Author: Anton Tabuena

Brackets and purses have been released for the 2024 IBJJF Crown. Here’s a preview and everything you need to know about the BJJ event.

While most professional grappling shows these days are held under no gi rules, the IBJJF will be hosting their premier pro event in the traditional kimono at the 2024 edition of “The Crown.”

The 2024 IBJJF Crown will happen on November 17, at the Walter Pyramid in Vegas. Much like the inaugural edition last year, they will host six tournaments in the gi, but this time they have doubled the size of competitors.

The full list of grapplers joining these 8-man tournaments includes three returning IBJJF Crown champions, and several other Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) champions. The brackets and prize money have also been released, and below is everything you need to know about the 2024 IBJJF Crown.

Prize Money

While the IBJJF has been criticized for asking competitors, including world champions, to pay high fees just to join their events, The Crown seems like a way for the BJJ institution to compete with all the professional grappling events popping up as of late.

With this being their major invite-only event, the IBJJF will be giving out a record high payout for them.

The 2023 edition had a total event payout of $150,000, with $15,000 prizes for the winner and $3,000 for second place. The 2024 IBJJF Crown will bump up the total prize pool to “over $250,000.” The purse breakdown is as follows:

• Champion: $20,000
• Second Place: $5,000
• Third Place: $3,000
• Fourth Place: $2,500

The promotion didn’t announce the rest of the purses, but there will still be over $67,000 left after those prizes, so each competitor will likely have some show money as well.

This isn’t big compared to other sports or the CJI prize that disrupted the whole sport. That said, it’s still good for jiu-jitsu standards and a welcome departure from the norm, where people actually spend money to compete in IBJJF.

Rules

With this being an IBJJF event, the card will of course be held under their traditional ruleset. Matches will be 10 minutes each, and for better or worse, it will all use IBJJF’s point system and advantages.

The four men’s divisions will be a condensed version of the typical IBJJF gi weight classes, with Featherweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight and Ultra-Heavyweight. The two women’s divisions will be at Lightweight and Openweight.

Opening rounds will happen simultaneously on two mats, then they will conclude the final tournament rounds on one main mat.

2024 IBJJF Crown Preview: Brackets and tournament favorites

Full brackets have been released for each of the weight classes.

Featherweight (70 kg/154 lbs)

Despite him normally competing at a lighter division, Diego Pato will likely still be the favorite to win this bracket. The five time BJJ world champ will look to add an IBJJF Crown to his resume that also includes a silver medal at ADCC 2024.

Pato will have an interesting opening match up against an older, 4-time no gi world champ in Osvaldo “Queixinho” Moizinho. His likely biggest challenge though is Kennedy Maciel, a former no gi world champ and ADCC silver medalist on the opposite side of the bracket.

Middleweight (82.3 kg/181 lbs)

Tainan Dalpra is a returning IBJJF Crown champion, and the BJJ star is going to be the favorite to win this one again. He might have the toughest draw here though, as he will likely have to go through the three toughest opponents in this bracket to defend that crown.

Gabriel Galvao is a live underdog, and Dalpra might have 2023 ADCC trials champion, Elijah Dorsey and no gi world champ Andy Murasaki waiting on the next rounds.

Heavyweight (94.3 kg/208 lbs)

The two tournament favorites are slotted on the opposite end of the brackets, with 2024 IBJJF world champ, Adam Wardzinski on one side, and 5-time world champ Gustavo Batista on the other.

They’re likely going to meet again in the finals, and while it could end up close and hard to predict, most of their previous matches were won by Batista.

Men’s Ultra-Heavyweight (Openweight)

Erich Munis is the reigning IBJJF Crown champ, and the four-time BJJ world champ is likely going to be the favorite to win it all again, especially with how the brackets are laid out.

The grapplers with the biggest chance of an upset are Gutemberg Pereira, and two ADCC bronze medalists in Roosevelt Sousa and Felipe Costa. That being said, Munis will only need to beat one of them to retain his crown, as all three are on the opposite side of the bracket.

Women’s Lightweight (64 kg/141 lbs)

Six-time BJJ world champion, Luiza Monteiro is the returning IBJJF Crown champ and tournament favorite here. The biggest test for her is WNO champ and ADCC silver medalist, Brianna Ste-Marie, but they’ve already faced off multiple times, with Monteiro winning most of the matches.

