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Two training partners meeting on the mat.Drawn in cream, forest green, and muted terracotta. People and objects are symbolic illustrations.
Portrait unavailable. General BJJ illustration; not a likeness of this person.Illustration: The BJJ Story

Felicia Oh

She took up jiu-jitsu at 33, the only woman in the room, and says there was no revelation in it — seven years later she fought an ADCC world final.

Biography

Felicia Oh was thirty-three the first time she walked into a jiu-jitsu academy, and by her own account she had never been any good at a sport. Cross country, track, baseball, gymnastics: she had loved all of it and been good at none of it, making the gymnastics team without being much use on it and the junior varsity basketball squad without ever getting on the court. Gymnastics lasted longest, until she hurt her back and gave it up at fifteen. It had at least taught her, she has said, how to work hard at something for its own sake. Finding a sport that made sense to both her head and her body took thirty-three years. She had grown up in Seattle, taken a fine arts degree at Cornish College of the Arts and then a master's in fine art and new genres at UCLA, and stayed on in Los Angeles. Her working life began in computing, moved into broadcast graphic design in Hollywood, and in 1997 she helped start a new department in digital media at Otis College of Art and Design. What changed things was a bad year outdoors. She ran the 2000 Los Angeles Marathon for a medal with the year on it, and a storm swallowed the race. That October a place opened up on a last-minute climb of Mount Whitney, and the mountain gave her another storm and no summit. On the drive up, a friend's husband had described a sport to her that was fighting but with no kicking and no hitting — she had only ever understood fighting as karate or boxing — and in the hotel the night before, he showed her the positions. On the unpleasant drive home she decided that something indoors might be a good change. A week later she watched a class at Jean Jacques Machado's academy in Tarzana, California, and signed up the next day. Nothing about that first class announced itself. She has been clear that there was no revelation and no moment of recognition; she had signed up for a class, and she went to learn. Two days a week became three, and three became four. Seven years later she was fighting a world final at thirty-nine. Tarzana She had noticed on the first day that no other woman trained there, and signed up anyway. Sílvio "Silverado" Pimenta ran the beginners' class and taught her through the early months; the advanced class was Machado's own, and she went to it only once she had the nerve for it. At five foot one and around 115 pounds, competing at featherweight, she was drawn to the idea that technique could let someone her size neutralize a much larger opponent, and she has said she was better at it than at any other sport she had played. Six months in, in June 2001, she entered a Grappling Games event and won her first match. The excitement lasted until she worked out how few minutes she had before she was due back out; she lost the second. At her next event she won the white belt division in the gi — the jacket and trousers the art is normally trained in — and finished runner-up in no-gi, which is the same sport without them. After that it stopped being a hobby: more days, then two and three sessions in a day. What she could not always arrange was an opponent. When she started competing there were so few women in the sport that a match was sometimes hard to get at all. Her description of her own game was correspondingly plain: take whatever the other person gives you. Black belt Machado promoted her to black belt in June 2005, four and a half years after she first walked in. She was thirty-seven. Reference works have counted her since as the sixth woman outside Brazil to reach the rank, and the fifth in the United States; Jiu Jitsu Legacy's "Female Dirty Dozen" list puts her in the same place, three years behind Cindy Omatsu, who got there in 2002. Both are editorial counts rather than entries in an official register. Through the middle of that climb she was also training with Eddie Bravo, from roughly 2003 to 2007, and reached brown belt in his 10th Planet system. A 2026 podcast bills her as a black belt under both men and calls that combination a rare one. Wikipedia dates the 10th Planet black belt to September 2025 and credits John Botello and Eddie Bravo with awarding it, and lists her at fifth degree in Brazilian jiu-jitsu; neither entry carries a source. 2007 The run to that year was not clean. In 2002 she tore a cruciate ligament in a match, on top of concussions, eye gouges, and injuries to her back and neck. She came back the following year and won five titles, among them the Copa Pacifica and the U.S. Open. In 2006 she won the ADCC North American trials and with them a place at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club world championship. Then everything landed at once. She won the Pan American black belt title in both the gi and the no-gi divisions; Wikipedia puts her among the first women to take both, while USAdojo says she was the first. She was second at the No-Gi World Championship. On 4 May she fought at the ADCC at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, beating Letícia Ribeiro and Megumi Fujii on the way to the final. The Fujii match was the