Andressa Cintra

Andressa Cintra has won Worlds five times as a black belt, the first a year and a half after her promotion. In 2019 she won at medium-heavyweight and, from 2021 to 2024, took the middleweight title four years in a row.

Born in Campo Mourão, in the Brazilian state of Paraná, on August 4, 1995, she did rhythmic gymnastics and Chinese boxing before starting Jiu-Jitsu at 15. Her first coach, João Guedes, gave her a blue belt, and about four months later she won her first Brazilian Nationals title. At 18 she moved to Maringá to go to college and train twice a day.

She spent time at Guigo JJ in São Paulo, where she got her purple belt from Luiz “Guigo” Guilherme, and went back to Paraná to train at CheckMat Curitiba under Sebastian Lalli, who gave her a black belt at the end of 2017. That year, still a brown belt, she had been world champion in her weight class and the open class. In 2018 she moved to the United States and joined Gracie Barra.

Two of her middleweight finals were against Thalyta Silva: in 2022, decided by the referees after a 0-0 match, and in 2023, won 4-2. In 2022 she reached the final with two submissions, one of them a straight ankle lock in 26 seconds on Chloé McNally. In no-gi she was world champion in 2022 and 2023.

Her fifth title, in 2024, came with three submissions in four matches, including a kneebar on Ingridd Alves in the semifinal and a choke from the back on Larissa Martins in the final. She has not been back at the biggest IBJJF tournaments since. She now teaches at Gracie Barra Texas, in Webster, where she works with the competition teams.