Gezary Matuda

Gezary Matuda Bandeira was born on July 12, 1983, in Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, Brazil. As she described in a 2015 interview with Jiu-Jitsu Style (Issue 29), intense sibling rivalries at home became the unlikely catalyst that drew her toward martial arts. She began training Capoeira at age 15, and two years later added Muay Thai — driven by the fact that her brother trained striking and held a clear physical advantage during their clashes at home.

The Muay Thai chapter of her development carries a remarkable footnote: her instructor at the time was Anderson Silva, long before his rise to global fame as an MMA fighter. Matuda wanted to pursue professional Muay Thai competition, but Silva discouraged it as too dangerous. Instead, he challenged her to win a jiu-jitsu tournament first, promising to revisit the conversation afterward — a challenge that would permanently redirect the course of her athletic life.

Matuda found Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2004 through that same striking coach, who believed ground work would round out her skill set. Her first BJJ instructor was Carlos 'Penão' Alexandre Conceição, a black belt under Carlson Gracie. The transition to the gi was not seamless. She initially disliked gi training, in part because she trained in an oversized, ill-fitting uniform she could not afford to replace — a small but telling detail about the conditions under which her jiu-jitsu career was forged.

Matuda's introduction to jiu-jitsu competition arrived quickly — and humblingly. With less than a month of training, she entered a small local tournament expecting an easy outing. Instead, she was thoroughly dominated: her guard passed, mount taken, back taken. Rather than discouraging her, the experience ignited a competitive fire. Within three to four months, she rematched the same opponent and won — a turnaround she described in the Jiu-Jitsu Style interview as the moment that cemented her commitment to the sport.

Early development in Curitiba came with structural obstacles. A scarcity of same-weight-class competitors in her region meant she often faced the same opponents repeatedly. As a light featherweight, she also had few training partners of comparable size and was routinely overpowered during sessions — an experience she candidly acknowledged sometimes led to tears after hard rounds.

Those emotionally charged training sessions eventually produced a defining turning point. After 'Penão' relocated to another city — having awarded her the purple belt — a replacement instructor told her directly to quit jiu-jitsu because she "cried too much" and male training partners were reluctant to work with her. Matuda stepped away from the gym for approximately one week before encountering black belt couple Sebastian and Leticia Lalli, who invited her to train at Equipe 1 Curitiba. There, training partners were grouped by weight, providing lighter, more technical sparring partners and a marked improvement in her development. Her belts from white through purple all came from 'Penão', grounding her lineage firmly in the Carlson Gracie tradition.

After relocating to the United States with her husband, Matuda sought out coach Ricardo Liborio and American Top Team — a decision that defined the peak years of her competitive career. Within that environment, she earned both her brown belt and, in July 2012 following her World Championship victory at brown belt, her black belt promotion.

As of July 2015, Matuda trained and instructed at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. She also trained at ATT Aventura in the Miami area — approximately 45 minutes from her home — under head coach Jonatas Gurgel, known in the community as "Tagarela." Training partners at ATT Aventura included the Mahecha brothers, described in the Jiu-Jitsu Style interview as black belt twin lightweights who are small, flexible, and highly technical, making them ideal sparring partners for a competitor of her size and style.

Coaching Team and Competition Strategy

In the Jiu-Jitsu Style interview, Matuda credited a three-person coaching team for her competitive success: Marcos da Matta ("Parumpa"), Jonatas Gurgel ("Tagarela"), and her husband Katel Kubis, who served as American Top Team's Muay Thai coach. Her approach to competition preparation was rigorously strategic — identifying opponents' weaknesses, sharpening her own strengths, and entering every event with both a primary game plan and contingency strategies, supported by active corner communication during matches. Kubis also played a central role in her mental preparation, helping her remain focused and composed before and during competition.

Matuda's record at the IBJJF's most prestigious events reflects a sustained dominance across more than a decade of competition in the Peso Pluma division (53.50 kg / 118.0 lbs). She claimed her first black belt World Championship gold in 2013, successfully defended it in 2014, and returned to the top of the podium in 2016 — establishing herself among the most decorated competitors of her generation at that weight class.

