Maria Luisa Delahaye

Maria Luisa Delahaye Amorim, commonly known as Maria Delahaye is a jiu-jitsu black belt under Richard “Tio Ricky” Neves and Renato Verás who represents the Grappling Fight Team (GFT) in the sport’s international circuit. Delahaye first made waves in the sport while competing in the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Pro (AJP) league’s mixed division (black & brown) where she earned a #2 overall ranking in 2024, competing as a brown belt.

Maria Luisa Delahaye Jiu-Jitsu

Full Name: Maria Luisa Delahaye Amorim

Nickname: N/A

Lineage: Luis França > O. Fadda > Monir Salomão > Julio Cesar > Renato Verás > Maria Luisa Delahaye

Main Achievements:

• #2 Ranked Athlete In AJP Circuit (2024)
• 1st Place AJP Grand Slam, ROM (2024)
• 1st Place AJP Grand Slam, RJN (2022)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• 1st Place IBJJF European Championship (2024 brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF World Championship (2024 brown)
• 3rd Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2021 purple)

* Absolute
** Weight and Absolute

Favorite Position/Technique: Open Guard

Weight Division: Peso Leve (64 kg / 141.5 lbs)

Team/Association: GF Team

Maria Luisa Delahaye Biography

Maria Delahaye was born on December 18, 2000, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and moved to Saquarema, a beach town also located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, when she was 13.

Born into a family of athletes where her father had been a professional futsal (indoor soccer/football) player and her mother an avid athletics practitioner, it didn’t take long before Maria herself was embedded in sports culture. Delahaye’s first competitive sport was judo, which she started at 5 at the Gávea Escola Nova under coach Marco Aurelio.

Aurelio and coach Ney Wilson were part of Maria’s development as a judoka up until her early teens. She was forced to stop her judo practice when she moved to Saquarema as there were no judo schools in the more remote town.

Arriving in Saquarema at 13-14, Delahaye was convinced by her mother to try jiu-jitsu as it was the closest thing to judo in the area. Maria started at a neighboring gym but they were not competition-minded and she ended up switching to Saquafit as a yellow belt, a gym affiliated with one of the biggest BJJ squads in the country, GFTeam. There, Maria Luisa met instructors Richard “Tio Ricky” Neves and Renato Verás.

Maria Delahaye quickly became one of the most accomplished athletes on the Neves-Veras workgroup, remaining under the guidance of the coaching duo across all belts, even while studying Physical Education in college. As a brown belt, she began regular visits to GFT’s headquarters in Meyer, RJ, to train with the team’s professional squad. Her hard work led to her black belt promotion in July 2024.