Renata Marinho

Renata Marinho Moreira was born on March 17, 1990, in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, into a family for whom sport was a way of life. Her mother competed as a professional volleyball player, her father brought a soccer background, and her brother went on to train with Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, one of Brazil's most storied athletic institutions. Immersed in that level of competitive culture from birth, Renata gravitated naturally toward sport from an early age.

Before finding her true calling, Marinho demonstrated her athleticism across multiple disciplines — serving as her handball team's top scorer while also competing in volleyball and swimming during her childhood and pre-teen years. That broad exposure to high-level sport built the competitive discipline and physical foundation that would later define her as one of the premier female middleweights in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Marinho's entry into martial arts came through muay Thai, which she began practicing at age 17. Her motivation was deeply personal: a series of violent episodes — including a direct attempt on her life — pushed her toward combat sports not as an athletic pursuit alone, but as a matter of survival. From that urgent beginning, she added jiu-jitsu to her training and quickly discovered a sport that would define the course of her life.

From her very first days as a white belt, Marinho set a single, unambiguous goal: to become a black belt world champion. She committed to life as a full-time athlete from the outset, training under Tiago Rocha at Alliance in Uberlândia — a coach with a strong track record developing talent in Minas Gerais. Under his guidance she earned her blue belt, a promotion that also clarified her next step: reaching the sport's highest levels would require an environment that matched her ambitions.

In 2012, Marinho made a bold move — relocating alone to São Paulo as a blue belt to train at Alliance headquarters under Fábio Gurgel. Known throughout the jiu-jitsu world as "The General," Gurgel offered her a position assisting with the academy's children's classes, an arrangement that covered her living expenses and allowed her to train full time. The decision reflected both her resolve and the long-term thinking that characterized her approach to the sport.

Training under Gurgel while maintaining her connection with Tiago Rocha, Marinho rapidly established herself among the top female competitors in São Paulo and, before long, on the international IBJJF circuit. Her results consistently reflected her technical growth and competitive maturity. That journey culminated on August 16, 2017, when Fábio Gurgel promoted her to black belt — the precise achievement she had declared as her goal on her very first day on the mats.

Marinho's record across the colored belt divisions stands among the most accomplished of her generation. Her four IBJJF World Championship gold medals span multiple belt levels and formats: the 2013 IBJJF World Championship (gi), the 2014 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship at purple belt, the 2016 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship at brown belt, and the 2017 IBJJF World Championship at brown belt. Collected across gi and no-gi competition from purple through brown belt, those titles underscore both her consistency and her adaptability as a competitor.

The 2017 brown belt World Championship gold carried particular weight, arriving just weeks before her black belt promotion on August 16 of that year — a fitting capstone to the vision she had articulated from day one. Her broader colored belt résumé reinforced that dominance: a silver medal at the 2017 IBJJF Pan Championship, a bronze at the 2017 IBJJF Brazilian Nationals, and a victory at the 2017 IBJJF São Paulo BJJ Pro, all at brown belt. Together, these results painted the portrait of an athlete who competed at the highest level with relentless regularity and clear purpose.

With her black belt secured in August 2017, Marinho wasted no time proving that her decorated colored belt career was a foundation rather than a ceiling. At the 2017 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, she earned a bronze medal in her first major no-gi appearance as a black belt, demonstrating an immediate capacity to compete among the sport's elite. That same year, she added a third-place finish at the UAEJJF Grand Slam in Rio de Janeiro to her black belt record.

Her international footprint continued to expand with a bronze medal at the 2018 IBJJF European Open, and in 2019 she reached the final of the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals, claiming the silver medal. Alongside her IBJJF appearances, Marinho has competed at Copa Pódio, one of the sport's most prestigious professional grappling platforms, further affirming her standing among the world's best female middleweights. Competing in the Peso Médio division (69.00 kg / 152.5 lbs) as a representative of Alliance, her career arc — from handball player in Uberlândia to four-time IBJJF world champion on the global stage — stands as a testament to the single-minded commitment she declared on her very first day training jiu-jitsu.