Photo courtesy of Gabi McComb on Instagram (@gabimccomb)
The Brazilian jiu jitsu credentials of Gabi McComb are unquestionable. After being promoted to black belt by Letícia Ribeiro and Fabrício Camões, McComb grabbed the Pan-Am and World Championships in both gi and no-gi. Shortly after the latest of those four titles, the legendary Andre Galvao presented her with her second degree black belt.
While the accolades could certainly keep coming in for the Manaus-born fighter, she decided to shift her focus to MMA. While it may have seemed sudden for those who don’t know her, she’s always had this on the back of her mind.
“I always had the desire for me to fight in MMA, but earlier, when I thought about that, I thought I was too young. And I was just in the middle of my Jiu-Jitsu career. So I just thought it was not the best moment yet for me to start MMA,” McComb said. “Plus, because I didn’t have all the accomplishments I wanted yet in Jiu-Jitsu. I just wanted to wait a little bit for me to be, I guess, more mature. You know what I mean? Not just in the sport, but as a person – to mature a little bit more.”
Getting the titles that she had planned on was a big part of the wait. However, a bigger part of the wait was the need for it to be the right moment – and now is the time.
“I already got the main titles that I wanted in Jiu-Jitsu – become a world champion.
It was like a personal goal that we have, and I got that done in gi and in no-gi,” she said. “I accomplished the thing that I wanted, and I’m at the age that I cannot wait too long anymore to start. It has to be now. I wish I had done amateur fights or I had done more MMA fights before, but we were waiting for an opponent for a while.”
While that wait was tough when the desire was there, it allowed her plenty of time to get her feet wet training. From the very start, she has had the assistance of former UFC champions to learn about what it takes to make it in this sport.
“Like two years ago, before I decided to actually start it, I talked to Alexa [Grasso] for me to go to Lobo to see her training a little bit, how it was from [up] close,” McComb recalls. “I told her, oh, I’m thinking about to do MMA, can I come check it out to see how it is? And she said, yeah, you’re more than welcome to come. Then I went, I helped a little bit with Jiu Jitsu, and I saw the every day training and stuff.”
Not only did Alexa Grasso aid her in her trajectory, but she’s been working with Weili Zhang as well. The result of all of that hard work was a rear naked choke victory in her MMA debut. At LFA 199, she needed just over three minutes to dispose of Esmira Mammadova.
She’ll look for an encore of that performance this Saturday at LFA 213. Her second bout will come against Cara Greenwell and she’s hoping it has a similar outcome.
“I wanna end it with a choke, but whatever comes, I’m here to take it,” she said. “I’m here to strike, I’m here to kick, I’m here to take down, I’m here for everything. I’ve been training everything. I wanna be well-rounded.”
You can catch that fight as part of the LFA 213 prelims, That portion of the card will begin at 7:30pm EST.
You can also catch the entire audio of this interview on the latest edition of the Top Turtle MMA Podcast. It airs below at 21:00.