Bianca Basilio is one of the top female grapplers on the planet, but now she’s planning to make the transition to MMA and make her professional debut at some point in 2023. She has won both an ADCC and an IBJJF world championship in the past few years, defeating some of the biggest names in the sport along the way. Her most recent match was against Tammi Musumeci at ONE Fight Night 8, where the pair fought a tough match all the way to the end of regulation time when Musumeci was declared the winner. Shortly before the match took place, she spoke about her plans for the future at ONE Championship and mentioned not only a potential grappling match with Danielle Kelly, but also another more unusual matchup:
“I want to maybe challenge an MMA fighter, like Xiong (Jingnan). She has a belt now in my division, but in MMA, and she’s a brown belt too so she’s nice too.”
When she was asked to clarify if she meant that she wanted a grappling match with the reigning ONE strawweight MMA champion, her answer surprised both the interviewer and any fans listening:
“MMA too. Yes, of course one day. I will be prepared to fight with her, and Angela Lee, and other girls too.”
While this initially sounded like Bianca Basilio might be talking about making her MMA debut at some point in the future, she was actually talking about 2023. It seems as though she’s already been hard at work learning the skills necessary to be successful in the sport:
“This year, this year. I want to fight this year, (or) start to fight. I’m preparing to fight MMA and so I’m super excited too.”
The full interview with Bianca Basilio where she explains the plans she has to make her MMA debut in 2023 was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of South China Morning Post:
