Bianca Basílio

Bianca Basílio lost two black belt Worlds finals before winning her first. She took featherweight silver in 2019 and 2021 and, in 2022, won the title on advantages against Amanda Monteiro. The next year she won gold again.

Born in Franca, in the interior of São Paulo state, on February 2, 1996, she did gymnastics for more than three years before starting Jiu-Jitsu in 2008, at 12, in a kids class Diogo Almeida opened in Itaquera, on the east side of São Paulo. Her brother, Raul, started with her.

Diogo took her to orange belt, and his brother, Caio Almeida, took over from there. Bianca became a world champion at 15, as a juvenile blue belt, and also won Worlds at purple belt, in 2015, and at brown belt, in 2016. Caio gave her a black belt in December 2016.

At black belt, leg locks became her trademark and account for most of her submissions. She won the Brazilian Nationals five times and ADCC in 2019. At Worlds she competed for Atos, the team she won both titles with.

Her 2023 run included a kimura on Gabriela Pereira in the semifinal and, in the final, an advantage in the closing seconds against Anna Rodrigues. “I felt prepared to win as a black belt, but that was not how it happened in my history,” she told the IBJJF that year.

After her second title Bianca has not been back on the Worlds podium. In 2024 she took silver at ADCC in the under 55 kg (121 lb) division and, in 2025, finished fourth at lightweight at The Crown. In 2026 she made her pro MMA debut with LFA and won her first two fights.