Ericka Almeida
Address
Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil
Phone
About Us
Éricka Almeida was born on March 05, 1989 in Sorocaba, a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.
Growing up Éricka practiced a number of sports, though her competitive focus was set on basketball and athletics. At the age of 17 (2007), she started working at a gym’s reception desk where Almeida had to experiment all classes available on the academy’s schedule, in order to better serve potential walk-in clients. One of the disciplines taught there was jiu-jitsu, and it was this particular one that caught Ericka’s attention straight away.
Herman Gutierrez became Ericka’s coach from the very first class and the person who followed Almeida throughout her colored belt progression. Although with a promising record as a white and blue belt in BJJ, due to her gym’s focus in mixed martial arts (MMA), Éricka slowly gravitated towards that aspect of combat sports, becoming the first female cage fighter in the team, later reaching the pinnacle of the sport, the American fight promotion “Ultimate Fighting Championship” (UFC).
On November 2017 Éricka Almeida earned her black belt from Mr. Herman Gutierrez. At this time Almeida was already placing her MMA career on hold to pursue her academic goals, soon after the grading, Érica moved to Curitiba to follow her university studies.
In Curitiba Almeida joined the Gracie Barra gym, an academy led by one of the region’s most prosperous all-time athletes, Rodrigo Fajardo. Training with Fajardo, Éricka returned to gi competition, conquering her place as one of the top female grappling competitors of her generation.
