Rafaela Guedes

Rafaela Ribeiro Guedes, born on 23 May 1992 in Manaus, Brazil, is a Brazilian submission grappler and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt athlete who now fights out of San Diego, California. She played handball from the age of ten until an injury at sixteen, started jiu-jitsu at a neighbourhood social project near her grandmother's house after watching her cousin compete, trained at Academia Dailson Pinheiro de Jiu-Jitsu in Manaus, and at 22 moved to São Paulo to join Leandro Lo's New School Brotherhood academy before joining Atos Academy under André Galvão in San Diego, where she earned her black belt in September 2020. An IBJJF World champion at brown belt, she is a two-time World No-Gi and Pan American black belt champion, was the WNO women's heavyweight champion, won silver in the heavyweight division at the 2023 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship and won the over 65 kilogram division at the 2024 ADCC World Championship.