Women’s Super-Heavyweight (Openweight)

Gabi Pessanha, an eight-time world champ and dominant force in jiu-jitsu, will be a heavy favorite here. Nathiely De Jesus, who is also a decorated BJJ champion, will most likely run through her side of the bracket and meet her in the finals to look for an upset.

2024 IBJJF Crown: How To Watch, Live Stream, Start Time

The 2024 IBJJF Crown will happen on November 17, 2024 at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. It will be streamed live on FloGrappling starting at 3 p.m. ET.

Early matches will also be available for free on YouTube.

A standout from CJI is going from beating Luke Rockhold to a blue belt jiu-jitsu tournament.

Pat Downey, a champion wrestler that transitioned to Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), has almost exclusively faced big names in his grappling career. That’s about to change though, as his next jiu-jitsu tournament is already lined up.

Downey is going from facing black belt superstars like Nick Rodriguez, Gordon Ryan and Luke Rockhold, to random blue belts and hobbyists next.

Pat Downey Goes From Beating Luke Rockhold in CJI to IBJJF Blue Belts

As the US Open wrestling champion announced, he has signed up to compete at the 2024 IBJJF No Gi World Championships this December.

“I am upgrading,” Downey wrote as he goes from one stripe white belt after dominating Rockhold, to now competing at a colored belt division. “Best blue belt on (earth)!”

To calm a collective amount of older blue belt hobbyists and dads that were planning on flying to Las Vegas, Downey said he won’t be competing at the Masters division (age 30 and up).

“(I’m joining) Adult blue belt division. I’m not here to hurt old men like Jake Paul does lmfao,” the 32-year-old Downey wrote.

Many people naturally still criticized him for “sandbagging” and taking on beginners, but Downey has since defended his entry.

“Ed Ruth, one of the best NCAA wrestler EVER lost at this tournament multiple times as blue belt stfu,” Downey commented in response.

Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen via Imagn Content Services, LLC

IBJJF has outdated rules on belts and competitions

While the criticisms are valid, IBJJF is also partly to blame for situations like this. Even with Downey’s wrestling accolades and experience as a professional grappler, blue belt is the highest division he can compete in for IBJJF events.

The long running BJJ institution has a rule that grapplers need to spend a minimum time as a blue belt before they can compete at purple belt. Winning blue belt world championships like this one, would allow Downey to bypass that rule and compete as a purple belt earlier.

Downey of course wouldn’t be immune to sandbagging criticisms at purple belt either. So if he really just wanted more grappling experience, he could easily just join the various non-IBJJF events and ADCC opens as a professional.

As he was just starting his jiu-jitsu career, the NCAA Division I All-American beat BJJ star Nicky Rod in wrestling, then went 1-1 with Gordon Ryan in a predictable mixed rules exhibition. In 2020, he handily beat Ryan in seconds during the wrestling portion, before losing the no-time limit, submission-only ruleset that followed.

In 2024, under a full submission grappling ruleset, Downey most recently dominated former UFC champ Luke Rockhold at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) event.

Downey has since signed with Polaris to continue his pro grappling career. Ryan and Downey also recently agreed to another weird mixed rules match next, which may or may not happen.

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Decorated ADCC champion Marcelo Garcia is returning to competition in his forties.

After years of retirement and a transition to coaching, Marcelo Garcia is heading back to the mats as an active competitor again.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) star is known for his legendary ADCC runs in the 2000s, and ended up as a nine-time world champion across gi and no gi. Interestingly enough, Garcia is making a return to competition after more than a decade since his last match.

As announced on Monday, Garcia has signed a deal with ONE Championship.

Marcelo Garcia To Return To BJJ Competition After Beating Cancer

Garcia is turning 42 in January.

More than his age, what’s more surprising about this return is that he was previously diagnosed with stomach cancer. After multiple surgeries and months of chemo therapy, Garcia was eventually declared cancer free late in 2023.

He revealed that his final chemo therapy session was on September 7, 2023, and was back on the mats soon after.

Jiu-jitsu fans seem to have mixed emotions to the news, with elation on Garcia being fully healthy again, to worries about potential opponents or getting stuck in ONE Championship’s notoriously restrictive contracts.

Marcelo Garcia Got ‘Very Close’ To Facing Charles Oliveira at CJI

Prior to this signing, there were already mumblings about a return, with Marcelo Garcia admitting to have negotiated for a return at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational (CJI).

“We got very close,” Marcelo Garcia said about potentially returning with CJI. “Negotiations took a while, it took too long. Very close to the day, then I couldn’t concentrate anymore… I was not sure if I was going to fight or not, then we finished the negotiation.

