Andressa Cintra

Andressa Cintra was born on August 4, 1995, in Campo Mourão, a small municipality in the Brazilian state of Paraná. At age three, her family relocated to Curitiba, the state capital, and she spent her formative years moving between both cities. A natural athlete from an early age, Cintra competed in rhythmic gymnastics for many years and trained in Chinese boxing long before she ever stepped onto a BJJ mat.

Cintra's introduction to jiu-jitsu came at age 15 through an unlikely but fitting circumstance — the gym where she danced offered BJJ classes on a separate schedule. After watching several training sessions with growing fascination, she enrolled. What drew her in was not an immediate aptitude for the art, but the opposite: grappling presented challenges unlike anything she had encountered in her athletic background, and that difficulty became a powerful motivator. As Cintra described it: "From my very first contact with jiu-jitsu I felt extremely lost, I couldn't even hip escape, it took me ages to learn an armbar. Everything challenged me and that really motivated me to learn. Every class I had a different experience."

Cintra's first coach was João Guedes in Campo Mourão, a student of Rodrigo Feijão, who recognized her potential and awarded her the blue belt. She wasted no time validating that promotion — just four months after receiving the rank, she claimed her first CBJJ Brazilian National title in 2013, an early signal of the competitive force she would become.

Driven by an appetite for more intensive training, Cintra made a pivotal decision at age 18, relocating to Maringá under the premise of attending university. The primary draw, however, was the opportunity to train twice per day — a dramatic step up from the three weekly classes available in Campo Mourão. Her competitive travels soon connected her with members of the Guigo Jiu-Jitsu team based in São Paulo, and after visiting the academy, she accepted an invitation to train and live with the group. It was there that Luiz Guilherme (Guigo) awarded her the purple belt. She subsequently spent a period working with Caio Almeida at his Almeida JJ academy.

At the purple belt level, Cintra announced herself on the international circuit in commanding fashion in 2016, winning both the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals and the IBJJF World Championships. She replicated that double the following year as a brown belt, capturing gold at both the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals and the IBJJF World Championships in 2017 — a back-to-back achievement that firmly established her among the elite female competitors of her generation.

Despite her growing reputation on the competitive circuit, financial pressures and the absence of sponsorship made life in São Paulo increasingly difficult to sustain. Cintra returned to her home state of Paraná in search of a training environment built around serious competition, finding exactly that at Sebastian Lalli's Checkmat – Curitiba affiliate.

Under Lalli's guidance, Cintra entered the most productive competitive phase of her career to that point. His coaching shaped her into a polished and consistent performer at the highest levels of the sport. The work done under Lalli earned Cintra both her brown and black belts, with the black belt promotion arriving in December 2017. Lalli stands as the primary long-term coach who carried Cintra from raw talent to elite competitor, and his influence proved central to the trajectory that followed.

In 2018, Cintra relocated to the United States, where she married fellow high-profile grappler Lucas Valente of Gracie Barra and joined the Gracie Barra organization. The move marked the beginning of the most decorated chapter of her career. Competing in the Meio Pesado division (74 kg / 175 lbs), Cintra built one of the most impressive résumés in women's black belt competition.

At the IBJJF World Championships, Cintra claimed gold in 2019, then returned to win the title in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 — a five-title haul that places her among the most successful female competitors in the event's history. Her dominance extended beyond the gi, as she captured back-to-back IBJJF World No-Gi Championship titles in 2022 and 2023, demonstrating elite-level versatility across both formats. In 2020, she added the IBJJF Pan Championship to her collection, reaching the final of that same event again in 2021. Cintra also returned to the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals as a black belt in 2022, winning gold and extending a legacy at that event that traces back to her very first national title in 2013.