Less talk, more do. That’s the attitude of world champion competitor Gezary Matuda. Gezary is one of the most promising up and coming black belt feather weight competitors. She has earned 4 world champion titles and 3 Pan American titles. She believes the secret to success is earning it. She says it involves a lot of training and hard work, but a little bit of luck and opportunity helps too. Ultimately though it is up to you to make it happen. She is a girl on a mission to conquer the world and hopes to inspire and teach even more people Jiu Jitsu in the process.
“Jiu Jitsu it’s my lifestyle, it is what I wanna do for the rest of my life… I don’t like to tell my goals I wanna to show them.”
Gezary’s first love was Capoeira and Muay Thai. Althought she says she don’t train Capoeira that often, she does train Muay Thai whenever she can with her husband who is a Muay Thai coach at ATT. She is a blue belt in Muay Thai and still has a long journey to get her black belt. For her it is a passion and she plans on training forever
Gezary started training BJJ when she lived in her my hometown Curitiba Brasil. Her Muay Thai coach at the time, registered her to enter a Jiu Jitsu tournament. She competed and lost the first fight. After that she says she couldn’t stop and fell in love with the sport. In 2004 she began her formal training under Carlos ‘Penão’ Alexandre Conceição and she now lives in the Miami area and is a part of the American Top Team (ATT) under Ricardo Liborio.
When she started training she says there weren’t female athletes to train with. She trained mostly with men. However at ATT she says she has a lot of female training partners from all levels. She is really happy to see the growth of woman’s Jiu Jitsu. She says that one of the biggest difference in training with women is that they don’t usually use too much strength, they use more technique.
“The good thing about training with a girl is that you can practice all the moves that you’ve learned because they are smaller and kind of the same strength. ”
Having a mixed martial art background one may wonder if and when Gezary will migrate to MMA like so many fellow Jiujiteras like Mackenzie Dern, Gabriel Garcia and Michelle Nicolini.
“I am keeping my focus only in Jiu Jitsu right now.. But I don’t know what’s going to happened in the future. Maybe things will go MMA’s way and I change my mind.”
Although Gezary says she is focusing on Jiu-Jitsu right now, it doesn’t sound like it’s completely off the table in the future. Perhaps if opportunity comes knocking, I don’t think she is the type of girl that won’t answer.
Author:
Shama Ko
Girls in Gis staff writer
Shama Ko is a brown belt with Gracie Humaita out of Austin, TX. She has been a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner since November of 2003. She is a photographer, writer, community organizer and activist. She heads the Girls in Gis organization or as she calls it the “movement”. She describes herself as both a lover and a fighter. She loves to laugh and not take life too seriously.