Nathiely de Jesus "Nathi"

Nathiely de Jesus was born in Itapira, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and developed her jiu-jitsu under Cícero Costha, one of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's most respected instructors. She built an impressive run through the purple and brown belt divisions, winning double gold — weight class and absolute — at the IBJJF World Championship as a brown belt, before being promoted to black belt on the podium at the 2016 IBJJF World Championship.

Shortly after her promotion, de Jesus relocated to Texas, joining Soul Fighters, the academy run by Bruno Mendes, where she continued to develop the powerful top game that would define her black belt career. Competing primarily in the −74 kg (Medium-Heavyweight) division, she quickly became one of the most consistent title threats in the deepest women's black belt brackets.

Across her black belt career, de Jesus has won multiple IBJJF World Championship titles in both the gi and no-gi rule sets, along with European Open and Pan American Championship gold. She has also won the IBJJF Absolute (Open Class) title on multiple occasions, a testament to a game built on top pressure and control that translates just as effectively against larger opponents as it does within her own weight class.

De Jesus stepped away from full-time competition for a period to start a family, returning to the mats afterward with the same physical, pressure-based style that made her one of the sport's most dominant competitors in the late 2010s. Her return included a run at the ADCC World Championship in 2024, where she advanced to the +65 kg final, showing that her game had lost none of its effectiveness against the sport's new generation of stars.

Outside of competition, de Jesus has built a following through instructional content and her YouTube channel, "Jiu Jitsu a Bordo," where she shares technique and insight from her career. She remains one of the most accomplished and widely respected black belts to come out of the Cícero Costha lineage.

A physically powerful top-pressure grappler, de Jesus is known for suffocating guard passing and a heavy pinning game that has made her one of the most difficul