Gabi Garcia has been making headlines for years – thanks to her massive stature. The four time ADCC champion stands at 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) and weighs over 209 lb (95 kg).
In her grappling career Garcia constantly fought against underdogs – and won all but one match. The match that made Mackenzie Dern the household name that she is. In that one match Dern managed to outsmart Garcia and beat her on advantages in spite of weighing roughly half of what Garcia weighs.
Sometime after that Garcia withdrew from competing in Jiu jitsu and mostly focused on her MMA career. Her MMA career was particularly rough. From the very first fight it was apparent Garcia was unlikely to ever become a striking powerhouse.
https://youtu.be/mzLChm4Q5uU?t=167
But she still couldn’t be dismissed. Be that as it may – Garcia greatly struggled to find an appropriate opponent. Her struggles would be highlighted by the promotion that signed her – because they would go on to match the behemoth that is Garcia with elderly former pro wrestlers from Japan.
https://youtu.be/qv2ye4XFu6U
Garcia was mentally affected by what was happening – but she was also determined to go on. She had opted to make an ADCC return back in 2017 and had won her division.
ADCC 2017 would also help launch the career of one of the biggest grappling superstars today – Alex Volkanovski grappling coach Craig Jones. Jones had surprised everyone at the event and managed to translate that performance into DVD sales and busy competitive schedule. The clip below explains what transpired next:
Now Garcia is ready to address the postponement of the intergender World Championship. When asked if Craig Jones match will still happen:
“Why not? You know I, all my life, (I’ve been) training with guys and I have one, two girls in the room. It’s – for it’s one more training, you know. “
As for potential dates for the match up:
“We actually got a lot of proposals and – but with the covid everything is super hard, you know? But I hope this happens in Asia because they offered for me there before and if one day I need to like compete against one guy I hope it will be in Asia” *
*Garcia quotes are edited for clarity because of her English, the video is attached below