While the combat sports world may know her best as the 2025 ADCC East Coast Trials champion, Maia Matalon has worn a lot of hats in her lifetime: she’s been a firefighter, a paramedic, a dedicated toddler mom, and of course, an established grappling coach in her own right.
“I find the intersection between intense physical exertion and mental performance to be the best challenge,” Matalon tells me. “It is always hard to perform under pressure and a constant process of refining to try to achieve my best results.”
It’s the same passion for honing that mind-body connection that made her a successful firefighter, prior to her return to grappling competition. Though her bunker gear days may be behind her, Matalon has always been a woman in motion; even as a teen, she wrestled competitively in high school, before eventually finding her way to jiu-jitsu.
“I was so lucky that California had girls’ wrestling opportunities way back in the 2000s, so I could start grappling in high school,” says Matalon. “I’ve seen Virginia go through the same process in the last few years — they just sanctioned girls’ wrestling — and it brings me such joy to see these young ladies get to challenge themselves on the mats.”
“Truly an excellent outlet for a moody teenager,” she adds cheekily, clearly speaking from experience. A self-described “nerdy kid” and lover of fantasy novels, for a young Matalon, wrestling was the closest approximation she could find to training like one of the warriors in the books she loved.
“I really love the total physical and mental concentration required by wrestling and grappling in general,” she explains. “Whether in practice or on the competition mats, once you start moving, everything else goes quiet; it’s the best escape!
“I also love the challenge that comes with real time performance against a resisting opponent. You practice and practice and then when the time comes to fight, there is still so much adrenaline and nerves around performance. Even all these years later I get nervous before every single match and for me that nervous energy is the most exciting.”
How were her nerves during her now-famous 2025 ADCC run?
“You know, it’s interesting because every single tournament is different,” muses Matalon. “At East Coast Trials, I was, for whatever reason, really calm. I took it one match at a time, and I managed to stay really in the moment. I knew my match with Joslyn [Molina] would be a scrap, and I was prepared to go the distance. I thought I could win, but I didn’t get too committed to any one outcome, just to doing my best, which I think really allowed me to perform!
“There is a photo of me right before the finals where I am pressing my hands into the mat. In that moment, I was promising myself to leave it all on the mats, committing to being proud of my results, as long as I fought my best.”
Her commitment to that mindset paid off. Matalon would go on to defeat several major contenders — including fellow fox and record-breaking teen phenom Joslyn Molina — to claim the East Coast Trials heavyweight crown. A few months later, she’d make a highly competitive podium at IBJJF No-Gi Worlds, completing her 2025 season with a bronze medal finish in the adult super heavyweight black belt division.
While some may express surprise at the prospect of a 37-year-old toddler mom defeating up-and-coming young guns in their twenties to claim major adult-level podium finishes, for Matalon, it’s par for the course.
“I think, as women, we have a great advantage where we don’t have the huge testosterone drop that men face in their thirties, so we can keep performing at a high level,” she explains. “Believe in yourself, and you can get it done! Having said all that, I did have my jiu-jitsu bum era in my early twenties, where all I cared about was training and competing. I got my black belt at 28, when I was still competing in the adult divisions, so I think my experience would be different if I started jiu-jitsu at 30 and tried to compete at adult.”
While she may regularly face off against younger athletes, Matalon’s also mindful of the conditioning and recovery process a thirty-something body requires. “I treat myself as a masters athlete,” she shares frankly. “I may compete with the young’uns, but I train four to five times a week, max, prioritize strength training and sleep — as much as I can as a mom — and compete occasionally, not every weekend. And after a competition, you better believe I take some days off!”
She’s also quick to credit the advantages of a well-considered strength training program. “I have to shout out my strength and conditioning coach Asim Fayyaz of Nova Barbell Club. While I have definitely made technical gains in the last few years, my greatest improvement has been in strength and stability, which allows me to train more and perform better.”
As a well-established coach and instructor in her own right, Matalon enjoys passing on her own hard-earned lessons to the next generation of competitive grapplers, particularly young female athletes.
“When it comes to mentoring our female competitors, I take an active role by doing goal-setting and encouraging our ladies to get out there and give competition a try,” says Matalon. For her, remaining an active athlete herself is a fundamental part of how she connects with her students.
“I want to start by talking about the rewards of being both a coach and competitor because those are significant!” she elaborates. “I think as we get older, it is the natural order of things to shift into a mentorship role, but to get to do that while I’m still a ‘doer’ is really satisfying. Getting to do training camp alongside my athletes, or medalling at an IBJJF together is really special. [...] I think watching tape for my athletes’ divisions, studying the rule books, and helping them set their training schedule and game plan for their opponents has made me a better athlete and martial artist.”
