SEPTEMBER 2025, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA. BJJ Heroes prides itself of being slightly ahead of the curve and writing about the big players of our sport before they become big. Back in 2010, when we started, this was a simpler task than it is today, in the era of social media; however, there are still some hidden gems in jiu-jitsu’s echo system. One of those is Mayara Munhos.
Mayara has been working tirelessly in the backstage of BJJ for years now. First with ESPN Brazil shining some light on our sport in her home country, and later with her own project Jiu-Jitsu In Frames, further ahead as one of the faces behind the Atos Online platform, and lately we have seen Mayara being one of the key figures in the Portuguese face of the UFC Fight Pass project as well as UFC BJJ.
Being one of the few high-profile figures in our sport who holds the highest pedigree both in front of the camera and on the mats, being a black belt under one of the finest coaches in our sport, Andre Galvao. We thought it would be pertinent to introduce Munhos to our audience. Full interview below.
1) You have a degree in social communications, if I remember right. Which university did you attend?
Yes, I have a degree in Social Communication with a concentration in Radio, TV, and Internet. I graduated in 2014 from the Methodist University of São Paulo, located in São Bernardo do Campo, SP.
2) How and when did you get involved with jiu-jitsu?
I first got involved with jiu-jitsu in 2006, when I was 13. I never had anyone in my family or close friends who trained, but I wanted to train in boxing just to have a punching bag in my room. Talking about this with a classmate at the time, he asked me, “Why boxing?” and I said I wanted to have a punching bag in my room. He suggested I train jiu-jitsu, the sport he practiced, and he recommended a gym in Itatiba, where I lived. The next day, I talked to my dad, and he took me to class. I trained for two years, competed in a few competitions, and won the first CBJJE South American Championship in history (how old am I?) in the Junior category. I stopped in 2008 because of an injury and then came back in 2014.
3) You worked at ESPN, right? Was that before or after the formation of JJ In Frames?
Yes, I worked at ESPN years before starting Jiu-Jitsu in Frames. I started working at ESPN in 2013 as an intern. I participated in a selection process to get in and was hired after four stages. I worked as an editing intern for two years, graduated from college, and was promoted. I worked as a video editor.
3.1) How did the opportunity to work at ESPN arise?
I started working in January 2013. It was an incredible experience; I often say it was my second college degree. I started working as a video editor, and in 2018, I switched to journalism. There, I became the lead for espnW (ESPN Women), interviewed the biggest names in sports, brought an MMA athlete to Bola da Vez for the first time in the network’s history (Amanda Nunes, Bola da Vez is an ESPN Brazil program that usually features Olympic athletes, and no MMA athlete had ever participated), and covered the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Olympics. In addition to that, I was able to work on multiple big articles, including research that I did about women’s harassment on the mats in 2017, and more than 200 articles for ESPN Brazil, including collaborations with ESPN International.
3.2) How did the idea for JJ in Frames come about?
I came up with the idea for JJ in Frames because, in 2016, I started writing for ESPN (specifically, ESPN-W) about women’s jiu-jitsu. Right after I started the blog, I saw it was doing well and thought I could do some video interviews to make it more interesting. But, despite having my full-time job at ESPN, the blog was something I did on the side, so I couldn’t use ESPN’s structure for my videos. So, I started doing some interviews and decided to put them on my YouTube channel, which, until then, was only there because I had a Gmail account (lol), so I had never dedicated myself to having a channel. I would post the interviews there and send them to the ESPN blog because I thought, “If ESPN’s videos ever go offline, or my blog goes offline, at least I have my interviews.” I thought that having an official channel would be a good idea, but I didn’t like the idea of using my own name, and thus Jiu-Jitsu in Frames was born.
4) What led you to move to the USA, given that you already had a fairly balanced life in Brazil?
What made me move to the USA was the opportunity. At one point in my life, I realized, while still working at ESPN, that I really wanted to work full-time in jiu-jitsu, but I didn’t see the opportunity for jiu-jitsu to grow within the company. Unfortunately, it’s still a very small sport compared to mainstream sports. So I left ESPN in early 2021 and was hired by BJJ Flix. I also hosted BJJ Bet. Since the pandemic had hit and I had been working remotely for a long time, I was able to dedicate more time to my channel. This opened up incredible opportunities for me, as I interviewed the biggest names in the sport and covered events like the World Championships and the ADCC. I’ve always had a good relationship with Andre and Angelica Galvao because I trained at Atos in São Paulo and had interviewed them in the past. In 2022, I came to San Diego for vacation, and coincidentally, Andre Galvao was developing Atos BJJ On Demand and made me a job offer on the platform, and, of course, I accepted! I started working with Andre in November 2022.
5) How did the opportunity to work at UFC FP and UFC BJJ come about?
In 2023, Evelyn Rodrigues, an International Correspondent for UFC Brazil, was pregnant and looking for someone to cover her maternity leave from the UFC (MMA). The UFC team contacted me and said they’d like me to fill in for her for four months of paternal leave. It was surreal because I never imagined covering MMA, especially as an official UFC reporter. At the end of 2023, I traveled to Brazil to cover BJJ Stars and ended up covering my first UFC event, UFC São Paulo, which marked the beginning of my career with the company. I returned to the US and continued covering several pay-per-views, UFC Fight Night, and, in between, the UFC Fight Pass Invitational. Since my main specialty is jiu-jitsu, I officially became a reporter for the UFC Fight Pass Invitational and continued covering MMA events when needed (I still do to this day). Then the transition from the Invitational to UFC BJJ began, and I’m still there, actively participating in the growth of jiu-jitsu in the UFC.
Interview & write-up by Andre Borges.
