Michelle Estrada has just carved put a piece of history for herself by becoming the first woman to receive her BJJ black belt from legendary competitor JT Torres. The promotion came just shortly after Estrada registered the biggest achievement of her career so far, winning a gold medal at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship 2025 in the Master 1 brown belt light-featherweight division. She had to beat three tough opponents in order to do so and it came after she won a silver medal in the same division last year, along with another gold at purple belt the year before that.
In that same space of time, Estrada has been hard at work on the no gi superfight circuit in the US too. She’s competed on a number of different shoes like Finishers Sub-Only and Emerald City Invitational, making a name for herself with some exciting performances and solid wins. Now not only will she continue competing against some of the best female competitors in the US on shows like that, but she’ll also get the chance to compete at black belt at IBJJF events too. It might have been a long road for Estrada to get here, but she will likely continue making a big impact at this level.
Estrada has been training under two-time ADCC world champion Torres for quite a while now, having first met him when she was a blue belt. She’s since been training with him at Essential BJJ, alongside several other elite female grapplers like Ffion Davies and Jessica Crane. The guidance of one of the best to ever compete at ADCC and a room full of incredible training partners both play a pivotal role in someone like Estrada’s development of course, but it’s still an individual sport. For Estrada to reach this level, she’s had to put in countless hours on the mats that often goes unseen.
Essential BJJ shared the news that Michelle Estrada had become the first female black belt under JT Torres in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
