Athlete Spotlight: Mayssa Bastos on Pans and Goals for the 2022 season
3/28/2022 By: Danny O'Donnell
After being promoted to black belt in June 2018 following a brown belt World title, Mayssa Bastos quickly rose to the top of the rooster weight division. As a black belt she’s won World, Pan, and European grand slam events, among many other titles. Mayssa continued her winning ways to kick off the 2022 season. She won gold in Rome at the Europeans as a light featherweight in a dominant performance that included an armbar submission in the final in under a minute. “It felt great. It was good to be back to compete at the highest level and be able to perform well.”
Mayssa will look to carry that momentum into the 2022 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships where she’ll be back competing as a rooster weight. Much of her training for the event has been at Unity Jiu-Jitsu in New York under the tutelage of Murilo Santana. The level of training at Unity is world class, with many other black belt competitors including Junny Ocasio, Margot Ciccarelli, Italo Moura, Chloe McNally, Jeferson Guaresi, and Levi Jones-Leary on the mat daily. “I spend my whole day in the gym. I do 2-3 training sessions and I'm an instructor, so I assist professor Murilo with the other classes in the day.”
Not only has Mayssa been able to win an impressive number of titles, she’s done so in dominant fashion. Using a combination of back attacks and pressure passing, her approach has been one of positional control leading to submission. This classic tenant of jiu-jitsu is something she is constantly striving for. “For me, finishing shows that my jiu-jitsu is evolving and that I can apply the positions in a more effective way. That’s what I'll always try to do, be as technical as possible to get to the finish.” Even as her opponents have become more familiar with her style it’s been hard for them to find a way to stop it as Mayssa is constantly improving in every area of her game.
With the 2022 Pan Jiu-Jiu Championships just around the corner, Mayssa will be looking to add another grand slam title to her collection. In her division are 2021 Pan Champion Lavinia Barbosa and 2021 brown belt World Champion Jhenifer Aquino. “I’m expecting some tough matches at Pan Ams. My division is growing, and I will have the chance to fight new girls. I hope I can show good jiu-jitsu and win my third black belt Pans title.” After Pans Mayssa already has her sights set on what’s next. “Maybe I’ll go to Brazil to compete Brazilian Nationals but for sure Worlds.”
Be sure to catch all the action from the 2022 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships on April 6th through the 10th live from the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida.
