Gezary Matuda Bandeira was born on July 12, 1983, in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
She began doing martial arts at the age of 15 by training in capoeira. She then began training in Muay Thai two years later after being inspired by her brother, a thai-boxer at the time.
Gezary spent several years training. In 2004, she discovered Jiu Jitsu thanks to her Muay Thai teacher.
Matuda’s striking coach’s recommended that she include some ground work into her training regimen. So she became a student under BJJ coach Carlos Alexandre Conceiço, who was a black belt under Carlson Gracie.
Despite Gezary’s repeated requests for her Thai boxing teacher to engage in combat, she was never able to get competitive ring time. On the other hand, she only had a month of training in Jiu Jitsu before she began competing.
Gezary got ever more enamored with Jiu Jitsu as a result of this competitive aspect of BJJ, pushing the striking game to the background.
Coach Carlos gave Gezary all of her belts, from white to purple.
She continued her Muay Thai training, and Anderson Silva was one of her first instructors. She won the CBJJF South American Cup and the CBJJE World Cup in 2009 as a blue belt.
Matuda and her husband (ATT pro-team Muay Thai coach Katel Kubis) then emigrated to the United States.
She went looking for American Top Team coach Ricardo Liborio there. Matuda won the IBJJF Pan American Championship as a purple belt before taking home the 2010 IBJJF World Championship.
After winning the world championship, Gezary received her brown belt there. In July 2012, she received her black belt after she won the IBJJF World Championship.
She won the World Championship in 2013 and 2014 as a black belt. She took part at Polaris 2 Pro Grappling in Cardiff, Wales, in September 2015. She defeated Michelle Nicolini with a flying armbar in under 15 seconds.
Before winning silver in the 2015 World Championship by defeating Rikako Yuasa in the final, she became the black belt 2015 Pan American Champion.
Her match with Laurence Cousin at Polaris 3 in April 2016 finished in a tie. She won the Pan American Championship and the 2016 World Championship in the same year, becoming the third black belt to do it.
She earned silver in 2017 after competing against Talita Alencar in the World Championship light feather category final. She earned bronze at the World Championship after winning her third Pan Championship in 2018.
Matuda lost to Ffion Davies via submission in her match at Polaris 9 in London in March 2019. She earned bronze in the 2019 World Championship.
Gezary Matuda is a three-time Pan American Champion, a two-time World and Pan Champion in coloured belts, and a two-time European Open Black Belt Champion. She is also renowned for possessing “the most exciting style in BJJ.”
Matuda is currently dating Bruno Malfacine, a BJJ competitor. Malfacine is largely regarded as the greatest roosterweight of all time. He won 10 World Championships and was put into the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation Hall of Fame.
