Aleia Aguilar, daughter of the Philippines’ MMA founding father Alvin Aguilar and first Filipino jiu-jitsu world champion Maybelline Masuda, has become the country’s youngest jiu-jitsu world champ at five years old
At 5, Aleia Aielle Aguilar became the Philippines’ youngest jiu-jitsu world champion after beating Brazilian Gabriela Vercosa at the 2022 Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championships over the weekend at the Jiu-jitsu Arena, Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Aleia, daughter of Alvin Aguillar who is considered as the country’s MMA founding father, has started to follow in her dad’s footsteps as she forced the Brazilian to tap out of the match.
“I’m beyond happy that my baby girl is now the Philippines’ youngest world champion. We will continue to work hard to bring honor to our country,” said Alvin, president and founder of the longest Filipino MMA promotion in Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC),Philippine Star reported.
Coming from Deftac-Ribeiro Jiu-jitsu Philippines, Aleia's road to the championship started by dominating local bet Maria El Halabi in a 6-0 semifinal that put her on top of the kids’ 1 Under 16-kg event.
According to Rappler, matriarch Maybelline Masuda also has a name of her own in the sport and is recognized as the 2009 first Filipino jiu-jitsu world champion who brought home the country’s first gold medal in the 2014 Asian Beach Game.
“She was born into jiu-jitsu. I was bringing her with me to training after giving birth to her when she was as young as three weeks old. Every training day, competition day, she grew up with jiu-jitsu in her life and it eventually became her dream to compete,” Masuda claimed.
“I was more nervous watching her compete than I’ve ever felt when I competed myself. I couldn’t sleep the night before but we pulled through and she got what we came here for,” Bulletin quoted her.
Aleia was accompanied by her mother Masudat to the competition, together with the junior grappling team, her brothers Alonso Lucas and Andreas Lucho Aguilar, coach Lester del Rosario along with athletes Fierre Afan, Lord Gabriel Del Rosario, Joaquin Antonio Marte and David Zaldarriaga and they will be heading home to Manila on Tuesday, November 15.
Tags: #jiujitsu, #MMA, #youthsports