Leticia Ribeiro - 6th-Degree BJJ Black Belt & Coach

Leticia Ribeiro is a 6th-degree BJJ Black Belt under Vinicius Aieta. She trained under Vinicius Aieta and Royler Gracie. She is the founder of Gracie South Bay and also the head instructor there. Leticial Ribeiro is a 9 times World Champion and an IBJJF Hall of Famer.

Leticia Ribeiro was born on 24 February 1979 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

She started her BJJ training when she was 15 years old in 1995. She enrolled in a BJJ class at Gracie Tijuca. She trained under Arthur Carthiar and Marcelo Machado. At that time, Gracie Tijuca Academy had the world’s best women’s BJJ Team. Marcelo Machado earned his BJJ Black Belt under the ADCC Hall of Famer, Royler Gracie. Her initial aim for starting BJJ training was to lose some extra fat. She once saw a BJJ tournament and liked the combat sport.

In no time, BJJ became Leticia’s favorite sport. Especially after becoming a Blue Belt, Leticia was unstoppable. BJJ became more fascinating for her when she was successful in her submission attempt. Her first successful submission was Armbar. And later armbar became her favorite technique. He expressed:

Leticia wanted to get into shape that is why she started BJJ. At first she thought about weight lifting to get a toned body. She went for it but did not like it. Later on, she got an invitation from her friend to a BJJ class. She was so determined to gain a proper body shape that she went for BJJ.

After some time, she got so much inspired by BJJ that she decided to pursue it as a profession.

Women’s divisions were introduced in BJJ in 1998. Since then, Leticia started competing in the Worlds. She was only a colored belt at that time.

In 2008, Leticia moved to California and led the female team at Gracie Humaita. She was actively competing at that time while being a remarkable coach.

Leticia Ribeiro lives in San Diego, California. Her husband, Fabricio dos Santos Camões, is an MMA fighter. She met her husband when she was training for BJJ at the Gracie Humaita Academy. She speaks both English and Portuguese fluently.

When Leticia Ribeiro started competing in BJJ competitions, the belt divisions were not as diverse as they are today. She has clearly seen the evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for Women.

Leticia is an enthusiastic person especially when it comes to women empowerment. She advises them to be confident and patient when it comes to BJJ. Being a diehard fan of submissions, Leticia Ribeiro knows how eager BJJ practitioners are when it comes to submissions.

Leticia Ribeiro received her Blue Belt in just 3 months after getting enrolled in her first BJJ class. Her dedication and motivation led to her early belt promotion.

She won 1st place in the Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship while being a Blue Belt in the featherweight class. It was like her dream had come true. And since that day she decided to be on the top and to this day she is still the best grappler BJJ has ever produced. She was present at the 1996 World Championship. Being a spectator she enjoyed the fight and aimed to win the World Championship one day. And her dream came true just after 4 years. She toiled hard for the World Championships and eventually won 9 championships.

Leticia Ribeiro was promoted to Black Belt by Vinicius Aieta and Royler Gracie in 2000. She was promoted to the Black Belt level after winning her first World Championship in the Black Belt division.

She won her first World Championship in 2000 after becoming a Black Belt. She was excited and emotional for the championship.

In 2009, Leticia Ribeiro decided to become a full time BJJ coach. She wanted to refine her coaching skills. But later on she competed in the 2010 World Championship and won another World Title.

While competing, Leticia was actively performing her duties as a coach. Her women’s Jiu-Jitsu camp was famous for being a camp for women fighters. She awarded female grapplers with the best advice and fighting techniques so that women BJJ fighters also get the right acknowledgement.

Leticia Ribeiro is 9 times IBJJF World Champion. Since 2000, she’s been topping the IBJJF charts.

She is 2 times IBJJF Pan American Champion, in 2003 and 2004.

Leticia Ribeiro is the head coach at Gracie South Bay. She is not only an excellent grappler, when she used to compete, but she is also a fabulous coach. Beatriz Mesquita is one of her students. Leticia awarded Bea with her Black Belt. The success behind Bea is her coach and instructor Leticia Ribeiro. She treats her students like family. Her coaching abilities are the reason that she is loved as a coach in the BJJ community.

She is very much concerned about building a great women program at the gym. She pays specific attention to the comfort of girls in BJJ rolling and sparring sessions. Her gym’s environment is encouraging for the fighters so that they all can focus on their skills.

She especially focuses on young girls. She believes that women are no less than men so why not train them from the very start so that they can become accomplished grapplers in no time. She even rolls with them. It truly depicts what kind of a person Leticia Ribeiro is.

Leticia Ribeiro was praised as a coach since the day she became one. She has always been a supportive and understanding coach. She motivates her students, especially women, not to back off from BJJ rather give their full attention because they are a lot more capable than that. In 2018 when Beatriz Mesquita, one of Leticia’s most accomplished fighters, won the double gold at the IBJJF World Championship Leticia congratulated her with these words:

When Leticia was competing in BJJ, there weren’t many female grapplers. It was because of a lack of awareness and opportunities for women. At that time, Alessandra “Leka” Souza was the one whom Leticia used to look up to. Leka was 2 belts senior than Leticia. It was the time when Leticia was a White Belt and there weren’t many female BJJ grapplers. Leka always supported Leticia and she was an inspiration for her.

In 2012, Leticia Ribeiro was inducted into the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (IBJJF) Hall of Fame.

Leticia Ribeiro is the head instructor at her own BJJ institute Gracie South Bay in San Diego, California. She teaches both Gi and No-Gi classes. She is also the head coach of the Gracie Humaita Female Team. She also leads a Women’s team where she is devoted to enlightening women with the importance of BJJ.

Sofia Amarante is an American grappler who was the first one to be promoted at the Black Belt level by Roberto Abreu. She won many famous international championships such as IBJJF No-Gi, Pan American Gi and No-Gi Championships. Her fight with Leticia Ribeirio was the final match of the IBJJF World Championship in 2010. Sofia came full prepared for the fight but little did she know that Leticia was the one who would take the medal home.

Leticia won the World Championship in 2009 and that is why she was full confident that she was going to make history and that is what happened. She prepared really hard for the championship. She was representing Gracie Humaita and Sofia was representing South Florida Fight Club.

Sofia applied the butterfly guard with both underhooks and overhooks, controlling Leticia’s position. Leticia quickly got out of the guard position and laid her body weight on Sofia. Leticia’s head position did not let Sofia move a lot and earned points from the guard pass. For a good part of the match, Leticia had controlled Sofia’s head and did not let her gain the top position. Eventually Leticia Robeiro won the match by scoring more points than Sofia Amarante.

Michelle Nicolini is a 4th-Degree BJJ Black Belt under Robert Drysdale. She is 8 times World and an ADCC Champion. She represented Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu in the 2009 World Championship. Michelle was an accomplished and experienced grappler. She was aware of Leticia’s fighting and training regime. Michelle, famous for her Toehold technique, aimed for it. But Leticia escaped it.

Michelle then went for the seated guard and restricted Leticia’s foot under her thigh. Leticia quickly grabbed Michelle’s Gi and got on top of her. Michelle gripped Leticia’s leg tightly from the seated position and took her down. Michelle won 2 points from the sweep. Later on, Michelle attempted for the Triangle submission but Leticia broke the leglocks around her neck. Leticia also scored 2 points along with an advantage point.

Michelle attacked Leticia’s leg for advantage point but Leticia took her down and won the match via two advantage points.

Miriam Cardoso is a 4th-Degree BJJ Black Belt. She fought out of Washington. She posts a lot on her social media and gives insight on her personal life. Leticia tried to stumble Cardoso so that she could gain the dominant position but Cardoso was stable in her standing position. Cardoso jumped on Leticia with her legs locked around Leticia’s waist and hands gripping her BJJ Gi tightly.

Eventually Leticia took Cardoso to the ground and balanced her head position. Leticia attempted her favorite technique, Armbar, but Cardoso defended and escaped the submission. At the half of the match, Leticia had scored 5 points against Cardoso. Leticia again applied the submission, this time Cross Collar Choke but Cardoso defended well. Leticia then earned advantage points and won the match by a staggering lead of 12 points against Miriam Cardoso. Leticia Ribeiro won the World Championship.

Nyjah Easton, now known as Nyjah Rollins, is a BJJ Black Belt under Lloyd Irvin. She is associated with Team Lloyd Irvin. She fights out of the United States. Nyjah was the IBJJF’s most famous fighter in the color belt divisions. She was relaxed at the start of the fight and later she got on Leticia with her legs locked around Leticia’s waist.

Leticia had a strong standing position as she lifted her. Nyjah’s strong Gi grips held her in that position. But Nyjah couldn’t hold herself for a longer time in that position. She came on the ground while trying to hold Leticia’s foot. Leticia scored 3 points from the guard pass. Leticia was in the dominant position but Nyjah quickly reversed the situation and got to Leticia's back. Eventually, Leticia won the final by points despite Nyjah’s efforts.

Leticia Ribeiro VS Gezary Matuda / World Championship 2011

Leticia Ribeiro VS Michelle Nicolini / World Championship 2009

Leticia Ribeiro VS Miriam Cardoso / World Championship 2012

Leticia Ribeiro VS Sofia Amarante / World Championship 2010

Leticia Ribeiro v Nyjah Easton / World Championship 2011

Photo Credit: @lettyribeiro