Samantha Cook

Samantha Cook is a British Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt competitor, born in 1987 in Kingswood near Bristol, England. She began in judo and show jumping, discovered Brazilian jiu-jitsu at 21, and trained under Chico Mendes at Checkmat in Bristol before moving to London, where she trained at Fight Factory and then Fightzone London under Marco Canha while working as a respiratory therapist. As a colored belt she won the IBJJF World No-Gi title as a brown belt in 2015 and several European Open titles, and she was the first British woman to win the ADCC European Trials at black belt level. She was promoted to black belt in June 2017. At black belt she won gold at the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Tokyo, took bronze at the IBJJF World Championship in 2018 and 2019, and became 2019 European Open champion in both Gi and No-Gi.