Matalon is particularly proud of the thriving women’s team at her home gym, High Noon BJJ, which she co-runs with her partner and husband, fellow black belt professor Tim Dawson: “I want to start by giving Tim his flowers: he started High Noon before we were together, and he had female black belts teaching co-ed classes from day one!”
What’s the High Noon secret sauce for consistently producing high-level female practitioners in a male-dominated sport?
“We take a specific approach at High Noon: we do not have any women’s classes on our schedule, but we really take care to make sure female students feel like they will be treated with respect and as equal members of our community,” Matalon tells me. “We currently have four female black belts teaching our adult programs — two for jiu jitsu and two for judo — not to mention lower-ranked instructors in all our kids’ programs, so I think presence and leadership has been really important while growing the team.”
Matalon also credits Dawson with setting a strong example for other men on the mats, particularly when it comes to their treatment of female teammates. “Tim has a zero tolerance policy for sexism or disrespect toward teammates,”she says of her partner. “I’ve watched him literally same day terminate a membership of a man who tried to say that he was too good to train with female training partners, and demand an apology from another guy who rolled into one of our lady black belts at an open mat and then tried to laugh it off.
“I am frequently reminding the guys that it’s not okay to make the small women constantly have to move out of their way in a crowded training session — it’s a personal pet peeve of mine when my 115-pound competitors have to interrupt their training just to make sure they don’t get injured by giant falling men. I’ll go so far as to cone off a corner of the mats, if I really want them to get uninterrupted training.”
High Noon is also, however, the last place where female athletes should expect kid glove treatment. Everyone on the mat is down to scrap, regardless of gender.
“We all wrestle at High Noon!” Matalon shares. “Our competitors practice stand-up at every single [class], so all our ladies are at least competent on the feet. We don’t all do crazy mat returns — like my purple belt light-featherweight ‘tiny terror’ and fellow Gaidama athlete Emily! — but I think confidence in the open phase leads to dominance in matches.”
“In addition to helping promising competitors, I really love every time I can get a fellow mom into training,” adds Matalon, who has a particular affection for her fellow “fighter moms.”
“Jiu-jitsu moms are my favorite, and I think there are so many great ways to be in that role: competitor, hobbyist, the awesome moms over at Joan of D’Arce who started a women’s-only tournament, and of course Kendall [Vernon], jiu jitsu mom and Gaidama owner.”
That said, Matalon understands the challenges of negotiating motherhood with the siren call of the mats better than most. “Not everybody knows this, but I’ve had two main periods of jiu-jitsu competition: one as a colored belt competitor that ended in 2015 when I won brown belt gi worlds with a torn ACL, then a long pause where I had three back-to-back ACL reconstructions, joined the fire department, became a mom — and then a second period starting in 2022, soon after I had my daughter.
“For me, there were the obvious challenges with regaining strength and conditioning, but also I had to adjust to the huge change where even when preparing for a big event, or on tournament day itself, it can’t only be about me and my perfect competition day.”
When it comes to balancing obligations as athlete, coach, and parent, Matalon is careful to manage her priorities: “There are a couple ways I manage the push pull between competing and family [and] gym life, and it’s constantly evolving.”
“First, I only commit to events that I both want to do and think I can train for without putting our family in a state of too much stress,” she says. “I don’t always get this perfect, but it means that I say ‘no’ more than I would as a competitor without a family. I can’t travel to every ADCC Open around the country, for financial — it’s a lot more expensive to fly the whole family — and time reasons, and that’s okay.
“Second, I ask for help. Tim and I have gotten really good at saying ‘I need to go offline’ when we’re the competitor, and the other parent steps in and takes care of the four-year-old and the tournament coordination. Tim literally had to drag me to the venue on day two of East Coast Trials, I was so relaxed and out of it, but another way to look at that is that I completely trusted him to take care of time management.”
“I’m also lucky to have really supportive parents who will come along and take care of [our daughter] Diana at big events so I can focus,” adds Matalon. “We have some great babysitters who come to the gym and hang out with Diana, so that I can train without distraction, and without constantly parking her in front of a screen.”
For all its difficulties, fighter mom life has also granted Matalon the invaluable gift of perspective. “Having a family means that my self esteem is not only based on my tournament results,” says Matalon. “Being a good mom, partner, and coach is more important to me than any gold medal.”
“Instead of feeling guilty for pursuing my goals, I remind myself that Diana is learning that she can be strong, and successful,” Matalon adds. “[My daughter learns] that Mommy frequently exercises — even when I don’t feel like it! — and that her future romantic partner should support her goals and celebrate her success. These are powerful lessons for a little lady.”
Want to channel your inner Maia Matalon? Rock the fan favorite Gaidama “ninja suit” rashguard at your next open mat.