Brigida Felipe

Brígida Felipe was born on January 12, 1994, in Carrancas, a small city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. From an early age, her parents made a conscious effort to channel her energy into sport — a decision that would ultimately shape the trajectory of her life. Her first formal discipline was Ballet, which instilled body awareness, spatial coordination, and the kind of movement discipline that transfers quietly but powerfully to the grappling arts.

As adolescence arrived, Brígida expanded her athletic profile considerably. Football (soccer) became a central pursuit, and she competed at a serious level through her mid to late teenage years. She also played basketball and volleyball during high school, building the physical literacy, competitive instincts, and coachability that would later accelerate her development on the mat. This multi-sport foundation gave her an edge few single-discipline athletes possess — an intuitive understanding of movement, timing, and competition pressure.

At the age of 20, Brígida enrolled at Muzambinho University in Minas Gerais to study Physical Education, formalizing a lifelong commitment to sport. It was there, in 2014, that she encountered Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for the first time through a free training program held on campus, led by coach Rafaela Rezende. By her own account, the motivation was initially practical — she began training to support her weight loss goals rather than out of any deep passion for the martial art.

That pragmatic entry point, however, quickly gave way to genuine obsession. Within months, Brígida found herself drawn to jiu-jitsu's complexity, physical demands, and competitive dimensions, training every opportunity she could find. Rafaela Rezende watched this dedication sharpen firsthand and recognized that her student's potential warranted a higher level of instruction. She made a pivotal decision: to introduce Brígida to Paulo Rezende, Rafaela's father and one of the most accomplished grappling coaches in Brazil.

Upon completing her Physical Education degree, Rafaela Rezende advocated directly to her father to accept Brígida into his elite development program. Paulo Rezende's Casa do Atleta — the Athlete House — located in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, stands as one of the most respected free jiu-jitsu scholarship programs in the world. Its alumni list reads as a who's who of Brazilian grappling, having produced legends such as Marcelo Garcia, Thalyta Silva, Matheus Diniz, and Reinaldo Ribeiro, among others.

Brígida officially began training under Paulo Rezende in 2018, arriving as a blue belt with experience primarily at the regional competitive level. Her talent announced itself almost immediately. In short order, she captured her first South American title — an early signal that she belonged among the sport's rising elite and that the potential Rafaela Rezende had identified on a university campus years earlier was very much real.

Under Paulo Rezende's systematic guidance, Brígida's ascent through the colored belt ranks was both rapid and remarkably consistent. She established herself as a dominant force across the sport's two most prestigious competitive circuits — the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) and the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Pro Tour (AJP) — collecting major titles at virtually every belt level.

At blue belt, she claimed the IBJJF South American Championship gold in 2019. Moving into purple belt, her performances scaled accordingly: she won the IBJJF South American Championship again in 2021, took gold at the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals that same year, and most notably, claimed the AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro title in 2021 — demonstrating that her game could withstand the pressures of international competition. A gold medal at the 2022 IBJJF European Open further underscored her dominance at that stage of her development.

The brown belt division brought no slowdown. Brígida won gold at the 2023 IBJJF European Open and, in the clearest possible statement of her readiness for the black belt elite, she captured the IBJJF World Championship at brown belt in 2023. Earning that title at what is widely considered the most competitive jiu-jitsu tournament on the planet confirmed her status not merely as a promising prospect but as one of the sport's premier talents in her weight class. Her decorated path through the colored belts — marked by podium appearances at the IBJJF South American Championship, European Open, World Championship, AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro, and Grand Slam events — represents one of the more complete colored belt careers of her generation.

In June 2023, Paulo Rezende promoted Brígida Felipe to the rank of black belt — a recognition that arrived midway through the competitive season and one she wasted no time validating. Her debut year at the sport's highest rank demonstrated precisely the seamless transition her colored belt career had foreshadowed: she won the IBJJF South American Championship in her first black belt season, proving that the step up in competition presented no barrier to her continued excellence.

Brígida competes as a representative of Qatar BJJ / Vision Brasil on the international stage, operating in the Peso Médio division at 69.00 kg / 152.5 lbs. Launched from the proven platform of the Casa do Atleta program and the coaching of Paulo Rezende, her black belt career positions her as one of the most compelling figures to follow in women's medium-weight grappling.