Mia Funegra has just secured her place in the history books at an incredibly young age by becoming the youngest IBJJF world champion of all time. It’s a remarkable achievement and one that only a tiny handful of competitors are ever eligible for, even before they have to actually go out and achieve it. The previous record stood for just over two years, as Tye Ruotolo became the record-holder retroactively when Mica Galvao was stripped of his 2022 title and he was promoted to champion. Funegra was born on November 20th, 2006 and has smashed Ruotolo’s record by being 18 years and 193 days old.
Funegra has been a top prospect in the sport for quite some time now and she’s been on a meteoric rise through the ranks in one of the best training rooms in the world at Art of Jiu-Jitsu. She’s actually part of a family of elite young grapplers too, as her sisters are right behind her. They all won their respective divisions at the IBJJF World Championship 2025 in fact, starting with her youngest sister Natalee. She won gold medals in the juvenile 2 blue belt division at both featherweight and in the light absolute. Shortly after that, Mia’s twin sister Ashlee Funegra won the brown belt light-featherweight division.
In an emotional moment, both Mia and Ashlee Funegra were promoted to black belt together after Ashlee won her division. Then just 3 days later, Mia was competing at the highest level for the very first time in her career and looking like a seasoned professional. She beat four veteran competitors over two days, including former world champion Amanda Monteiro in her first match. She then took out Ann Marie Wright in the second round and the division’s top seed Jessica Dantas in the semi-final, before beating Andressa Tolentino to take her place at the top of the podium and a piece of history.
The full IBJJF World Championship 2025 event replay, including Mia Funegra becoming the youngest black belt world champion of all time, is available to watch on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.
