Generally speaking, in the cage, Izzy is serious to a fault; she doesn’t particularly enjoy the promotion side of things, she’s not particularly fan friendly or engaging. She wants to get in, fight, and get out. Interviews and such, she’s very much all business--it’s when she gets away from fighting that she’s much more of a personable type.

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Born in Sao Paulo, but raised in Campinas, Brazil, Alessandra Azevedo was supposed to be a nice, “normal” girl that her parents wanted her to be.

 

But that didn’t exactly pan out.

 

From a young age, she was a tomboy, and more than a little rebellious, and her attitude was seen as “unfit for a girl” by her father, particularly. Every hobby she developed in her younger years, her parents didn’t agree with; she didn’t initially want to be a martial artist--her first love was football, which she would sneak out of the house to play with some of the boys in her neighborhood. She had dreams of wearing the yellow shirt for Brazil in the World Cup, but with no professional league and no team to be scouted from, it was little more than a pipe dream for her.

 

When her parents caught her sneaking back into the house, it was the end of whatever football dream she may have still held. It wasn’t the end of the rebellious streak in the young woman, though--with her hobby taken from her, she found other outlets, both positive and negative. At one point in her early teens, she got involved with drugs and what she would later describe as “a bad crowd;” violence escalated between herself and a few of her new “friends,” and by sheer coincidence, the fight was broken up by a passer-by, who escorted the young woman home and advised her to learn to defend herself.

 

So she did.

 

In secret, at first, then with her parents (begrudging) approval, Azevedo began training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Gracie Barra in Campinas. It served three distinct purposes for Azevedo: first, it gave her a hobby, something she was almost desperate for by this point in her life; second, it kept her off the streets, and away from the drugs and “bad crowd” she had attracted; and third, it helped her defend herself in an increasingly violent area.

 

When she turned 18, she left Campinas and Gracie Barra as a blue belt, moving to Rio de Janeiro and joining Gracie Humaita instead. In seven years, she’s been promoted to Black Belt, and was dubbed “A Maravilha,” the marvel, for her ability to learn. During her time training with Gracie Humaita, she would also take up boxing, and eventually transition from BJJ competition to MMA, albeit as an amateur. Her record in Brazil is largely unconfirmed, though, and she comes to Union GP for her first fights as a professional.