semifinal and ended with a rear naked choke, a strangle applied from behind, in a bout she said people had been looking forward to. In the 121-pound final Sayaka Shioda beat her, and she took the silver at 55 kilos. Later that year she won the Grappling World Team Trials, which took her to the world wrestling games in Antalya, Turkey, in September, where she won FILA grappling gold for the United States. On 11 August, in Costa Mesa, she was inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame alongside Randy Couture and Dana White. She said she was speechless. She had by then been teaching ground combat at Big John McCarthy's Ultimate Training Academy since it opened in Valencia in September 2006, along with kettlebell and women's jiu-jitsu classes. Hector Pena, a kickboxer who taught alongside her, told a reporter that he would not roll with her, because she would embarrass him. In the same article McCarthy, the referee who owned the gym, called her one of the three best in the world. The sport was still in its infancy, she said at the time, and the rise of the UFC had at least made it easier to explain what she did. Men respect technique when they see it — and if they did not, she said, she simply would not roll with them. Epstein-Barr Not long after the ADCC year she contracted Epstein-Barr virus, and the fatigue that came with it did not lift. She had begun training for mixed martial arts by then and had to let it go; she could not train at the level competing demanded. She saw several doctors and came away without answers. She pushed on for about two years anyway. USAdojo's list of her titles ends with a second FILA world title in 2009, and after that, in her own words, she was done competing and done training. She only taught. For three years she did nothing else. Every attempt to roll or to run produced some new and unfamiliar injury. In 2014 she started running again, a few weeks before the IBJJF World Masters. She entered that competition on an assumption that turned out to be wrong — that nobody her age would sign up. One other woman had: Sue Ausman. So she put her gi on and trained, and at forty-six, on those few weeks of work, she won gold. What she noticed afterward was how much the masters division had grown, and that thirty is nowhere near past anyone's prime. Being back on the mat was pleasant enough that the training stuck. Teaching She had never wanted to be a teacher, she has said, and it kept happening anyway. In California she taught ground combat, kettlebells and women's jiu-jitsu at McCarthy's academy and women's submission grappling and fitness classes at M3 Fight and Fitness in Montrose; she worked as an assistant coach for a fight team, appeared as a guest instructor on Machado's online program, and kept teaching at Otis. USAdojo's page on her describes a whole-person approach — physical, psychological, emotional, technical — and quotes her holding that the competition is ultimately with yourself. In 2014 she was also helping start a wrestling program at Valencia High School, which by her account was the first in the Santa Clarita Valley since the district cut back its sports program in 1977. By 2024 one of the wrestlers she had coached had taken a Division I scholarship to CSU Bakersfield and was coaching at a high school himself. One of the athletes on his team had been her student at six years old. Coaching turned out to be harder than competing, at least in the one respect she keeps returning to: she has said she is more nervous watching friends and students compete than she ever was competing herself. She has compared it to playing a video game where the controller is not plugged in. Away from the mat She was writing about the sport almost as early as she was doing it. She began interviewing mixed martial artists in 2002 — before jiu-jitsu she had thought cage fighting was insane, and came to see a sport instead, a specialized hybrid of three or four others. She wrote for ADCombat, the ADCC's own site, and a friendship with Kenny Jewel put her in front of a camera for GrappleTV when the company started making video around 2004 and 2005. She spent two years there, interviewing the recognizable names on the California grappling scene, and handed the job to Cindy Omatsu when she moved away around 2007. Then a different kind of work. She spent seven years inspecting fights for the California State Athletic Commission — a fight cop, in her words — and became a professional mixed martial arts judge, a job she had sworn off. In 2002 she had judged a blue belt tournament at a casino in California where a riot broke out and the show was shut down, and had said she would never judge anything again. Twenty years and one month later she sat down in a judging course. When a local paper profiled her in September 2024, she was living in the Province community in Maricopa, Arizona, coaching jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts and wrestling there, judging mostly in California and licensed in Arizona as well, with fights judged at the Wild Horse Pass Hotel and Casino in Chandler. Looking back on twenty-four years in jiu-jitsu and the sports around it, she said she was grateful, that the lesson had been to say yes when something turned up, and that she still has to pinch herself over some of what she gets to do and the people it puts her in front of. Asked what came next, she said she is not much of a planner: she looks one or two steps ahead, the way she did in jiu-jitsu.

