A week after winning gold in her weight class at the World Master IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2025 in Las Vegas, Rebecca Guerrero Tomada (familian Desu) is still processing the experience.  

“I don't know if it's hit me yet, but (it feels) really surreal,” she said in an interview with My Jungle Rules. “It really felt like another day of training, except with my friends going live” after her win at what is arguably the top international jiu-jitsu tournament for veteran athletes.  

It’s been a long journey to the winner’s podium for the 35-year-old former Dededo resident since she first donned a gi in 2011 at Purebred Jiu Jitsu Academy in Hagåtña under Stephen Roberto.  

After leaving Guam in 2015, she lived in different California cities (Mountain View, Redwood City, San Francisco, Sacrament), Houston and Honolulu before ending up in Las Vegas in 2023. Each move was driven by her desire to train at different gyms and learn from new masters. "The only reason why I moved to so many places was because of jiu-jitsu," she said.

Although she’s no stranger to international competitions, having competed in her youth as a basketball player at Oceania games, she said she “lost momentum” as she progressed through the ranks in jiu-jitsu. 

“I was competing since I was a white belt. And I think back then it was easier to compete because, like, white belts have no fear, and then the more you grow into it, you're just like, oh my God, there's so much more to be afraid of. So I think I competed less once I became a brown belt … and then when I came out here to Vegas, I did, like, some super fights here and there, but I haven't done a tournament in a long time,” she said. 

”I was afraid of disappointing myself, or disappointing others, or freezing, or losing because I'm gassed. I came up with any rhyme and reason, anything … to convince me not to compete, I would try to tell myself, like, Oh, I'm not that good. Or, no, what if I don't make weight? Or what if I embarrass myself? What if I can't do this? You know, just a lot of what ifs, what ifs, what ifs.”

Her breakthrough came after moving to Las Vegas and finding her current gym, Jiu-Jitsu Methods. She credits her professor (as jiu-jitsu instructors are sometimes called) with helping her find a new love for the sport and, most importantly, overcome her fear. 

Her professor, Rene Lopez, is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and second-degree black belt who established Jiu-Jitsu Methods in southwest Las Vegas in 2022. When Rebecca first joined the gym, he immediately recognized her as a veteran jiujiteiro who could compete at a high level. “She was definitely experienced, she had a lot of good positions and intensity in the rounds,” he said.      

His emphasis on drilling and a deeper understanding of the art helped Rebecca see jiu-jitsu not just as a sport, but as a means of self-expression. That shift in perspective allowed her to compete with "zero fear, no doubt," focusing on applying what she had learned and celebrating the joy of the sport itself. 

“It wasn't even about winning or losing anymore,” she said. “Like, I get to go out there and express who I am — who is this girl and, well, what kind of movements does she make? What are her decisions when she's under pressure or when she's in the flow?”

So what is she like when she’s in the flow? “I'm very smooth, I'm sure-footed, I'm energetic. It's graceful, yet it's tough. You know, I'm precise, sometimes I'm loose, and sometimes I can be very strong and heavy. For a small girl like me, relentless, I've been told (I’m) relentless. And I think that's, you know, very pretty jiu-jitsu.

“I noticed that when I'm anxious, or when I'm fearful, when I'm doubtful, my jiu-jitsu becomes really sloppy, almost like robotic, but when you're in the flow, it flows. And I take pride in that, you know?”

In the gym’s Instagram post congratulating her on her gold on Aug. 28, it noted that in her four matches, she was “dominating her division with technical aggression.” 

“I imposed my will on them, I controlled them,” she explained. “I used my technique to get to where I needed to be with very little force or effort. So I was very assertive with my technique, my game plan and my moves, and I didn't wait for them to do something to me. I was always doing something to them.” 

Although she credits her professor and her gym with giving her the confidence to join the other 12,500 competitors in this year’s IBJJF World Master Championships, her win came down to the disciplined and methodical approach she took in preparing for the tournament.   

“I did not even give myself a chance to think twice or second-guess myself. I wrote things down, I journaled, I took my notes, I studied them, I drilled,” she said, adding that her coaches provided dedicated time for open drilling, a key factor in her preparation. 

She kept up that focus on the day of the competition, taking notes after every match and reviewing the sequences so she could improve in the next one.

