Gabi Pessanha and what she left behind at 14: “Is this really going to work out?”
The most decorated woman in Jiu-Jitsu tells VF Comunica about the doubts she had as a teenager in Rio’s City of God, and the goal that still drives her: passing Buchecha
People who watch Gabi Pessanha pile up world titles tend to sum up her career in one line: she’s a beast, she wins everything. Gabi knows the comment and disagrees with what it implies, that it was easy. Right before the 2026 Worlds, at the Pyramid in Long Beach, she told VF Comunica what the girl from Cidade de Deus (City of God), a favela in Rio de Janeiro, was thinking when the results didn’t exist yet.
“I’m missing my childhood”
Her memory starts in her teenage years. “When I was 14, going on 15, I questioned myself a lot, because my friends were going out to parties, sometimes right at training time, or going to the movies. And I gave all of that up because I had to be 100% focused on training,” she said.
She doesn’t hide how heavy that was. “It hurt me a lot, because I kept thinking: man, I’m missing my childhood, is this really going to work out?” she said.
A decade later, the answer came in the form of a career. “Today I look at everything I’m living, and it’s all through Jiu-Jitsu,” she said. That is why she pushes back on the idea of instant success. “People think it’s easy: ‘Oh, Gabi’s a beast, she wins everything.’ They think it happened overnight. On the contrary, it was many years of a lot of dedication, giving things up, crying, tears, wanting to quit.”
The goal: passing Buchecha
That day, Gabi had ten black belt world titles. She left the tournament with 12, after winning her weight class and the open class. The count matters because she doesn’t hide who she wants to catch.
“My main dream was to be a black belt world champion once. Now I’m at ten,” she said. “As you grow and mature, the motivation gets bigger. And my biggest motivation today is to pass Buchecha.” Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida holds the tournament record with 13 titles.
Asked whether the chance to become the greatest champion in history gets to her, Gabi was direct. “It doesn’t get to me, no, but it motivates me. I’m very competitive. I want to be better than I was at the last competition.”
The butterflies that never go away
All those titles haven’t taken the nerves away. Gabi said that even after winning the Worlds several times, she still feels sick before competing. She once took the complaint to her coach, Márcio de Deus, and got an answer she kept: “The day you stop feeling that, you can retire.”
She says every edition feels like the first one. “Even though I’ve won ten times, every year is different. It feels like my first Worlds at black belt,” she said.
Full video on YouTube
The conversation with Gabi Pessanha is in the vlog from day two of the 2026 Worlds, on the VF Comunica YouTube channel (in Portuguese).
Will Gabi Pessanha pass Buchecha in world titles? Leave your opinion in the comments.