Sources for this profile

  • Wikipedia (English), "Felicia Oh".(opens in a new tab)

    • Felicia Oh was born on 13 December 1967 in Seattle, Washington.

      Where in the source: Infobox, first rows: "Born December 13, 1967" / "Seattle, Washington"

      Accessed:

    • Oh is an American submission grappling competitor and martial arts instructor.

      Where in the source: Ingress, første setning: "is an American submission grappling competitor and martial arts instructor"

      Accessed:

    • Oh began training in November 2000 after a friend's husband introduced her to the art, enrolled at Jean Jacques Machado's school in Tarzana, California, and was promoted to black belt in June 2005 after four and a half years under Machado.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «Combat Sports», første tre setninger: "began training ... November 2000 ... In June 2005, she was promoted to black belt after 4.5 years"

      Accessed:

    • Oh holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and a Master of Fine Arts in fine art and new genres from UCLA. She worked as a broadcast designer in Hollywood and was one of the first lecturers in the digital media department at Otis College of Art and Design before concentrating on martial arts full time. She is listed at 5 ft 1 in and 115 lb, won silver at −55 kg at the 2007 ADCC world championship after qualifying through the ADCC North American trials, and was among the first to win the IBJJF Pan American championship in both the black belt gi and no-gi divisions in 2007.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «Education» + «Combat Sports» tredje avsnitt: "ultimately won silver in the -55kg weight class"; infoboksen for høyde og vekt

      Accessed:

    • Wikipedia states that Oh was awarded her 10th Planet black belt by John Botello and Eddie Bravo in September 2025, and lists her rank as fifth-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and black belt in 10th Planet jiu-jitsu.

      Where in the source: Siste setning i «Combat Sports»: "In September 2025, she was awarded her 10th Planet Black Belt by John Botello and Eddie Bravo"; infoboksens «Rank»-rad

      Accessed:

  • Ogi, "Female Dirty Dozen: The First 12 BJJ Women Black Belts", Jiu Jitsu Legacy, 23 December 2022.(opens in a new tab)

    • Jiu Jitsu Legacy's list of the first twelve women outside Brazil to reach black belt places Oh sixth, promoted in 2005 by Jean Jacques Machado, and lists her as American. The same list names Cindy Omatsu (2002) as the first.

      Where in the source: Nummerert liste med prosaavsnitt, punkt «6. Felicia Oh» (promotert av Jean Jacques Machado, 2005, amerikansk); punkt «1. Cindy Omatsu» (2002).

      Accessed:

  • Staff Reports, "'Oh' snap! Inside Province woman's hall of fame martial arts career", inMaricopa, 8 September 2024.(opens in a new tab)

    • A photograph in the article shows Oh competing for the United States and winning gold at the FILA Grappling World Championships in Antalya, Turkey, at the 2007 World Wrestling Games.

      Where in the source: Bildetekst, to steder i artikkelen: "representing the U.S.A., wins the Gold Medal at the FILA Grappling World Championships in Antalya, Turkey"

      Accessed:

    • Oh, a Seattle native, took a master's degree in fine arts at UCLA, began her working life in computing, moved into broadcast graphic design and in 1997 helped start the digital media department at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

      Where in the source: Avsnitt 4: "A Seattle native ... helping start the digital media department at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in 1997"

      Accessed:

    • Oh trained as a gymnast until she hurt her back and gave the sport up at fifteen, and has said it took her thirty-three years to find a sport that suited her mind and her body. Looking back, she credits gymnastics with teaching her to work hard and stay focused for the love of the thing.

      Where in the source: Sitatblokk nær toppen: "It took me 33 years to find the sport that made sense for my brain and my body" + "a gymnast prior to hurting her back and dropping the sport at age 15"

      Accessed:

    • Oh entered the 2000 Los Angeles Marathon because she wanted a medal with the year 2000 on it, and ran it in what the article calls a nightmare storm. Later that year she was rock climbing when a place opened on a trip up Mount Whitney.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «A new option»: "She entered the Los Angeles Marathon because she wanted a medal that said 2000 on it, but a 'nightmare storm' engulfed that event"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said the friend's husband described a sport that was fighting but without kicking or hitting, and that at the time she only understood fighting as karate or boxing. In the hotel the night before the climb he showed her the positions. After watching a single class she signed up the next day, ignoring that she was the only woman in the room, and said she simply kept showing up and getting beaten up.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «A new option»: "He said it was fighting but no kicking or hitting" og "I started learning. I just kept showing up and getting beat up"

      Accessed:

    • Jiu-jitsu began as a two-days-a-week hobby. Oh entered her first tournament after six months and finished second, added a training day, and after another good tournament said it simply took over her life: more days, then twice and three times a day, always pushing and expecting more.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «A new option», nest siste avsnitt: "Her involvement started as a two-days-a-week hobby" og "it just sort of took over my life"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said that when she started competing it was sometimes hard to get matches at all because there were so few women competing, and that she was of the school of taking whatever the opponent gave her.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «Battling the best»: "it was sometimes difficult to book matches due to a lack of female competitors" + "whatever presents itself, I will try to capitalize on"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said she never wanted to be a teacher but ended up teaching whatever she did, and that coaching is in some ways harder than competing — like playing a video game with the controller unplugged, since she is more nervous watching friends and students than she was competing herself. She coached a wrestler who won a Division I scholarship to CSU Bakersfield and is now a high-school coach, one of whose athletes had been her own student at the age of six.

      Where in the source: Avsnittene etter «Oh, a Masters Hall of Fame inductee»: "I never wanted to be a teacher" og "It's like playing a video game and the controller is not connected"

      Accessed:

    • Oh lives in the Province community in Maricopa, Arizona, and coaches Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts and wrestling there. She spent seven years as an inspector for the California State Athletic Commission, a job she likened to being a fight cop, and then became a professional mixed martial arts judge. She had judged a blue belt event at a California casino in 2002 where a riot broke out and the show was shut down, and has said she swore never to judge again — then sat down in a judging course twenty years and one month later. She works mostly in California, is also licensed in Arizona and has judged at the Wild Horse Pass Hotel and Casino in Chandler.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet «New challenges»: "Oh compared the role to a 'fight cop'" og "Twenty years and one month later, I'm sitting in a judging course again"

      Accessed:

    • Oh started interviewing mixed martial arts fighters as early as 2002, which led to further journalism including a podcast on Grapple TV with conversations at events. She has said that before jiu-jitsu she thought cage fighting was crazy, but came to see it as a sport rather than a fight to the death, and as a specialised hybrid of three or four different sports.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet etter «Battling the best»: "As early as 2002, she started interviewing MMA fighters" og "Before jiu-jitsu, I thought cage fighting was crazy"

      Accessed:

    • Looking back on twenty-four years in jiu-jitsu and related sports, Oh said she was grateful, that she had learned to be open to opportunities and to say yes when they came, and that she sometimes has to pinch herself over what she gets to do and whom she gets to meet. Asked what came next, she said she is not a good planner and looks only one or two steps ahead, much as she did in jiu-jitsu.

      Where in the source: De to siste sitatblokkene i artikkelen: "I learned to be open to opportunities, to step up and say yes when they present themselves" og "I just look one or two steps ahead, kind of like I did in jiu-jitsu"

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Heroes, "Felicia Oh" (reference work, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Under Jean Jacques Machado, Oh worked through every belt and reached black belt in June 2005, at the age of 37.

      Where in the source: Biografiavsnittet: "reaching her black belt on June 2005, at the age of 37"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes lists Oh's team affiliation as Machado Jiu Jitsu and her competitive weight class as featherweight (peso pena).

      Where in the source: Faktaboksen over biografien: "Team/Association: Machado Jiu Jitsu" og "Weight Division: Peso Pena"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes counts Oh as the sixth woman outside Brazil, and the fifth in the United States, to reach black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

      Where in the source: Ingressen over overskriften «Felicia Oh Jiu Jitsu», setningen om Dirty Dozen: «6th woman outside Brazil»; USA-plasseringen står i parentes i samme setning.

      Accessed:

    • Oh was born in Seattle and grew up there, then moved to Los Angeles for graduate school at UCLA and stayed on.

      Where in the source: Biografiens første setning: "born on December 13, 1967 in Seattle, Washington ... moving to Los Angeles for graduate school at UCLA"

      Accessed:

    • Oh walked into Jean Jacques Machado's academy in Tarzana in November 2000 and signed up. Sílvio "Silverado" Pimenta taught her in the beginners' class in the early days, before she had the confidence to go to the advanced class Machado taught himself.

      Where in the source: Biografiavsnitt 2: "Sílvio 'Silverado' Pimenta was the beginners instructor who taught Felicia in the early days, before she had the confidence to attended the 'Advanced' class that Jean Jacques taught"

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes calls 2007 Oh's best competitive year: she won the Pan American title in both gi and no-gi, placed second at the No-Gi World Championship and reached the ADCC final, beating Letícia Ribeiro and Megumi Fujii on the way, at the age of 39.

      Where in the source: Biografiavsnittet om 2007: "defeating two legends on her way to the podium, Letícia Ribeiro and Megumi Fujii. All this at the age of 39"

      Accessed:

    • By the end of 2007 Oh had contracted Epstein-Barr virus, and chronic fatigue made training hard. She pushed through for two years before deciding to stop, and returned to the mats in 2014 to compete at the IBJJF World Masters; the pleasure of being back led her to resume training for good.

      Where in the source: Siste biografiavsnitt: "By the end of 2007 Felicia found that she had contracted a viral infection (Epstein-Barr)" og "In 2014 Oh returned to the mats to compete at the World Masters (IBJJF)"

      Accessed:

    • Oh was an active jiu-jitsu journalist through the 2000s. She began writing for the ADCombat website, run by the ADCC, and through her friendship with Kenny Jewel became the face of GrappleTV at the start of the company's video venture around 2004 and 2005. She spent two years in front of the camera interviewing well-known names on the California grappling scene, and when she relocated around 2007 she left the job to Cindy Omatsu.

      Where in the source: Biografiavsnitt 4: "She began her career writing for the ADCombat website (owned by the ADCC organization)" og "leaving the job in the hands of Cindy Omatsu"

      Accessed:

    • While at Machado's academy Oh also trained with Eddie Bravo, from about 2003 to 2007, reaching the brown belt level in his 10th Planet method. Her lineage runs Mitsuyo Maeda to Carlos Gracie Sr, Carlos Gracie Jr, Jean Jacques Machado and then Oh.

      Where in the source: Faktaboksens «Lineage»-rad og biografiavsnitt 3: "Oh also trained with Eddie Bravo (from around 2003-2007) reaching the brown belt/rashguard level in his method – 10th Planet"

      Accessed:

  • "Black Belt Corner with Felicia Oh", BJJ For Women (poweredbyshe.com), 7 November 2014.(opens in a new tab)

    • Oh has said she started training at 33 and received her black belt from Jean Jacques Machado after four and a half years.

      Where in the source: Svar 1: "I started training when I was 33 years old" og "I received my black belt from Jean Jacques Machado after training for 4.5 years"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has described herself as someone who loved sport and worked hard at it without being good at any of it: she made the gymnastics team without being much good, and she made the junior varsity basketball squad but never got on court.

      Where in the source: Svar 1: "I had done lots of different sports growing up but I wasn't really good at any of them" og JV-basketball-setningen rett etter

      Accessed:

    • In Oh's own account, 2000 was an unusually bad year outdoors: the Los Angeles Marathon turned awful, and in October a last-minute climb on Mount Whitney ended in a storm without reaching the summit. Her friend's husband told her about jiu-jitsu on the drive up; on the unpleasant drive home she decided an indoor activity might be a good change, and the following week she watched a class at Jean Jacques Machado's academy and signed up.

      Where in the source: Svar 1, andre avsnitt: "In 2000, I had an unusually bad outdoor year ... My friend's husband told me about BJJ on our drive up so on the unpleasant drive home, I decided that an indoor activity might be a good change"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said there was no moment of revelation in her first class — she signed up for a class and went to learn — and that two sessions a week turned into three, then four, and so on.

      Where in the source: Svar 1, tredje avsnitt: "it wasn't like I did my first class, and thought 'Wow! I've found a great sport'" og "the 2 days a week turned into 3, into 4"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said she won the ADCC North American trials in 2006 and with it her place at the ADCC, where she finished second after beating two seasoned veterans of women's jiu-jitsu. Later she contracted Epstein-Barr virus and has been troubled by health and fatigue problems since. She competed a few more times and had begun training for mixed martial arts, but could not train at the level competition required; she saw several doctors without getting answers, and this pushed her to shift her focus from training to teaching.

      Where in the source: Svar 1, femte og sjette avsnitt: "In 2006, I won the ADCC North American Trials, and my spot at ADCC" og "I've gone to different doctors but haven't found any answers"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said that after 2009 she was essentially finished with competing and training and only taught, and that fatigue kept her from doing anything for three years, with odd injuries appearing whenever she tried to roll or run. She started running again a few weeks before signing up for the 2014 IBJJF World Masters, expecting nobody her age to enter; another woman, Sue Ausman, had signed up, so she put her gi on and trained. At 46 she won gold after a few weeks of training, and said the masters event had grown enormously and that thirty is not past your prime.

      Where in the source: Svar 2: "After 2009 I was pretty much done with competing, and training. I only taught" og "But there was another woman, Sue Ausman, signed up so I put my gi on, and started training!"

      Accessed:

    • In the comment thread under the interview, a commenter posting as Sue Ausman thanked Oh for the match and said it was good to face someone close to her own age and as talented, and invited her to visit. A reply posted as Felicia Oh called Ausman an inspiration to many women and said it was the first time she had fought someone even close to her own age and size.

      Where in the source: Kommentarfeltet nederst, de to første innleggene, datert 9. og 11. november 2014

      Accessed:

    • Oh has said she never expected to enjoy teaching and coaching children, that it was never something she was interested in, and that in 2014 she was helping start the wrestling programme at Valencia High School — the first in the Santa Clarita Valley since the district cut back its sports programme in 1977.

      Where in the source: Svar 1, nest siste avsnitt: "I am helping to start the Valencia High School Wrestling program, the first one in the Santa Clarita Valley since they cut back their sports program in 1977"

      Accessed:

  • "Felicia Oh Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu", USAdojo.com. Site date 8 July 2007; the page has been updated since.(opens in a new tab)

    • Oh was born in Seattle on 13 December 1967 and grew up there before moving to Los Angeles for graduate school at UCLA.

      Where in the source: Første setning i biografien: "born on December 13, 1967 in Seattle, Washington and grew up there"

      Accessed:

    • USAdojo's list of Oh's titles runs from Grappling Games 2001 through the California State Championships in 2002, the U.S. Open, Pan American No-Gi and Copa Pacifica in 2003, Grapplers Quest and Pan American Games of Submission Grappling titles in 2004 and 2005, the US Open absolute and the ADCC North American trials at 55 kg in 2006, both Pan American black belt titles and the ADCC final in 2007, and FILA grappling world titles in 2007 and 2009.

      Where in the source: Listen «Felicia Oh Titles», fra "2009 FILA Grappling World Champion – No-Gi" ned til "Grappling Games 2001 – Champion"

      Accessed:

    • In 2007 Oh became the first woman to win both the Pan American black belt gi and no-gi divisions.

      Where in the source: Biografiavsnitt 4: "In 2007, Felicia became the first woman to win both the Pan American Jiu Jitsu Black Belt Gi and No-Gi divisions"

      Accessed:

    • Oh has taught women's submission grappling and fitness classes at Big John McCarthy's Ultimate Training Academy in Valencia, California, and at M3 Fight and Fitness in Montrose, has been a guest instructor on Jean Jacques Machado's online training programme and an assistant coach for the academy's fight team, and teaches at Otis College of Art and Design. In her teaching she stresses improvement of the whole person — physical, psychological, emotional and technical — in the safest and most effective way, holding that the competition is ultimately with yourself.

      Where in the source: Avsnittene om undervisning: "Felicia currently teaches Women's Submission Grappling as well as Ultimate Fitness classes" og "the competition is ultimately with yourself"

      Accessed:

  • Matt Crosson (Signal staff writer), "Felicia Oh: Black Belt Belt Grapples With Success", USAdojo.com.(opens in a new tab)

    • Oh is 5 feet 1 inch tall and had done cross country, track, baseball and gymnastics before grappling. She was drawn to the idea that someone her size could neutralise a much larger opponent with technique, and said she had been better at this than at any other sport she had played.

      Where in the source: Midt i artikkelen: "Standing 5 feet 1 inch, Oh was intrigued by the notion that a person her size could neutralize a much larger individual" + "I've been better at this than any of the other sports I've played"

      Accessed:

    • Oh competed at a Grappling Games event in June 2001, six months after she started, and won her first match. She has recalled being excited and then realising she had only a few minutes' rest before having to fight again. She lost the second match, and in her second event took the white belt gi division and was runner-up in no-gi.

      Where in the source: Avsnittene om første stevne: "Competing in a Grappling Games event in June 2001, just six months after she started training, Oh won her first fight" + sitatet om å måtte kjempe igjen

      Accessed:

    • Oh tore a cruciate ligament in a jiu-jitsu match in 2002, on top of concussions, back and neck injuries and eye gouges, and returned to win five titles in 2003, among them the U.S. Open and the Copa Pacifica. In 2007 she was Pan American black belt champion, runner-up at the ADCC championships and winner of the Grappling World Team Trials, which took her to the world wrestling games in Antalya, Turkey, that September.

      Where in the source: Avsnittene «But through success comes adversity» og avsnittet om 2007-resultatene: "Oh tore her ACL in a jiu-jitsu match in 2002" / "the World Wrestling Games in Atalya, Turkey in September"

      Accessed:

    • At the ADCC championships Oh beat the Japanese grappler Megumi Fujii in the semi-final by rear naked choke, a match she said people had really been looking forward to.

      Where in the source: Avsnittet etter 2007-resultatene: "Oh beat highly-touted Japanese grappler Megumi Fuji in the semifinals via submission by a rear-naked choke"

      Accessed:

    • Oh had taught ground combat at Big John McCarthy's Ultimate Training Academy in Valencia since it opened in September 2006, along with kettlebell and women's jiu-jitsu classes. A fellow instructor, the kickboxer Hector Pena, said he would not roll with her because she would embarrass him. The academy's owner, the referee John McCarthy, called her one of the top three in the world and a dynamic instructor. Oh was inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame on 11 August that year in Costa Mesa alongside Randy Couture and Dana White, and said she was speechless and that it was a surprise and a big honour. She also said the sport was in its infancy, that the rise of the UFC had made it easier to explain what she did, and that men respect technique when they see it — and that if they do not, she simply will not roll with them.

      Where in the source: Sitatene gjennom artikkelen: "She'd embarrass me. She'll make you squeal" (Pena), "one of the top three in the world" (McCarthy), "Guys respect technique when they see it"

      Accessed:

  • "2007 ADCC Championships", Tapology (event page).(opens in a new tab)

    • The 2007 ADCC Championships were held on 4 May 2007 at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey. In the women's 121 lb championship bout Sayaka Shioda beat Felicia Oh.

      Where in the source: Arrangementshodet: "MAY 4, 2007 / Abu Dhabi Combat Club / Trenton, New Jersey" + "Venue: Sovereign Bank Arena"; i kampkortet raden "ADCC Championship — W Sayaka Shioda / L Felicia Oh — MAIN CARD 121"

      Accessed:

  • "Felicia Oh: Started BJJ at 33, Became a Black Belt Under TWO Legends | EP 51", The Ageless Warrior Lab, Apple Podcasts, 5 August 2026.(opens in a new tab)

    • A podcast episode published in August 2026 presents Oh as a black belt under both Jean Jacques Machado and Eddie Bravo — a distinction the episode describes as rare — and says the conversation covers training as a small woman in the male-dominated early days of the sport, competing at the ADCC and the FILA world championships, the camaraderie among the pioneering Dirty Dozen women, adapting her game through injuries and Epstein-Barr virus, and her work as an inspector and judge for the state athletic commission.

      Where in the source: Programsiden for «The Ageless Warrior Lab»; episodelista, EP 51 «Felicia Oh: Started BJJ at 33, Became a Black Belt Under TWO Legends», utgitt 5. august 2026

      Accessed:

  • "PODCAST: Felicia Oh at Bellingham BJJ", Dirty White Belt Radio, 23 June 2019 (episode description).(opens in a new tab)

    • A 2019 podcast episode recorded at Bellingham BJJ presents Oh as a masters world champion and ADCC silver medallist whose entry into the art involved the Y2K scare, the Los Angeles Marathon and Rudy Fischmann, and says the conversation covers training with Jean-Jacques Machado and Eddie Bravo, how 10th Planet came about, starting at thirty-three, competing against Letícia Ribeiro and Megumi Fujii, and nearly having to leave the sport because of chronic fatigue.

      Where in the source: Episodeomtalen på innleggssiden, datert 23. juni 2019: "her origin story in the art involves the Y2K scare, the LA Marathon and Rudy Fischmann"

      Accessed:

Competition results

Recorded tournament results, newest first
YearEventResultDivision
2007ADCC 2007Source: adcombat.com-55 kgNo-giVerified2nd place-55 kgNo-giVerified

Lineage

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