Thamires Monteiro is a Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Lucas Leite
Women’s BJJ at Checkmat is thriving, and the person leading the charge of this renovation of new talents is Thamires Monteiro, 23. She dominated the light division at the Pan and No-Gi Worlds, as well as winning silver at the No-Gi Pan and at the Worlds, all from the IBJJF, in 2021.
The new champion pointed to her mindset as her biggest evolution during the latest BJJ season.
“I believe in the last few years I grew a lot both technically and physically, but in this year of 2021 for sure I evolved a lot mentally”, said Thami. “This greatly helped improve my performance in championships. Logically, I wanted to have won the Worlds too, but it was a great year. It’s gonna be better in the next season, now as a black-belt. I want to do well in the sport’s elite!”
Monteiro was recently promoted by Lucas Leite and Jackson Douglas, the latter her husband and fellow black-belt.
“It’s a mixture of feelings,” she said with a chuckle. “I feel very well and very anxious for the next year of competition! I’m still deciding, but I believe I will fight as a featherweight in the black belt—I believe it’s an excellent division for seeing my jiu-jitsu flow.”
Before finishing the interview, Thamires remembered her performance during her last season as a brown-belt: “All the matches in my brown belt period left some kind of mark on me, but the final of the No-Gi Worlds, without a doubt, was the most memorable! I was very focused and had an incredible flow! I was conscious of every movement I was making and was able to find the finish much more quickly than I expected.”