Cerena madrid

My name is Cerena Madrid. I am a BJJ purple belt and have been doing jiu jitsu since May 2017. My martial arts journey started with wrestling at age 5. I was quickly mesmerized with the sport and continued training through high school along with other sports. After I graduated high school my husband took me to Dan Henderson’s gym, originally to train Muay Thai. I took a job as the front desk girl there to help us be able to train there and very quickly was pulled into jiu jitsu. After 2 weeks of jiu jitsu I did my first jiu jitsu tournament and brought home double gold. Being able to feel the exhilarating feeling of competing and winning again had me completely drawn in right away. I continued to train at Hendos through my blue belt until December 2019. I regularly competed nearly every weekend at any comp I could find. At the end of 2019 I graduated college and we moved to Arizona and began training at some smaller gyms in the area. In 2022 the opportunity to move came. We moved to Georgia and were training in Chattanooga where I began competing regularly again and received my purple belt. During this time I also began reffing tournaments and traveling around for more seminars and different level competitions. I also began helping coach women’s classes and my passion for building more women in the sport grew even stronger. 
In February of 2026 we had our 4th baby and started training at Dalton Combatives where we have quickly come to feel at home. Along with several comps I have begun helping with kids and women’s classes and found the deepest sense of community. In addition to my passion for my own training and competing, I have found a profound excitement of helping other learn and grow and experience the same sense of confidence, excitement and growth in this art as I have.