Grace Gundrum

Grace Gundrum was born in China before relocating to the United States at a young age, settling in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — the city where her athletic story would take shape. Her first encounter with martial arts came at four years old through karate, instilling a competitive foundation that would carry her through every stage of her career. A year into that training, her older brother decided to quit the same club, leaving unused sessions on his plan. Rather than let them go to waste, Grace stepped in, joining the academy's grappling workgroup — a seemingly minor decision that would define the trajectory of her life.

Grace's first jiu-jitsu instructor was Robert Villafane, whose academy was also attended by JM Holland and Zach Maslany, the two athletes who would become her primary coaches and the most significant influences on her technical development. Holland was already teaching at the academy during those formative years, making his mentorship of Grace a natural extension of their shared training environment.

Throughout her school years, Gundrum pursued a broad range of athletic activities alongside her martial arts training. During elementary school, she played basketball for four years, progressing from township-level competition to a club team. In middle school, she added field hockey to her schedule while continuing karate, kickboxing, and grappling. At 16, she made the deliberate choice to compete in freestyle wrestling at her school for one year — a calculated move designed to sharpen her jiu-jitsu game through the discipline of wrestling fundamentals.

When JM Holland and Zach Maslany joined forces in 2012 to establish 10th Planet Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, Grace Gundrum followed without hesitation, cementing a coaching relationship that had begun years earlier under Robert Villafane's roof. Under Holland and Maslany's guidance, Gundrum immersed herself in the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu philosophy, specializing exclusively in the No-Gi Submission-Only ruleset — a system that would become the defining characteristic of her competitive identity.

From the age of 12, Gundrum compiled an undefeated record that stretched from youth competition through the professional circuit. Her development under Holland and Maslany was methodical and thorough, producing a competitor capable of finishing opponents at every level of the sport. That progression reached a milestone on November 18, 2019, when Gundrum won the Finishers Only tournament — a performance that directly earned her the brown belt and marked a formal transition into the upper ranks of the sport. By July 19, 2020, her professional record stood at 34 wins, 0 losses, and 2 draws, a testament to the consistency she maintained across years of high-level competition.

Testing the Ceiling Early

Grace Gundrum's willingness to face the sport's most accomplished competitors became a defining feature of her rise through the submission-only circuit. One of the earliest and most telling indicators of her potential came in 2019 at the Quintet Grappling event, where Gundrum — then just 16 years old — stepped into the adult division and faced Rikako Yuasa, a four-time adult black belt world champion in the roosterweight division. The match ended in a draw, a result that announced Gundrum as a legitimate senior-level threat long before she reached adulthood.

Tournament Victories and Professional Titles

Her tournament record over the same period reinforced that impression. In 2018, she captured first place at the Onnit Invitational 7 at 105 lbs. In 2019, she helped her team claim the Quintet Team Tournament title while also competing in the Quintet Team Survival Invitational at open weight. In 2020, she added the Fight 2 Win Strawweight championship to her résumé, further establishing her standing in the professional No-Gi landscape.

The Signature Win: Defeating Danielle Kelly

On July 19, 2020, Gundrum competed at the Jiu-Jitsu Overtime event organized by Eddie Bravo and delivered what stands as the signature performance of her early career — defeating Danielle Kelly of Silver Fox under EBI overtime rules, with victory determined by the fastest escape format. The performance was precise and composed, entirely in keeping with the nickname she carries into competition: The Silent Assassin. The win over Kelly, one of the most recognized names in women's submission grappling, confirmed that Gundrum's undefeated record was built against genuine, high-caliber opposition.

The day following her victory over Danielle Kelly, on July 20, 2020, Grace Gundrum received her black belt in a ceremony presided over by Eddie Bravo, founder of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, alongside her long-time coaches JM Holland and Zach Maslany of 10th Planet Bethlehem. The promotion formally recognized a competitive career built entirely within the submission-only format, and it arrived at a moment that carried genuine historical weight.

Born on May 22, 2002, Gundrum was nearly one month past her 18th birthday at the time of her promotion, making her the youngest American female athlete to earn the rank of black belt in jiu-jitsu at that point in the sport's history in the United States. Globally, she earned recognition as the second youngest female to achieve the rank, placed marginally behind Patricia Lage of Brazil in that distinction. The promotion did not mark the end of a journey so much as the formal opening of a new chapter — one built on the foundation of an undefeated record that began when she was 12 years old and stretched without interruption to the moment Eddie Bravo tied the belt around her waist.