Bianca Basilio on her grueling road to the black belt

Bianca Basilio. Photo by Eduardo Ferreira

Bianca Basilio has had success at every belt. But it was this year, at the brown, that she reached the zenith or her career, leading to her being pointed to as one of the big new promises in BJJ. In 2016, Bia won the Brazil Nationals, the Pan and the Worlds, resulting in her promotion to the black belt toward the end of the year by the hands of her teachers, Caio and Diego Almeida.

But the journey to the black belt has not been an easy one. Basilio first began training through a social project in the back of her teacher’s house. Talking to Graciemag, she went over all the suffering she had to overcome before reaching this new stage in her life.

“In these nine years I’ve been training, I’ve seen many people leaving their jobs and fighting with their families due to dropping everything to live off of BJJ,” she told us. “But that would last a year, and those people ended up taking it back and quitting BJJ. I realized that this life is for a selected few, because few want to pay the price needed to conquer something in life. Many people see only the good things, but few see the day-to-day — how much I strive to get where I’ve gotten, how much I train every day… Many times, I had to eat a rancid lunch, to train in fasting; I had to swallow my tears when I couldn’t even stand to grip the gi due to exhaustion… Truth is, there is no glory without pain. God has always been behind everything in my life, and without him I would be nothing, because he put my masters Caio and Diogo Almeida in my path.”

Basilio knows the suffering is not over. In order to have success among the BJJ elite, she will have to take on the toughest black-belts on the planet:

“Now I will train double, because I know I will face many experienced girls. I will keep putting God before everything in my life, always giving my best and fighting with plenty of joy and love. I hope to fare well in this new phase. I’m fine physically, psychologically, good with my faith and well fed. Now I just have to keep training hard and with focus. Rest assured I will give it my best, for the honor and glory of God.”

Ahhhhhhhhhh, mas eu estou mega feliz! !! ?11.12.2016 foram 9 anos treinados, de muitas alegrias, amizades, broncas, erros, acertos e muito aprendizado. Aprendi tantas e tantas coisas boas que levarei para o resto de minha vida, passei por muitos obstáculos que só me fortaleceram para que hoje eu pudesse chegar até aqui. O meu conselho é, Persista, insista e nao desista, Deus nao colocaria um sonho em seu coraçao que ele nao pudesse realizar, hoje estou realizando um de meus maiores sonhos, porém ele só está começando . Ser um faixa preta não quer dizer que vc é mais que alguém, mas vc é espelho para todos que te robeiam, você é formador de opinião e isso sim é um faixa preta . Só tenho a agradecer a Deus pelas pessoas que cruzaram meu caminho e permanecerá até o fim da vida, pela saúde, pelos amigos, patrocinadores que acreditam em.meu potencial, pessoas que estão sempre ao meu lado e a minha família que me apóia e me ama muito. Na hora eu não consegui falar nada somente sorrir, mas aqui expresso um pouquinho do que sinto. Amo a vida! Jesus vive! Família! União! Amigos! Alegria! #almeidajj #jiujitsualmeida #ateofinalalmeidajj #bjj #eusoualmeidajj #eusoukoral #koralfightco #koralteam #inomertamc #inomerta #toquedeclasse #faixapreta #blackbelt #EspaçoHolisticoAbbiati

A photo posted by Bia Basilio (@biabasiliojj) on Dec 11, 2016 at 10:44am PST