“Honestly, she was just dominating the matches,” her professor, Rene, said. “She was doing everything we'd been practicing after school, drilling, rolling and things of that nature. She was doing everything that she was supposed to in the competition. So honestly, I felt from the first match, I'm like, ‘Oh, we got this.’ … I just felt like she was on a different level, and it was just her time to to shine.”

And shine she did - but the victory didn’t come without a little controversy. 

In the final match against Andressa Decker De Oliveira, Rebecca maintained her composure, executing her well-rehearsed game plan: “pull my guard, spider lasso, read the base.” Within the first one to two minutes, she hit a sweet move that ended in an arm bar that should have ended the match in Rebecca’s favor, according to Rene. 

But her Brazilian competitor complained that she hadn’t tapped, saying her sleeve got stuck and she was asking for help. The judges chose to reset the match, giving Rebecca two points for the move.  

“I had to fight while I was up two points, so she was coming at me hard — and I knew that, so I just pulled guard again, and I did spider lasso, and I just kind of weathered the storm,” Rebecca said. She controlled the rest of the fight “and then once time expired, I had won. I mean, I felt like I won since the arm bar, but then when they took it, I was like, ‘OK, I'll just beat you twice, whatever.’”

While she had that matter-of-fact attitude with all of her matches, calling it a matter of checking off tasks “like a job” — it was the presence of  friends and teammates who had come to Las Vegas from other states that meant the most to her.  

She described it like a bit of Harry Potter’s Felix Felicis:  “Everything fell into place that day. Everything was perfect that day. Everyone was exactly where they needed to be to help me, support me and witness (me) becoming Guam’s first female champion,” screaming for her when she won. “I was more touched by that to see, like, how much people love and support me, and they were there the entire time.”

And as if the day couldn’t get any better, the triumph was quickly followed by an even more significant honor: her promotion to black belt, the highest rank in the sport.

“When they gave me my black belt, they told me that this was waiting on my professor’s dining table for months. So they definitely saw something in me that I didn't see in myself at first, ... but they really helped me to accept that maybe that there was something good here. So the gold helped me to see that, but then the black belt was something that they had already seen for a long time.”

Rebecca’s promotion was also a milestone for Rene himself  — it’s the first black belt he’s awarded to a woman. The reason isn’t a lack of talent, but a lack of bodies. 

In the first few years that he established the gym, “we just didn't have a huge following for women,” he said. He understands how some women could be intimidated coming into a room where a bunch of sweaty guys are grappling with each other in close quarters. 

But in the last eight months, the women’s program has “blown up,” he said, adding that some classes now have more women than men in them. He attributes the growth to the efforts of Rebecca, her friend Nenna Wetzle, and his wife, Dragana “Gaga” Knezevic.

“They pretty much started this women's program from nothing,” he said, adding that it’s still growing thanks to their ability to make female members feel safe, strong and empowered. “I see these moms and aunties and just regular women that are super excited to learn jiu-jitsu, and they're there to train. So it's pretty awesome.” 

Even though Rebecca already is coaching in the women’s program, she wants to focus on getting better at teaching.  

“I think that I have a skill that I can share with others,” she said. “Maybe I can teach women in a different way that men can. I really want to do that because I really want to give back to this community right here: I want to give back to this gym. I want to give back to my coaches. I want to give back to my teammates, because they've given so much to me.”

She also is working with the kids program, where her career as a registered behavioral therapist gives her unique insights that she applies to coaching children in Jiu-Jitsu. 

“Now that I understand different functions of behavior, I can kind of meet a child at their level of awareness,” she said. By shifting her focus to the more quiet, engaged students, she encourages the more talkative ones to settle down and focus — creating an environment where every child is ready to learn.  

With a gold medal around her neck and a black belt tied around her waist, Rebecca’s win was not only a victory for herself, but an inspiration for women in the sport, particularly those from Guam. By dedicating herself to becoming a better teacher and giving back to her gym, she hopes to share the lessons of her journey — that with courage, discipline and the right support, the journey is just as rewarding as the destination.

So what's next for Rebecca? "They gotta tune in to find out."

Click to watch highlights of Rebecca Guerrero Tomada’s matches at the World Master IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2025 in Las Vegas on the Jiu-Jitsu Methods Instagram