Gabi Garcia looks set to break the record for the most number of ADCC titles held by a female athlete. 

Following her 2017 win in Espoo, Finland, Garcia joined the likes of Ricardo Arona, Mark Kerr, Royler Gracie, Hannette Staack, Kyra Gracie, and Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles in amassing a total of three ADCC Championship wins. However, only one other grappler in the world holds a record four gold medal wins: Marcelo Garcia. 

Her chances to tie Marcelo’s record are pretty good, considering Gabi happens to have the most experience in the ADCC ruleset than any other athlete in either women’s divisions. This will be her fifth ADCC World Championship appearance. 

Her first was in 2011, in Nottingham, England, where she defeated the reigning 60+kg champ Hannette Staack. Two years later in Beijing, she submitted Fernanda Mazelli in the finals. In 2015, she lost her semifinals match against Jessica Flowers (formerly Jessica Oliveira), then came back against Amanda Alequin to win bronze. Then in 2017, she won her rematch with Jessica Flowers in the semifinals and defeated Talita “Treta” Nogueira for the gold-medal win. 

Garcia is one of the most dominant competitors in the world — gi or no-gi. Expect to see her most exciting iteration yet… Gabi 2.0, if you will. 

“I think many people will be surprised. I changed all of my game,” she said, adding that her coaches and training partners have noticed the difference. They’ve told her, “Gabi, you’re moving like a featherweight.”

This is largely due to training full-time with one of the best featherweights in the game, and Alliance team member Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles. Garcia has been living in the U.S. for four years, ever since she decided to pursue an MMA career, but her decision to train at Cobrinha’s Los Angeles-based gym came about relatively recently. She has been putting in five hours there every day, with three hours dedicated to drilling, wrestling, and competition-style sparring and two hours dedicated to strength and conditioning. 

The rigorous training regimen has left little time or energy for much else. Garcia said she had to put everything on hold in order to prepare for the ADCC World Championships, including the day-to-day management of her newly-opened gym, training for MMA, and a budding movie career. 

“One day I talked with Cobrinha, and I said ‘I need to be ADCC champion.’ He said, ‘Let’s do this Gabi.’ I just stopped everything else, just to focus on the ADCC.” 

Fans should also expect to see a different mindset in the 33-year-old grappler: more confident, and even more determined to win. She attributes this in part to her MMA training. 

“I think MMA changed my mind,” she explained. “I fight better, I’m more relaxed. I’m more hungry to fight and I have more intensity. It’s different than before.”

Garcia’s focus on MMA these last few years has seen her fine-tuning her wrestling, which plays a greater role in the ADCC ruleset than in any other major promotion today, as it forces the stand-up game by penalizing guard pulling. 

This will be yet another advantage for Garcia, considering several of the women in the +60kg division are known guard players, including freshman competitors Nathiely de Jesus and Tayane Porfirio. And while many consider Porfirio as Garcia’s toughest challenger in the division, the younger athlete has rarely fought no-gi. And don’t forget fellow ADCC veteran Jessica Flowers (the only woman in the bracket to have previously defeated Garcia under the ADCC ruleset) as another major challenge.  

However, Garcia is not concerned about who she will face. 

“No matter who is in my bracket, I’m ready," she said. "No matter if it’s the first fight or the final.” 

Garcia is certainly one of the most polarizing figures in jiu-jitsu and counts as many fans as haters. Her record speaks for itself: She is one of the most accomplished athletes in the sport today and will attempt to make history by earning a fourth ADCC gold medal. 

“At ADCC, you need to fight like a lion. It’s a different game,” she said. “I’m not there for fun. I’m there for war.”

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