Julia Alves

Júlia Alves was born on January 24, 2001, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and did not grow up immersed in sporting culture or martial arts. Her introduction to jiu-jitsu came entirely by chance at age 13 — walking past an academy window, she caught a glimpse of a class in session. That single moment proved transformative. Alves stepped onto the mats almost immediately, and what began as curiosity quickly became a defining pursuit.

Her first instructor was Mike Sousa, whose gym shortly thereafter affiliated with GF Team. As her skills sharpened and her competitive ambitions grew, Alves made a pivotal decision as a blue belt: to relocate her training to GF Team's headquarters in Meyer, Rio de Janeiro. That move placed her alongside some of Brazil's top grapplers and provided the structured, high-level environment necessary to accelerate her development — marking the true beginning of her path as a serious competitor.

Alves' progression through the colored belt ranks was defined by consistent competitive success at every stage. Under Mike Sousa's guidance, she earned her blue belt and immediately made her presence felt on the competition circuit, claiming gold at the IBJJF World Championship in 2018 and winning the AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro in 2019 — results that signaled her potential as a future elite.

Her purple belt years brought continued growth, with titles at the IBJJF Brazilian Nationals NOGI and the IBJJF Brazilian Team Nationals, both in 2019. At brown belt, Alves raised her level further still, capturing the IBJJF South American Championship and the IBJJF Brazilian Nationals in 2021 and cementing her reputation as one of the rising forces in the women's lightweight division.

The defining moment of her colored belt career arrived in June 2022, when Júlio César Pereira — head coach of GF Team — promoted Alves to black belt directly on the podium of the IBJJF World Championships. Receiving that promotion in the midst of a World Championship podium stands as one of the most significant milestones of her career, a public validation of everything she had built across nearly a decade on the mats.

Alves' path to professional competition was not without serious obstacles. Despite her high-level results throughout the colored belt ranks, significant financial challenges made sustaining a competitive lifestyle difficult. To support herself, she worked at her local town office and organized raffles as a supplementary source of income — a reality that reflects the economic pressures confronting many Brazilian athletes who pursue grappling as a profession.

These sacrifices speak to the determination that has defined her career. Strong competitive results combined with an unwillingness to abandon her ambitions eventually created the conditions for a more stable path forward. Alves transitioned to competing as a full-time professional athlete, a milestone earned directly through her persistence in the face of structural challenges. Her story has become a meaningful example within the Brazilian jiu-jitsu community of what sustained dedication can achieve.

As a black belt representing GF Team on the international circuit, Júlia Alves established herself as one of the premier competitors in the women's lightweight division. Her results across both IBJJF and AJP competition formats demonstrate a breadth and consistency rarely seen at her stage of black belt development.

On the IBJJF circuit, Alves claimed gold at the 2024 IBJJF European Championship, one of the federation's most prestigious titles outside of the World Championship. She had previously earned the IBJJF World Championship title in 2021 as a black belt — a victory that validated her standing at the sport's highest level.

Her dominance on the AJP circuit proved equally impressive. Alves captured the AJP Abu Dhabi World Pro title in both 2022 and 2023, establishing herself as a two-time champion at one of the circuit's flagship events. She accumulated Grand Slam titles across four continents — winning in Miami in 2022 and 2023, Rio de Janeiro in 2021 and 2022, London in 2022, and Tokyo in 2024 — a record that reflects both elite skill and the ability to perform consistently across diverse competitive environments. In 2022, she also reached the final of the ADCC Brazil SP Trials, underscoring her competitiveness in submission-only formats.

Alves received a 3-year ban from UAEJJF-sanctioned competition following a failed drug test in which the prohibited substance Oxandrolone, an anabolic steroid, was identified. The sanction was issued by the UAEJJF and is administered under the anti-doping protocol managed by the UAE National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

The ban applies specifically to UAEJJF-sanctioned events and does not automatically extend to other governing bodies, including the IBJJF. Nevertheless, the suspension carries significant implications for Alves' participation in the AJP Grand Slam circuit and Abu Dhabi World Pro — competitions that had been central to her black belt career. The case reflects the broader expansion of formal anti-doping enforcement within professional grappling organizations and the increasing scrutiny applied to competitors at the elite level.