Olympic Champ Wins BJJ Debut; Cruz, Pessanha Take Absolute Gold At No Gi Worlds

Wrestling champs Helen Maroulis and Pat Downey were both dominant, but the latter got in a brawl and missed out on a medal at the 2024 IBJJF No Gi World Championship.

The final major Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) event to close out the year was the 2024 IBJJF No Gi World Championships, and it saw dominant performances from new and old champions alike.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

2024 IBJJF No Gi Worlds crown new black belt champs

Just a month after turning 20 years old, BJJ prodigy Cole Abate beat the likes of Gabriel Sousa and other more experienced foes to take gold at the featherweight division and win his first world title. Elder Cruz was also a standout from the event, taking silver at super heavyweight and gold in absolute division to officially become a two-time world champion.

In the women’s side of things, two decorated world champions continued their dominance. Mayssa Bastos won gold at 114 lbs., making it her ninth IBJJF world title across gi and no gi. Gabrieli Pessanha, who is among the most dominant gi competitors ever, won her no gi debut. She only had one opponent in her super-heavyweight division, but she won that and the absolute division to win double gold yet again.

Also having an impressive showing was Elisabeth Clay, who won double gold at the IBJJF No Gi Pans in November and gold again here at the No Gi World Championships a month later. These three gold medals in major tournaments make it an even more insane accomplishment since she just gave birth three months ago. The win also marked her fourth no gi world title.

Cassia Moura, the 18-year-old phenom who went from blue to black belt in a year, just became the youngest world champion in IBJJF history by winning gold at 125 lbs.

Full results and more highlights from the no gi world championships are here.

Photo by Kadir Caliskan – United World Wrestling/Getty Images

IBJJF No Gi World Championships: Wrestlers steal the show at Blue Belt

While black belts naturally garner the most attention at BJJ events, a couple of blue belts made a lot of waves at the 2024 IBJJF No Gi World Championships.

Two wrestling champions competed at the blue belt level, which did lead to some clear mismatches due to IBJJF’s outdated ruleset. It was interesting to see regardless though.

Olympic wrestling champion Helen Maroulis officially switched and made her BJJ debut at the major event. While she lacked experience in the submission grappling ruleset, the three-time Olympic medalist used that elite wrestling to go 5-0 en route to a gold medal.

While Maroulis diving into BJJ is certainly intriguing, it was a different wrestling standout that made headlines for the wrong reasons.

Pat Downey, who has faced Gordon Ryan and dominated Luke Rockhold at CJI, also competed at blue belt despite his credentials as a professional grappler. Having experience against high level pros, it wasn’t a surprise that the US Open wrestling champion dominated the field of blue belts.

Downey won all five of his matches, including the final, where he put his opponent to sleep from front headlock. It was an impressive performance, but there were some taunting, and his opponent clearly didn’t take the loss well.

Soon after he woke up from the submission loss, Shamil Murtazaliev shoved and threw a punch at Downey, which led to a brawl between the two competitors. After the chaos ended, both Downey and Murtazaliev were disqualified and they forfeited what would’ve been the gold and silver medals.

Watch the clip below:

Despite technically not “winning” the tournament, Pat Downey was awarded his purple belt after his dominating five matches and not conceding a single point. This means he should be able to compete against slightly better opposition next time around, but Downey also swore off the IBJJF after the incident.

“This competition went better than I ever (could’ve) expected. I couldn’t have scripted a better outcome,” Downey wrote on social media. “With that being said, I’m very sad with how IBJJF handled my finals match.

“I’m also not a fan of them making money off of us athletes while paying nothing. For these reasons I will NEVER compete in this organization again. (f—) you IBJJF.”

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