gabrielle managed to fight and win in the final match against Emily Wetzel.

With her training schedule stretched to a maximum with training sessions 3 times per day, Gabrielle Garcia had an amazing competitive year, winning the Pan American, the “Brasileiro” and the World Pro Cup as well as the “Mundial”, receiving her long awaited black belt from the hands of her master Fabio Gurgel on the podium of the World Championships (picture above).

Gabi Garcia vs Emily Wetzel

Gabi Garcia vs Luzia Fernandes