IBJJF no gi world champion Nathalie ‘Tata’ Ribeiro has just earned her US citizenship after originally moving to America all the way back in March of 2016. It’s been a rocky road to get to this point, but Ribeiro has persevered for years and has managed to make her way to the top of the sport in the meantime. She began training BJJ at the age of 8 and naturally developed quickly, thanks in part to Jiu-Jitsu running in the family and her father being a black belt in his own right. She became a blue belt at the age of 17 and ended up taking a three-year hiatus away from the sport when she fell pregnant with her first child.
She moved around between a few gyms upon her return, earning her purple belt from the legendary Sylvio Behring and then being offered an athletic scholarship by Joao and Aloisio Silva that resulted in her travelling to the US. She went on to be promoted to brown belt under the brothers before being offered a job as an instructor by Checkmat founder Lucas Leite and moving there. It was Leite who ended up promoting Ribeiro to black belt and she has continued to represent Checkmat at the highest levels of competition available.
She’s had a huge amount of success at the highest levels of the sport and started out the year by competing against Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin for the Fight 2 Win 135lbs no gi title at F2W 162. Most recently, she was given the opportunity to compete for the inaugural Who’s Number One Bantamweight championship against Ffion Davies, although she wasn’t able to earn the victory in the eyes of the judges and lost by decision. Nathalie ‘Tata’ Ribeiro announced the news of her new US citizenship in a post to her official Instagram account:
