URCC founder Alvin Aguilar's 5-year-old daughter is youngest Filipino jiu-jitsu champ
MANILA, Philippines – Like father, like daughter.
At five years old, Aleia Aielle Aguilar just followed in the footsteps of her father — Philippine mixed martial arts promotion pioneer Alvin Aguilar — becoming the country’s youngest world champion in Jiu-jitsu.
The adorable Aleia conquered the 2022 Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championships with a big finals victory Gabriela Vercosa of Brazil at the Jiu-jitsu Arena in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates over the weekend.
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 defeated 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,” said the elder Aguilar, president and founder of the Universal Reality Combat Championship, the country’s longest-running MMA promotional company.
Prior to her championship campaign, the younger Aguilar, fighting out of of Deftac-Ribeiro Jiu-jitsu Philippines, dominated the UAE’s Maria El Halabi in the semifinals, 6-0, to advance to the finals.
“We are so all proud of you. Even at such young age you are already so organized and hard-working 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,” her father added.
Aleia’s Maybelline Masunda just watched her daughter’s match at the far side, saying her finals opponent just tapped out after Aielle applied a heavy sprawl. She said 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 is accompanied by Masuda, the junior grappling team, her brothers Alonso Lucas and Andreas Lucho Aguilar, and 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,” added Masuda, who incidentally is also the first ever Filipino jiu-jitsu world champion, achieving the feat in 2009.
Masuda likewise won the country’s first ever gold in the 2014 Asian Beach Games.
Aguilar, who spent over 30 years in studying multiple martial arts including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, expressed gratitude to her daughter’s training teammates at DEFTAC — singling out her training partner Yuri Yson — and her coaches, especially her wrestling coach Choy Tumasis from WAP.
Aleia, her mom and the rest of the team will fly home to Manila on Tuesday.
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