Bianca Basilio is eager to take the MMA world by storm after building a name for herself in the grappling circuit by winning multiple IBJJF world titles and an ADCC gold medal, and she’s wasting no time.
One of the best grapplers in women’s jiu-jitsu over the past decade, Basilio has bolds plan for 2026 — and that includes ending the year with a 6-0 record in mixed martial arts. Basilio scored a first-round armbar victory in her debut back in January, and now faces off with Rafaela Guedes at Friday night’s LFA 229 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“Since I truly decided to stop competing in jiu-jitsu for a while and dedicate myself 100 percent to MMA, I set that goal for myself,” Basilio told MMA Fighting. “Now it’s about making it happen.”
Basilio used to compete at 141 pounds in jiu-jitsu, where weight cutting isn’t the same as in MMA — in BJJ, an athlete weighs in immediately before walking to the mat multiple times on the same day. Basilio currently competes at flyweight in LFA, but the plan is to make the cut down to strawweight sometime this year to test herself at 115 pounds.
“My goal this year is to fight a lot in MMA,” Basilio said, “Try to get four to five fights this year, so that’s why I’ve been fighting at 125, but I’m going to drop to 115 soon. I think I’ll have a fight at 115 by the end of the year. Especially because if I want to stay active, I can’t keep cutting a lot of weight all the time, right? I’m testing myself, building confidence, preparing for whatever comes next.”
Basilio’s grappling résumé includes appearances under the ONE Championship banner and her original goal was to make the transition to MMA for the Asian promotion. However, given ONE’s lack of push in the MMA realm in the past few years—and the shuttering of the women’s strawweight division—and lack of opponents to face in this early stage of her MMA career, Basilio decided to part ways with the company and seek a deal with LFA instead.
“I spoke with some people and decided to end my contract with ONE Championship to follow a path that would take me to the UFC,” Basilio said. “I really believe in my potential, my dedication, my work, in what I’ve been doing daily.”
The Sao Paulo native had experience in other forms of martial arts early before deciding pursuing a career in jiu-jitsu, training Muay Thai and boxing as a teenager. Basilio first trained MMA under vale tudo veteran Udi Lima in Sao Paulo, and joined The Fighting Nerds team in 2024 to finally kick off the transition to MMA.
“It’s been really cool and challenging for me,” Basilio said. “My focus is to get to the UFC, so LFA is a big gateway, an incredible promotion that has revealed many athletes. It’s truly a showcase for the UFC, it is the biggest stage in MMA. That’s my focus, to train, win fight by fight and gain experience. I don’t want it to be something like, ‘If a [UFC] contract shows up tomorrow, let’s jump in.’ No, I think everything has the right timing. I’ve been preparing myself so that when I get there I can truly follow a path to reach the belt and become champion of the division.”
Basilio has shared mats with a long list of athletes who later tested themselves in MMA cages and rings, including future UFC fighters Bia Mesquita, Talita Alencar, and Jacqueline Amorim, but never had the chance to grapple a big name who later became an inspiration in her move to MMA.
“I have followed Mackenzie [Dern’s] career for many years,” Basilio said of the current UFC strawweight champion. “I remember that my last year as a brown belt was her last year competing as a black belt at the [IBJJF] Worlds. She moved to MMA after that so I didn’t have the opportunity to fight her. She was someone I really wanted to face when I was in colored belts because she was in my weight class, she was a superchampion, so I used to watch and admire her a lot. I wanted to reach her level but I didn’t have that opportunity in jiu-jitsu because she moved to MMA as soon as I got my black belt.”
Basilio is still 1-0 in the sport and hopes to close the year with a 6-0 record, and fighting Dern one day in the UFC “could happen, for sure.” She dreams big, but knows the road to becoming a well-rounded athlete isn’t easy.
Again, Dern serves as inspiration.
“She was always very good in jiu-jitsu,” Basilio said. “At the beginning, in striking, it was a lot of wild overhands and then go to jiu-jitsu however possible [laughs], but she improved and today she is the current champion of the division. That’s really cool, and I think it’s a very good reference for me.”
“Watching the whole journey of these girls inspires me a lot and makes me believe more and more that I’m on the right path,” she continued, citing Mesquita, Alencar, and Amorim. “I know what it was like to be where they were in jiu-jitsu. I’m also one of the best athletes in my division in jiu-jitsu, I was an eight-time world champion across all belts, twice at black belt. Watching them, you see that it’s possible. I’m working and I know it’s only a matter of time for me to be very good both on the feet and on the ground.”
Read the full article here
