Laura Sieradzan

Laura Sieradzan was born in Poland in November 2001 into a family with deep sporting roots. Her grandfather — a former rugby player and boxer — was among her earliest influences, instilling a passion for physical competition and athletic discipline that shaped her from a young age. That foundation drove Sieradzan to pursue a wide range of sports throughout her childhood, but none proved as formative as fencing, which she practiced at the top junior level in Poland for six years. The precision, timing, and spatial awareness demanded by fencing would later translate in meaningful ways to her approach to grappling.

Despite her commitment to fencing, Sieradzan felt a persistent pull toward combat sports. When the time came to explore a new discipline, she had her sights set on kickboxing — but her mother had other ideas. Enrolling her daughter in a jiu-jitsu school instead, she inadvertently set Laura on the path that would define her athletic career. Sieradzan stepped onto the mats for the first time in February 2016, training under coaches Jarosław and Marcin Koch, who awarded her green and blue belts in BJJ.

Eight months into her jiu-jitsu journey, Sieradzan added judo to her training schedule to round out her grappling game. She competed in judo on several occasions and earned her judo blue belt before refocusing her attention on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. That shift brought her under the guidance of Coach Piotr "Bagi" Bagiński, where her competitive career gained real momentum and the results that would shape her future began to materialize.

As Sieradzan's competitive results improved, she faced a decisive crossroads. Studying Business Management at the time, she chose to pursue jiu-jitsu on a full-time basis rather than follow a more conventional academic and professional path. To maximize her potential, she set her sights on London, England — one of Europe's foremost hubs for high-level grappling — and made the move while holding a purple belt.

Upon arriving in London, Sieradzan visited several gyms before identifying the environment best suited to her development. That place was Fightzone London in East London, where she came under the coaching of Marco Canha. Competing under the banners of Fightzone London and Checkmat, she gained access to the high-level training partners and structured coaching infrastructure needed to accelerate her progression through the colored belt ranks.

The partnership with Marco Canha proved transformative. Sieradzan's development at purple and brown belt under his guidance culminated in one of the most celebrated moments of her colored belt career: in January 2024, Canha promoted her to black belt while she stood on the podium of the IBJJF European Championship — a fitting venue for a promotion that marked the close of an exceptional colored belt run.

Among the attributes that distinguished Sieradzan on the international IBJJF circuit during her colored belt years, none drew more attention than her command of the Lapel Guard. Her creative and effective use of lapel-based guard work set her apart from peers competing at the same level, earning her a reputation as one of the more technically sophisticated grapplers in her age group.

The Lapel Guard is a demanding system that requires refined grip management, a precise sense of distance and leverage, and the tactical patience to construct attacks across multiple exchanges. These demands align naturally with the attributes Sieradzan developed during six years of competitive fencing — a discipline that similarly rewards precision, timing, and the ability to read an opponent's intentions before committing to action.

Her lapel-based identity contributed directly to her success at the 2023 IBJJF World Championship at brown belt, where her performance stood as a landmark result for Polish jiu-jitsu. Sieradzan competes in the Meio-Pesado division (74 kg / 163 lbs) at black belt, bringing a game built on creative positional grappling and active submission hunting — a style refined progressively from her early training in Poland through to her years at Fightzone London.

Sieradzan's trajectory through the colored belt ranks was defined by steady improvement and a series of strong international results. An early indicator of her potential came at the 2022 IBJJF European Championship, where she earned bronze medals in both the weight and absolute divisions as a blue belt.

Her progression continued at the 2023 IBJJF European Championship, where she placed third at purple belt — a result that reflected her growth while signaling that her best performances were still ahead. The breakthrough came later that year at the 2023 IBJJF World Championship, where Sieradzan claimed gold in the brown belt division. The result resonated widely within the jiu-jitsu community and was celebrated as a milestone for Polish grappling on the global stage.

Building on that momentum, she returned to the European Championship in January 2024 and again reached the top of the podium, winning gold at brown belt. It was at that event that Marco Canha stepped forward to award her the black belt, recognizing the body of work she had assembled across two IBJJF world titles at brown belt and a consistent record of podium finishes in European and global competition. The promotion on the championship podium served as a symbolic and fitting conclusion to one of the stronger colored belt careers to emerge from Europe in recent years.

The momentum Sieradzan carried into the black belt division was interrupted shortly after her promotion in early 2024, when a knee injury required surgery. The setback arrived at what should have been the opening chapter of her professional career at the sport's highest level, forcing a prolonged absence from competition that lasted nearly a year.

Sieradzan returned to competition in 2025, and her comeback served as an immediate statement of intent. At the 2025 IBJJF London Open, she claimed gold in the absolute division — a result that demonstrated the layoff had done nothing to diminish her competitive edge and reaffirmed her standing as one of the division's most capable black belts.

Her return has been closely followed by those tracking the development of European jiu-jitsu, particularly given the circumstances: a significant injury, a lengthy recovery, and a successful re-entry into high-level competition. As Sieradzan builds her black belt résumé, the combination of technical sophistication, competitive pedigree, and demonstrated resilience positions her as one of the more compelling figures to watch in the Meio-Pesado division.