Michelle Nicolini is one of the most successful female Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners in the world, and the eight-time world champion is now training hard in Singapore as she prepares to make her ONE Championship debut.

Nicolini recently joined the Evolve MMA Fight Team, which is also home to newly-crowned ONE Women’s Atomweight Champion Angela Lee. The two will be training together, and the Brazilian is hoping to make a similar impression on Asia’s biggest MMA promotion.

“I just moved to Singapore to train full-time at Evolve MMA and I already signed with ONE Championship,” said Nicolini. “I am super excited to have my first fight, and I think we really have the best team at Evolve MMA.

“The instructors are always there to patiently help and teach me. I totally trust in them, and have no doubt they will help me to improve my game and be a world champion in MMA. I will have to adapt my game to MMA because BJJ is not the same. I must learn Muay Thai, wrestling, and boxing, but my dream is to bring one more belt to Evolve MMA.”

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Nicolini knows what it takes to become a world champion – the Brazilian has been training in martial arts for over 16 years. She first started out in capoeira, but a desire to fight and test herself in competition soon led her to try BJJ in 2000 at the recommendation of a friend. She has never looked back since.

Although she would go on to win numerous world titles as a black belt, Nicolini’s BJJ career got off to a surprisingly slow start, as she lost three competitions in a row. A change in gyms soon rectified that, however, with Nicolini taking the sport more seriously after winning her first competition.

A natural, it took Nicolini just six years to earn her black belt. She did it the hard way too, proving herself against higher-ranked opponents on the international stage. The 34-year-old says that out of all her achievements, getting her black belt still stands out.

“I got my black belt at the podium in the worlds (World Jiu-Jitsu Championship) in 2006, after I almost lost to a black belt. I was a brown belt back then, but they used to put brown and black belts together because there wasn’t a big number of girls. That was very special for me.”

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As a black belt, she would go on to win the world championships eight times, as well as become a No Gi world champion and a multiple-time European and Pan American champion. However, perhaps her greatest accolade arrived when she became one of only seven women to ever be admitted into the BJJ Hall of Fame.

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