Starting martial arts at 3 years old, then Brazilian jiu-jitsu at 8, before deciding at 14 that grappling was going to be her career, isn’t a typical path for any athlete, but Helena Crevar tends to break the mold with whatever she’s doing.
As one of the most highly touted Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylists in the world already, the now 18-year-old prodigy is preparing to make her ONE Championship debut on Friday at ONE Fight Night with designs to add even more championship accolades to her roster before 2026 is over. It’s tough to believe someone this young has their future so mapped out, but Crevar knew long before she was even old enough to drive that this is what she wanted.
“I think it was probably around age 14, 15 that I really wanted to pursue that,” Crevar told MMA Fighting. “When I started competing in super fights, and things like that, around 14 was my first instructional and my first seminar. Around that age, I knew that this is what I wanted to do.
“I would find ways to make money from that. But really, the sport has grown a lot, and a lot of people — now you can make money from seminars, instructionals, sponsors, and competing. So it definitely is really cool seeing the sport grow so much.”
While it’s not unusual for high-level athletes to put everything into a hope and a dream that professional sports could be their future, Crevar was determined to become the best grappler the world has ever known — and there’s definitely no guarantee of financial stability coming from those competitions.
But Crevar credits her parents for always showing her support, even when she started pursuing this crazy dream several years ago.
“They’ve always been very supportive of me,” Crevar said. “They always took me to training, giving me options to try different things out, and when it was jiu-jitsu that I liked, they were just very supportive and supportive of me moving to Texas to train with the team.
“We were already planning to move to somewhere around Texas, so getting the opportunity to train with the team just made it a lot easier for us. They were definitely happy for me to continue to pursue that.”
The move to Texas coincided with Crevar training under famed coach John Danaher and arguably the greatest grappler of all-time in Gordon Ryan. That relationship spawned after Crevar purchased online instructionals to learn from them, but she ran into Ryan at a grappling event and immediately pitched him on the idea of working together.
“I originally met Gordon at an ADCC trials back in 2022,” Crevar explained. “I went to his seminar the night before the trials and just went up to him and introduced myself. I asked him if I could come train at New Wave sometime, just to try a couple of classes. He was really friendly about it. He said just to let him know, and I could come any time. So I actually hadn’t met John until we went to Texas to try a couple of classes, and that was the first time in that same year of 2022 that I met John, and me and my parents spoke to him for about an hour about my goals and about me. It was really an amazing first meeting.
“Even before I moved to train there, I had been buying John’s instructionals and watching Gordon’s matches. So I was already a huge fan of all their work. I had figured out just from his instructionals that he really was a genius and how much those would help me. But after I moved there and started training with them, I realized how much more I could learn in person from him. He’s always evolving techniques. Always finding new ways. It’s a remarkable thing.”
This all happened when Crevar was just 15, but her parents knew there was no going back, so her whole family relocated to Texas so she could train full-time under Danaher and Ryan.
Since then, she’s continued to evolve and elevate her game before eventually earning her black belt.
Crevar praised Danaher and Gordon as the best coaches for her career, and she appreciates that they’ve poured so much of their time and knowledge into her Brazilian jiu-jitsu education.
“I feel like I’m a whole different person from when I first joined,” Crevar said. “Honestly, even now, especially the last six months, I just feel a constant improvement in my game in all aspects. I feel like every week I’m adding something new, and I’m a lot better than the previous week.
“Just being surrounded by them and all their help, and of course, all of my teammates are really amazing. It’s really awesome to be able to train and feel so much improvement every day.”
Now, as she embarks on a very ambitious 2026 schedule, which includes bigger and more prestigious tournaments that wouldn’t allow her to compete until she was at least 18, Crevar promises she’s just getting started.
“[2025] was my first adult year, so there were a lot of things that I was finally able to do,” Crevar said. “Like compete in the adult divisions officially and just accomplish that. But this year, winning in ONE Championship is a big goal, possibly going for a title and continuing to rack up as many records as I can.”
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Crevar’s rise to fame is that even at her young age, she’s already becoming an inspiration to the next generation of athletes following in her footsteps.
Of course, that’s a lot of pressure to heap on anybody’s shoulders, but Crevar says she’s embraced it all, and she hopes more and more girls find their way to Brazilian jiu-jitsu gyms because of her.
“It’s definitely amazing,” Crevar said. “I’m really enjoying it. Like how people walk up to me at competitions or seminars or even randomly at grocery stores or airports, and people know who I am, it’s cool to just meet all these people. It’s really fun for me. I don’t feel pressure about it. I still can’t believe it’s happening, and I’m really grateful about it.
“I definitely appreciate it, especially with a lot of little girls coming wearing my outfits or my pigtails. It’s amazing to see. I was just that little girl three or four years ago. It’s humbling to see so many little kids coming up and looking up to me.”
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