Rafaela Guedes has just been promoted to first degree BJJ black belt in the ATOS grading ceremony by her coach and the affiliation’s founder, Andre Galvao. Guedes was first promoted to black belt shortly after she won the IBJJF World Championship at brown belt and she immediately catapulted herself to the very top of the sport in her first year. She was actually awarded ‘Female Breakout Grapple of the Year’ at the Jits Magazine BJJ Awards 2020 as a result of her incredible efforts during her first year as a black belt. Guedes didn’t stop there though and after making a huge impact in her debut year, she was able to start winning major titles in 2021.
She competed in the heavyweight division at the Who’s Number One Championships and was able to walk away as the inaugural champion after beating three elite grapplers. After that she won a pair of gold medals at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship in 2021, beating every woman she faced in both the heavyweight and the absolute division. Although she didn’t add any more major titles to her resume in 2022, she did win both a silver and a bronze medal in the gi at the IBJJF World Championship that year. Guedes went on to show that she’s able to compete with the very best in the world under any ruleset, as she came within inches of winning her first ADCC title before settling for a silver medal at ADCC 2022.
This year has been comparatively quiet for Guedes and she has only competed a handful of times, although she recently revealed that she’s been working towards making her MMA debut. She’s still pretty early in her combat sports career at just 29, so she still has plenty of time to work her way to the top of that sport if she chooses. 2024 will likely show whether she wants to focus on her professional grappling career while taking some MMA fights, or whether MMA is going to be her new primary sport.
Andre Galvao announced the news that he had promoted Rafaela Guedes to first degree BJJ black belt during the ATOS grading ceremony in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
