You very rarely see men and women compete in mixed gender divisions in BJJ competitions. This is for the simple reason that the difference in strength is tremendous.

It can be argued that the average adult woman BJJ athlete has the equivalent strength of a 13 year old boy.

In a grappling tournament that happened a few years ago in Holland, Megan van Houtum from Gracie Barra Netherlands entered the mens division and did extremely, winning all three matches with flying colors. She showed great takedown skills and powerful submissions on the ground:

Woman Wins Men’s Division in Local BJJ Tournament

Even ultra successful BJJ competitor and instructor Tom DeBlass has lost to a girl back he was a 13 year old 7th grader in middle school.

He told the story:

“Fun fact.
When I was in 7th grade my friends convinced me to join the school wrestling team. When I say I was terrible, I was terrible.
One wrestling dual there was an opening at a weights class above me, the opponents name was “Christina”. Yes, my opponent was a girl.
She beat my a$$. Mid way through the domination she whispered in my ear, “i bet you never thought you’d lose to a girl did you?” 😂😂
If I would have went back to school the following week and claimed one day the entire Jiu-Jitsu World would know my name, I would have gotten laughed out of school. I literally got made fun of for months. I didn’t wrestle after that season, I found track & field and became one of the best in the state. I found Jiu-Jitsu at 19 and the rest is history.
The only thing I didn’t do was believe the negative things people said about me. I always believed I could leave my mark in this world.
Btw, I just secured my 50th affilate, this one in North Dakota, “Peace Garden Grappling Club.”
Stay resilient folks.”

DeBlass bounced back and the rest is history.