Talita Alencar is becoming a household name in the growing world of women’s competitive jiu-jitsu. At only 26 years old, the Carutapera-born Brazilian can not only boast numerous titles, but a heated match-up against BJJ great Mackenzie Dern that resulted in both rolling off of the elevated stage at Fight To Win Pro 12.
Talita has been athletic at least since four year old, when she started taking swimming lessons. She later moved on to triathlons.
In was thanks in part to a boyfriend who trained at Gracie Barra Fortaleza that she became interested in the art she would later excel at — Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She started in 2004 and would earn her black belt 12 years later.
Talita is a multiple-time medalist in the IBJJF, but at the end of this month she will be getting her hands dirty in the rough, no-judges-needed world of the Eddie Bravo Invitational when she takes part in EBI 12.
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The Jiu-Jitsu Times caught up with Talita earlier this week, and we were curious to know how she felt about her upcoming match-ups at EBI 12.
Here is what she had to say.
“I’m super excited to EBI,” Talita told the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “I love the rules. It’s kind of annoying sometimes because I don’t like the submission stuff… the arm bar and the back take, but it’s challenge, you know? It’s very challenging, and everything that challenge me, I kind of have like a best feeling, like a I am … my gas…my gasoline is my motivation, so I think it’s a crazy rules and I already fought two times and I’m going to do better that way, and the woman’s brackets it’s really good. I don’t think they have no advantage against me and I just want they be ready for me because I’m going to be super ready, you know, and like Theodoro Canal say, ‘I’m not to prepare to their game, they need to prepare to my game,’ because I’m going to do my best, and I’m going to fight for the $20,000. It’s a big motivation, you know? And I think that’s all. They need to get prepared for me, that’s all.”
Besides the motivation of 20K, Talita will also have the joy of fighting in her favorite type of tournament, a no-gi tournament:
I think I am really good at no-gi because I don’t have grips that hold me. I can scramble more, but like as I say, if I have a super fight gi, I am down. If a have a tournament with gi, or no-gi, or submission only, I’m down. I like all. But I really like no-gi. It doesn’t have no grips to hold me, I can scramble more, and I can do whatever I want. I can jump around, you know. I can like roll, whatever. Like they not really going to hold me in the submissions and no-gi, it’s kind of hard. You need to have good grips and you need practically a lot.
Talita will be competing in an all-female competition when she sets foot on the mats at EBI. While she does recognize that women’s competitive BJJ is still small, she also knows it’s growing.
Women’s [competitions] is still really small, and we are growing a lot. We got our own place, and I think the girls who competed, they always competed against each other, so that’s good, it’s hard, at the same time, you know?
EBI 12: The Female Featherweights will be going down live, July 30, from Los Angeles, California. Besides Talita Alencar, the event will feature Caio Terra black belt Tammi Musumeci and Gracie Barra Northridge’s Tassia Pimenta.
If you can’t make it to Los Angeles, you can watch all of the action live on UFC’s Fight Pass.
