– Gabi Garcia is my idol!
– Gabi Garcia has no technique, she’s only muscles!
– Gabi Garcia is an example to all girls, Jiu-Jitsu practitioners or not!
– Gabi Garcia should compete with guys!
– Gabi Garcia is so brave to go out there and compete while the crowd only wants to see her fall!
– Gabi Garcia is full of steroids!
– Gabi Garcia tested negative for all PEDs after the Pan and the Worlds in 2013!
The career of Gabi Garcia in Jiu-Jitsu could easily be defined in the seven sentences above.
The 27-year-old from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, always generates heated emotions, in favor and against.
Three times absolute black belt champion (although she also counts the 2010 title, when she closed out the division with Luanna Alzuguir and placed second), and many other titles including ADCC and WPJJC, Gabi is undisputed the owner of the female black belt division in recent years.
Blessed with generous genetics, the Alliance star knew from the start that it would not be enough and tirelessly looked for the best training she could find, for technique, cardio and power.
With that improvement, a defeat like the one she suffered to featherweight Ana Carol Vidal in the 2007 Worlds purple belt absolute semifinals would be hard to happen again.
Since 2009, she lost only three times: to Ana Laura Cordeiro, Lana Stefanac and Hillary Williams.
Today, Gabi is the undisputed IBJJF Female Ranking leader, with 1,413 pts, 300 more than second place Luanna Alzuguir.
Gabi is now training for the 2013 ADCC, this October, in Beijing, China, where she will be after her second title.
And other than that, she has already signaled that an MMA career could be in her future.
Who can doubt that Gabi would be amazing to watch inside an octagon.
Well, like everything else in her career, opinions will be heated and divided.
But she’s used to that.
Watch Gabi’s final against Bia Mesquita at the 2013 Worlds (with subtitles):