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Patricia da Cunha, top, takes down Lydia Lina Chan in the gold medal match.
CELINA - Martial arts instructor Patricia Aviloff Zago Da Cunha, who teaches jiu-jitsu with TMC Brazuca at the Celina Martial Arts Studio, earned a gold medal in the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation's Worldmaster championships in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Da Cunha, who competed in the women's purple belt light-featherweight division, beat Lydia Lina Chan from Renzo Gracie Nashville in the final to win gold.
She saw that Chan was strong and likely to try a throw to start, but quickly executed a takedown of her own to seize control.
"When I did that, in my mind, I said, 'No, nobody's going to take me,'" she said, with studio owner Tiago Buogo translating for her. " 'Nobody's going to take first place.' "
Da Cunha, a native of Brazil, started practicing jiu-jitsu in 2016 thanks to the influence of her husband, Crystian, who owns the TMC Brazuca studio in Brazil. In 2019, Crystian went to the Worldmasters and placed second in the men's purple belt light-featherweight championship.
Da Cunha gained her purple belt - an intermediate level in martial arts, two below a black belt - early in 2022, a few months before TMC Brazuca expanded to Celina. Da Cunha spends about half her time in Celina and half at the studio in Brazil.
In addition to teaching jiu-jitsu at the studio, she trained with weightlifting classes to help with throws and is an instructor in Muay Thai, a discipline characterized by strikes and clinches. Two weeks before the Worldmasters, she competed in Florianopolis, Brazil, to prepare.
"She trained and trained and trained, and normally you have your partners… but when you go to the competition, you don't know what's coming," Buogo said. "You don't know your opponent, and that's the fear she's looking for. You don't know what you're expecting. She likes to be challenged."
Patricia da Cunha holds her gold medal in the purple belt light-featherweight division at the IBJJF Worldmasters in Las Vegas.
Buogo said that the Worldmasters are the biggest event of the year for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, featuring 10,000 fighters across all the divisions.
There were nine purple belt competitors on the light-featherweight bracket in Las Vegas, and Da Cunha was seeded high, only fighting twice to reach the gold medal round.
With only a couple minutes between bouts, she said the mental side was the hardest part.
"Most difficult is my mind, to have the patience to control my mind during those five minutes," she said. "It's a five-minute fight with about two- to three-minutes break between the next fight. You don't have too much time to think. You have to catch your breath and work the mind, like, 'Yes, I can do that.' You have to survive the first two minutes of the fight, because the first two minutes of the fight, you're anxious and nervous."
Da Cunha said the second, Lisa Gabriella Casper of the Prime Jiu-Jitsu Center, was the most challenging of the three opponents.
"At first, when I qualified for the final, I didn't believe I was there," Da Cunha said.
She said about 1 minute 40 seconds in, she had the fight fully in hand, and controlled the rest of the five minutes to earn the gold. Crystian and Marcos Cunha, the master of TMC Brazuca, were there to help coach and ultimately to celebrate her win.
Next up, Da Cunha is looking to compete in the Brazilian and European championships, the biggest after the Worldmasters.