“I will tell you the will to fight is still big,” Garcia added.

Craig Jones also confirmed these negotiations, saying that he tried to book Marcelo Garcia in a super-fight with a former UFC champion.

“I was trying to book Marcelo vs. Charles Oliveira,” Craig Jones revealed. “I think that would’ve been incredible.”

Negotiations didn’t materialize in time, but Jones previously said he hoped it can still happen at CJI 2 in 2025. With this news about Garcia’s ONE signing, it’s unclear if that could still be a possibility.

Marcelo Garcia’s legendary career

While Andre Galvao and Gordon Ryan went on to win more total gold medals in the decade after, Marcelo Garcia still currently holds the record for most ADCC titles in regular weight divisions. He has four ADCC golds and five world titles in the gi, but Marcelo is perhaps more known for taking silver and bronze medals as the smallest competitor in absolute divisions.

While Garcia even undersized in his 170 pound division, he holds wins over heavyweight champion grapplers like former UFC champ Ricco Rodriguez, UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga and BJJ legend Cyborg Abreu. Apart from wins over BJJ greats like Andre Galvao, Garcia also has wins over other grapplers turned UFC stars like Demian Maia, Thales Leites, Babalu Sobral, Renzo Gracie, Jake Shields, Diego Sanchez and Kron Gracie.

Marcelo Garcia was also a catalyst to evolving several jiu-jitsu techniques, from his iconic butterfly guard and arm drags, to his trademark “Marcelotine” and north-south chokes.

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Get up to date on all the biggest news from the grappling scene.

Welcome to BJJ Beat!

On this recurring feature, we’ll tackle the biggest news from the professional grappling scene, and roll everything into an easily digestible and familiar jiu-jitsu format.

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Warm Ups

Rickson Gracie Not A Fan Modern BJJ ‘Dilution’

Mixed martial arts (MMA) pioneer, Rickson Gracie, doesn’t sound too happy about the current state of jiu-jitsu. According to the 64-year-old proponent of Gracie Jiu-jitsu, the sport has veered away from its roots and now favors strong and athletic competitors.

“The dilution is already beginning because it’s becoming a very athletic sport. You know, it doesn’t favor the weak the way it’s supposed to favor them,” Gracie told Andy Stumpf (HT: JitsMagazine). “The core of jiu-jitsu, in my vision, is self-defense, not competition. Competition is great for people who like to (compete), but for everyone, you’d love to learn how to survive; how to defend yourself from an attacker, how to protect someone you love.

“Sport jiu-jitsu is growing a lot but I would like to see academies start to become more confident and teach self-defense and empower people, and be able to bring that knowledge for the weak ones.”

I understand the point he is trying to make, but sports evolve, and a prime Rickson Gracie actually dominated the field in part because he was a jacked, physical specimen himself. He was by far the most athletic among his relatives, which is the reason they instead sent the scrawnier Royce Gracie to UFC, to market their brand and push the idea of “weak” fighters overcoming stronger guys.

Much like the earlier days of MMA, jiu-jitsu can still easily be used to overcome stronger but untrained opposition today. Against equally knowledgeable and technical opponents, though, it’ll just be like any other combat sport throughout history, where athleticism and strength matter more, and why weight classes exist.

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Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Drills

Elisabeth Clay Wins Double Gold At IBJJF (Two Months After Childbirth)

Winning one gold medal at a major jiu-jitsu tournament with two months to prepare is already a difficult and notable accomplishment. Incredibly enough, Elisabeth Clay instead won two gold medals, just two months after giving birth to her first child.

“Double gold 76 days after giving birth!” Clay said about her accomplishment. “This was a huge goal of mine, to not only continue to be an athlete after becoming a mom, but to also be able to come back fast.”

After sitting out most of 2024 due to her pregnancy and childbirth, Clay didn’t need much recovery time or warm up competitions. She went straight to the 2024 IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship and won five matches to win gold in her weight class and in the absolute division.

The Polaris GP winner and two-time no gi world champion made it look easy, but she said her body still wasn’t the same.

“I got hurt in my very first match as well. Guess my body is slightly more fragile after giving birth.”

On the men’s side of things, former Bellator champion, Rafael Lovato Jr., continued to impress in the BJJ scene, submitting much younger opponents and taking gold at 41 years of age.

Full results from the 2024 IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship are here.

