BJJ legend Beatriz ‘Bia’ Mesquita is set to continue her MMA career at LFA 194 on October 18th, 2024. Mesquita has quite possibly the most impressive resume of any female BJJ competitor, having won the IBJJF World Championship an incredible ten times and every other IBJJF major multiple times over. Although most of Mesquita’s achievements have come in the gi, she’s also registered a ton of victories in no gi competition as well. She has five IBJJF No Gi World Championship titles to her name and four ADCC medals, so naturally there was always going to be a ton of expectation around her when she made her MMA debut.
Mesquita made her professional MMA debut earlier this year at Spaten Fight Night and it took her just a little over two minutes to finish the fight. It was a very impressive debut by the veteran grappler and she proved that she’s able to adapt her grappling to suit MMA, although her striking wasn’t tested much at all. It remains to be seen just how good her striking is but she’ll get the opportunity to showcase it once again when she faces Shannel Butler in her second fight at LFA 194. Butler will be making her professional MMA debut in the fight against Mesquita, although she does have a 1-1 record as an amateur.
Although this is only Mesquita’s second fight, it’s pretty safe to say that she’s already a step ahead of the game on the regional MMA circuit. With such an incredibly high level of grappling behind her, Mesquita has the ability to lean on that against lower level opponents and will likely be able to rack up a series of wins before she’s ever forced to strike. It’s a great position to be in, because it gives her the time to develop her striking to a decent level before she’s put in a situation where she needs it. With ONE Championship and the UFC both keeping an eye on elite grapplers transitioning to the sport, it won’t be too long before she gets that step up in competition.
Beatriz ‘Bia’ Mesquita announced the news that she was going to have her second professional MMA fight at LFA 194 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