Her Pan American Championship record is equally formidable, with gold at the 2015 IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship, the 2016 IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship, and the 2018 IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship at black belt. She also captured the IBJJF European Open title in 2017, rounding out an international portfolio that spans multiple continents.

Championship Pedigree Across Belt Ranks

The championship lineage extends well below black belt. Matuda won the IBJJF World title at brown belt in 2012 — the performance that directly preceded her black belt promotion — and at purple belt in 2010. She also won Pan American gold at both purple belt (2010) and brown belt (2011), along with the CBJJE World Cup and CBJJF South American Cup at blue belt in 2009.

Competition preparation across this period followed a disciplined structure. In the Jiu-Jitsu Style interview, Matuda described pre-tournament camps of six to eight weeks, during which she reduced private lessons and seminars to sustain a rigorous training schedule. During peak camp, training days could include up to three separate sessions.

On September 12, 2015, Matuda delivered one of the most dramatic moments in professional grappling superfight history when she faced eight-time black belt World Champion Michelle Nicolini at Polaris 2. The match lasted just 15 seconds — the quickest of the night — ended by a precisely executed Flying Armbar that forced the tap from one of the most accomplished competitors the sport has produced.

The finish was no accident. In her post-fight comments, Matuda credited coaches Marcos da Matta ("Parumpa"), Katel Kubis, Jonatas Gurgel ("Tagarela"), ATT Aventura, and ATT Coconut Creek, and pointed to daily morning drilling sustained over three or more months of preparation as the foundation for the technique's clean execution. Landing a high-risk, explosive submission against an opponent of Nicolini's caliber demands both technical precision and the competitive courage to commit fully under pressure. The victory cemented Matuda's reputation as a competitor capable of ending fights in spectacular fashion at the highest level of the sport.

Matuda's approach to competition preparation is built on a frank acknowledgment of what elite training demands. In the Jiu-Jitsu Style interview, she emphasized the necessity of training with men during competition camps, stating that competitors need to "have your butt kicked" — a philosophy rooted in her own early experiences of being overpowered and emotionally tested on the mat. She also acknowledged that, even at black belt, she occasionally cried during especially hard training rounds, and that teammates pushed her regardless.

The Value of High-Intensity Co-Ed Training

She has observed a particular dynamic in co-ed training: some heavier male practitioners go harder against higher-belt women specifically because they do not want to experience the perceived embarrassment of losing to a female training partner. Rather than treating this as a problem to be avoided, Matuda's philosophy frames it as a condition of high-level preparation — one that mirrors the intensity required to compete and win at the international level.

The strategic dimension of her competitive identity is equally pronounced. Event-specific game plans, built around opponent tendencies and her own strengths, are complemented by active in-match corner communication and the mental composure cultivated through her partnership with Katel Kubis. Her personal motto — "what G believes, G achieves" — reflects a mindset of deliberate self-belief that functions as the connective tissue between physical preparation and competitive execution.

Beyond her competitive career, Matuda has invested meaningfully in developing the next generation of practitioners. As of July 2015, she coached children's classes at American Top Team, with programs organized for ages three to six and six to eleven. The older group's competition team trained techniques that included the Berimbolo and De La Riva Guard, reflecting a technically ambitious curriculum for young competitors.

Practical Advocacy Rooted in Personal Experience

Her advocacy for women in BJJ is shaped directly by the obstacles she encountered early in her own training. She supports women-only beginner classes as an entry point before integration into co-ed training, and recommends pairing white-belt women with higher belts initially so they can develop defense and confidence before training with the general class. She emphasizes clear communication between female students and coaches regarding goals and any discomfort with training partners — practical guidance drawn from a formative experience in which a coach told her to quit rather than address the conditions she was training under.

In the Jiu-Jitsu Style interview, Matuda also expressed gratitude to her brother — the sibling rivalry that first sent her to martial arts having eventually given way to mutual respect through shared training. His role in pushing her toward becoming a fighter, she noted, was something she came to appreciate fully only in retrospect. It is a perspective that informs how she coaches: understanding that pressure, properly applied, can be the making of a competitor rather than the end of one.