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Move of the Day

Gordon Ryan teaches Jon Jones

After training together in preparation for UFC 309, Gordon Ryan filmed a couple of technique videos with a special “uke” in UFC champ Jon Jones. The BJJ champ added nice small details to tighten up basic moves, like putting your ear by the shoulder for d’arce chokes, and switching your wrist grip for overhook triangle set ups.

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Rolls

Kade Ruotolo + BJJ GWOAT Go 2-0 In MMA, B-Team Black Belt Goes 4-0

Three jiu-jitsu stars remained undefeated in MMA recently, and could two of them make their way to the UFC soon?

Bia Mesquita — a 16-time world champion across ADCC, IBJJF gi and no gi — went 2-0 in her MMA career. The BJJ all-time great also had to deal with some early adversity before letting her grappling skills take over:

On the other hand, B-Team black belt, Damien Anderson, actually worked on his stand up game on his fourth MMA fight. He chose to trade for majority of the contest, eventually dropping his previously 5-1 opponent, before finishing him with a heel hook.

Lastly, CJI $1 million winner, Kade Ruotolo, went 2-0 in his MMA career, completely overwhelming his Pakistani opponent in little more than one minute. He dropped him with a wild overhand, before quickly finishing with their patented d’arce choke.

Ruotolo is by far the biggest star among these three undefeated grapplers, but with ONE Championship’s extremely restrictive contracts, the other two are far more likely to move to UFC first.

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Cooldown

Full WNO 25 Fight Card Finalized, Andrew Tackett And Others Added

The entire Who’s Number One 25 (WNO 25) line up for Dec. 4, 2024, has been finalized. As we wrote about earlier, it will feature both of the ADCC 2024 double gold medalists in Kaynan Duarte and Adele Fornarino, and the rest of the card has since been made official.

Added to the main card are other BJJ stars such as fan-favorite and CJI standout, Andrew Tackett, ADCC 2024 gold medalist, Felipe Pena, and Polaris champ Helena Crevar, who will all be competing in separate matches.

Checkout WNO 25’s full fight card below:

WNO 25 main card

• Kaynan Duarte vs Roberto Jimenez
• Pedro Marinho vs Izaak Michell – WNO light heavyweight title
• Adele Fornarino vs Alex Nguyen – WNO strawweight title
• Felipe Pena vs Declan Moody
• Helena Crevar vs Leilani Bernales
• Andrew Tackett vs Fabyury Khrysthyan

WNO 25 ‘Prelims’

• Julian Espinosa vs Randy Baker
• Emelio Hernandez vs Isaac Cordova
• Dylan Melton vs Sebastian Attard
• Thaynara Victoria vs Kathryn Discianni

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Review

To close things out, here are other interesting BJJ stories you might have missed:

• After five days of matches, Ryan Aitken beat Chris Wojcik in the final to become the PGF World Season 7 champion. You can watch full day events for free on YouTube (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4), and the eight-man tournament final on UFC Fight Pass.
• UFC fighter and BJJ star, Ryan Hall, said he had 19 (!!!) surgeries since his last fight, but is still “absolutely not” retiring.
• Robbery? Long-time UFC star Carlos Condit looked good in his return to competition, but lost a questionable decision in his grappling match against UFC Welterweight, Michael Page.
• The biggest professional event this month is The IBJJF Crown. Checkout the full line up for the rare professional gi event.

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Carlos Condit looked good in his return, but lost a decision to “MVP” at Polaris 30.

Longtime UFC star Carlos Condit returned to competition at 40 years old, over three years after retiring from mixed martial arts competition. At the Polaris 30 main event, “The Natural Born Killer” took on current UFC welterweight Michael Page in a grappling match between two talented strikers.

The former interim UFC champion looked really good for his age, showcasing various k-guard and leg entries that led to some nice toehold and knee bar attempts. The younger, active fighter in Page looked to be more explosive, with nice duck-unders and a clean takedown, but “MVP” didn’t really muster much offense during the 10-minute match.

While it was Condit that was repeatedly attacking with submissions throughout the contest, the judges decided to award the decision to Page. The hometown star did get a takedown and top control when Condit conceded position, which seems to be what judges favored more.

Page officially won his professional grappling debut, and although stunned with the outcome, Condit was gracious in defeat.

“I’m a big fan of Michael. I’m disappointed it didn’t go my way tonight. I thought I had some great moments throughout the match,” Condit said. “I’ve got to get back and work on some stuff, obviously.”

