Rosângela “Zanza” Conceição

Rosângela Conceição, known as Zanza, is there at the origin of the women’s Worlds. In 1998, when the IBJJF opened the tournament to women, she won heavyweight while still a purple belt and, alongside Thaís Ramos, the lightweight champion, became one of the first two women’s world champions. She returned to the top at medium-heavyweight, for team Behring, in 2003, when the top division combined purple, brown and black belts, and in 2005, by then with only brown and black belts.

Born on August 7, 1973, in São Leopoldo, in Rio Grande do Sul, she started judo under the influence of her older brother and was an Olympic alternate in Atlanta in 1996. She came to Jiu-Jitsu through Ricardo Murgel, one of the pioneers of the sport in the state, and received her black belt from Sylvio Behring.

After failing to qualify in judo for the Athens Games, she switched to wrestling. She took bronze at the Pan American Games in Rio in 2007, in the under 72 kg division, and the following year, in Beijing, became the first Brazilian woman to compete in Olympic wrestling. In 2009 she won the ADCC South American Trials.

She moved to the United Arab Emirates to teach Jiu-Jitsu and, in 2011, became a comic book character: a 36-page booklet, distributed in public schools, uses her stories to teach martial arts techniques and values to children.