The gymnasium in Long Beach will see the classics come Saturday and Sunday.
The Jiu-Jitsu Worlds is the promise of great semifinals and finals in the men’s black belt division. Our editor Ivan Trindade isn’t sitting on the fence, as he’s already issued his predictions on the GRACIEMAG at the Worlds Blog.
However, in a number of divisions great matchups will unfold before they start counting for medals. At lightweight, for example, Kron Gracie and Leandro Lo may square off in the quarterfinals, while stalwart competitors Antonio Peinado and Bruno Bastos may face each other in the very second match at super heavyweight. The featherweight division is a true mine field, where big names risk going home without medals. Indeed, it looks like there isn’t much variance in difficulty level across the board.
To see it all yourself, click here to check out the brackets. But GRACIEMAG.com has made things easier for you by synthesizing some of the biggest names in each division and bracket:
Rooster
Bracket 1 – Bruno Malfacine and Felipe Costa
Bracket 2 – Rafael Freitas and Caio Terra
Light Feather
Bracket 1 – Gui Mendes, Laércio Fernandes, Daniel Beleza, Samuel Braga and Carlos Vieira Esquisito
Bracket 2 – Bernardo Pitel, Samir Chantre, Pablo Silva and Ary Farias
Feather
Bracket 1 – Rubens Cobrinha, Theodoro Canal, Eduardo Ramos and Wellington Megaton
Bracket 2 – Bruno Frazatto, Gabriel Willcox, Augusto Tanquinho and Renato Tavares, Christopher West
Bracket 3 – Rafa Mendes, Denílson Pimenta, Leonardo Saggioro and Justin Rader
Bracket 4 – Mario Reis, Oswaldo Queixinho and Marcelino Freitas
Light
Bracket 1 – Michael Langhi, Carlos Eduardo “Português”, Davi Ramos, Baret Yoshida and Philipe Della Monica
Bracket 2 – Leandro Lo, Kron Gracie and Rafael Formiga
Bracket 3 – Lucas Lepri, Gilber Durinho and Rodrigo Simões
Bracket 4 – Celso Venícius, Jonathan Torres and Zak Maxwell
Middle
Bracket 1 – Marcelo Garcia, Vitor Henrique and Victor Estima
Bracket 2 – Guto Campos and Daniel Garcia
Bracket 3 – Claudio Calasans, Clark Gracie and Murilo Santana
Bracket 4 – Rodrigo Caporal, Lucas Leite and Vinícius Dornelles
Medium heavy
Bracket 1 – Rômulo Barral, Eduardo Telles and Ian McPherson
Bracket 2 – Eduardo Santoro and Marco Antonio Giudice
Bracket 3 – Sérgio Moraes, Benjamin Ross Bax, Diego Gamonal and Eduardo Zanetti
Bracket 4 – Otávio de Souza.
Heavy
Bracket 1 – Bernardo Augusto and Roberto Tussa
Bracket 2 – Gybson Sá, Rodolfo Vieira, Giovanne Guedes, Renan Vital, Alexandro Ceconi, Rafael Lovato and Fernando Jose.
Super Heavy
Bracket 1 – Antonio Peinado, Bruno Bastos, Marcus Bochecha, Ricardo Abreu and Leonardo Nogueira
Ultraheavy
Bracket 1 – Roberto Cyborg, Ricardo Pantcho, Stephen Hall, Antonio Braga Neto, Marcio Pé de Pano, Fabiano Pega Leve and Rodrigo Cavaca