Too many retired fighters return long past their primes, only to take serious health risks and brain damage, so it’s refreshing to see a longtime UFC fan favorite get his competition fix in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) match instead. As the professional grappling scene continues to grow, hopefully it can also keep providing MMA stars a safer avenue for competition and extra income post-retirement.

In the Polaris co-main event, 17-year-old BJJ prodigy Helena Crevar successfully defended her Polaris lightweight title by winning a decision against Nia Blackman. Fresh off her ADCC silver medal finish, the John Danaher product followed through with a solid showing at Polaris 30, repeatedly threatening with submissions and keeping Blackman on the defense for majority of the contest.

Earlier on the card, Polaris champion Keith Krikorian moved up a division and still looked smooth in his decision win over Jed Hue. He didn’t get a finish, but had a pretty slick sequence where he went from locking on a kimura and reverse triangle to a pretty slick back take.

The entire Polaris 30 main card did not have a single submission. Results and match highlights are below.

Polaris 30: Carlos Condit vs. Michael Page video highlights

Polaris 30 results

Michael Page def. Carlos Condit by decision

Helena Crevar def. Nia Blackman by decision [Women’s lightweight title]

Keith Krikorian def. Jed Hue by decision

Nathaniel Wood def. Cameron Else by decision

Dante Leon def. Ellis Younger by decision

Eoghan O’Flanagan def. Philippe Geyer by decision

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Craig Jones was drugged in Colombia in an alleged attempt to abduct and rob him.

Craig Jones is currently in Colombia, where he fell victim to an increasingly common and dangerous crime that targets foreign tourists in the South American country.

Jones posted security footage of himself barely conscious and struggling to stand, stating that his Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) co-founder, Seth Belisle, “rescued me after being drugged in Colombia.”

According to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) star, they were on a night out when their drinks were spiked with a strong sedative in an alleged attempt to abduct and rob them.

Craig Jones drugged with scopolamine in Colombia

“What actually happened to me, is that I was given, “The Devil’s breath,” scopolamine. It’s made out of some kind of random f—ng tree out here in Colombia,” Jones said on his Instagram stories, explaining more details on the security footage he earlier posted.

“What’s strange about all that, you can still remember all the details, in terms of your pin numbers and s—t like that. I couldn’t walk, but I still remembered the seven digit entry code to my f—ng AirBnb, which is why you lose so much money,” Jones explained.

“They snuck it into our margaritas. I saw my friend Seth (Belisle), 5-foot-1 about 100 pounds, with a full strength alcoholic beverage, so I snatched it out of his hands and drank both of them for us. Little did I know, I’d be taking both hits of scopolamine.”

Jones says he still feels some side effects from the drug, but fortunately Belisle was able to get him back to their accommodations without anything worse happening.

“It f—ed me up for a while, still have a fair bit of memory loss. My brain has obviously not been optimal for years, but it’s sub optimal now, so be careful out here in Medellin,” Jones said.

U.S. Embassy issued warning on citizens being drugged, killed in Colombia

Jones seems fortunate enough to not have experienced worse, as what he described has been an increasingly common crime in the Colombia. According to BBC, more than 30 foreign tourists were killed in Medellin after being drugged and robbed in 2023. In 2024, the number of deaths have reportedly risen to at least 39, with half being Americans.

The U.S. Embassy also previously issued a “security alert” to its citizens, warning that the amount of incidents are largely underreported, and victims are mostly tourists being targeted through dating apps or in bars and nightclubs.

“The Embassy regularly receives reports of these types of incidents occurring in major cities, including Medellin, Cartagena, and Bogota. Some of these incidents have resulted in victims dying or needing serious medical assistance as a result of an overdose from the drugs used to incapacitate the victim.

…

“Historically in Colombia, a drug called scopolamine has been used to carry out these crimes. Also known as Burundanga in Colombia, it is an odorless, tasteless, memory blocking substance used to incapacitate and rob unwary victims. If ingested or exposed, scopolamine can render a victim unconscious up to 24 hours or more. In large doses, it can cause respiratory failure and death. It is most often administered in liquid, spray, or powder form in foods and beverages.”

Jones also issued his own warning after being targeted by the same scheme.

“This is a word of warning to anybody out there playing it easy in Colombia,” Jones said. “You can be 6-foot-6, you can have strong cauliflower ears, you can have a perfect hairline and a beautiful Australian accent, but you too can be a victim of the Devil’s breath.”

The 33-year-old BJJ star last competed in his own event last August, submitting Gabi Garcia in an inter-gender match as part of the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational.

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