Lily Houben

Junior MMA World Champion | BJJ Purplebelt World Champion | Sambo Worlds Bronze Medalist

Lily has been a life-long Jiu Jitsu enthusiast, inspired by her father Carl Houben. Initially doing BJJ as a form of exercise and a way to spend time with Dad, Lily started to accumulate competitive experience - and then national championships.

Awarded her Bluebelt in 2023, Lily went on to have an incredible BJJ season in 2024 where she finished up in the #1 spots for NZ Grappler's Juvenile & Adults BJJ Bluebelt Womens rankings. She then took out the Pan Pacific Championships grandslam, winning Gold in the Gi & Nogi Weight Divisions as well as the Gi & Nogi Open Weights.

Lily then followed up with an incredible start to the 2025 season when she travelled to Uzbekistan to train & compete in the Asia-Oceania Sambo Championships, where she won the gold medal in the Junior (under 21 yrs) Sport Sambo division.

In the later half of 2025, Lily had one of the most incredible sports performances that we've had, where she attended 3x world championships across 3x different martial arts codes and finished on the podium at all three, winning gold at the SJJIF World Champs in the Purple belt division, an NZ-first Bronze at the Junior Sambo World Championships and then making history again winning gold at the UWW Amateur MMA Junior World Championships in Greece.

We look forward to watching this young Wahine Toa continue to grow and excel. Lily can be found most nights of the week assistant coaching the Youth BJJ team.

• UWW Junior MMA World Champion (Loutraki Greece 2025)
• SJJIF Purplebelt Womens BJJ 3x World Champion (Tokyo 2025, Nogi u80 + Open Weight, Gi u80)
• Sambo FIAS Youth & Junior World Champs Bronze Medalist (Indonesia 2025)
• Sport Sambo Junior Asia & Oceania Champion (Uzbekistan 2025)
• Pan-Pacific BJJ Bluebelt Champion x4 (Gi Weight + Open, Nogi Weight + Open, Melbourne 2024)
• NZ Grappler #1 Season Points (Juvenile + Adults BJJ Bluebelt 2024)