Like father, like daughter.
At five years old, Aleia Aielle Aguilar has just followed the footsteps of her father Alvin Aguilar after becoming the Philippines’ youngest world champion in jiu-jitsu.
Aguilar conquered the 2022 Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championships with a big victory over finals’ counterpart Gabriela Vercosa of Brazil over the weekend at the Jiu-jitsu Arena, Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates.
Unaccompanied by her mother Maybelline Masuda during the fight itself, the youngest daughter of the country’s mixed martial arts founding father went all by her lonesome on the mat and won over Vercosa via verbal submission to capture the gold in the kids’ 1 Under 16 kg event.
“I’m beyond happy that my baby girl is now the Philippines’ youngest world champion. We will continue to work hard to bring honor to our country,” the elder Aguilar, the president and the founder of longest Filipino MMA promotions Universal Reality Combat Championship, said.
Prior to her championship campaign, Aguilar of Deftac-Ribeiro Jiu-jitsu Philippines defeated UAE’s Maria El Halabi, 6-0, in the semifinals to advance to the finals.
“We are so all proud of you. Even at such young age you are already so organized and hardworking in everything you do. From academics to sports, you always excel because you always work hard. I remember when you were two years old and you said you wanted to be the greatest,” he added.
Her mother watched Aguilar’s match from afar, saying her finals opponent just tapped out after Aielle applied a heavy sprawl and her rival didn’t want to continue the fight.
Aielle’s favorite move is the armbar.
“She was born into jiu-jitsu. I was bringing her with me to training after giving birth to her when she was as young as three weeks old. Every training day, competition day, she grew up with jiu-jitsu in her life and it eventually became her dream to compete,” Masuda said.
The little Aguilar was accompanied by her mother Masuda in the trip, the junior grappling team, her brothers Alonso Lucas and Andreas Lucho Aguilar, coach Lester del Rosario along with athletes Fierre Afan, Lord Gabriel Del Rosario, Joaquin Antonio Marte and David Zaldarriaga.
“I was more nervous watching her compete then I’ve ever felt when I compete myself. I couldn’t sleep the night before but we pulled through and she got what we came here for,” Masuda added, who is also the first ever Filipino jiu-jitsu world champion in 2009.
Masuda also won the country’s first ever gold in the 2014 Asian Beach Games.
Aguilar, who spent over 30 years studying multiple martial arts, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, expressed gratitude to his daughter’s training teammates at DEFTAC, her training partner Yuri Yson, all her coaches, especially her wrestling coach Choy Tumasis from WAP.
Aleia, her mom and the rest of the team will be returning to Manila on Tuesday.
