IBJJF

Galvao & Co In Action This Weekend, Last-Minute Tune-Up For IBJJF Worlds

Galvao & Co In Action This Weekend, Last-Minute Tune-Up For IBJJF Worlds

The IBJJF San Diego and Miami International Opens go down this weekend, and they are the last tournaments on American soil ahead of the World Championships that take place on May 31-June 4.

May 12, 2017 by Hywel Teague
Galvao & Co In Action This Weekend, Last-Minute Tune-Up For IBJJF Worlds
The IBJJF San Diego and Miami International Opens go down this weekend, and they are the last tournaments on American soil ahead of the World Championships that take place on May 31-June 4. 

The list of black belts who have signed up in San Diego is impressive but not surprising. Seeing as there are a number of major jiu-jitsu teams based in the Californian city, you would expect their top guys to take to the mats in a last-minute tune-up before the biggest jiu-jitsu event of the year. 

Points of interest include: 
• The return of Ary Farias, last year's light feather silver medalist at Worlds. Following Paulo Miyao's doping sanction, Farias could be retroactively awarded the gold medal, his first IBJJF black  belt World title. 
• Andre Galvao back in the medium heavyweight division. Last year he competed at heavy and even ultra heavyweight! 
• Nova Uniao black belts Marcio Andre and Horlando Monteiro in the lightweight and medium heavyweight divisions, respectively. 
• Studio 540 gym owner and Gracie Barra black belt Robert Zeps, a Masters 4 competitor, in with the young guns at black belt heavyweight! 
• Mackenzie Dern has signed up at middleweight, two divisions higher than her usual fighting weight of featherweight. 

Miami has also attracted a number of top black belts, with a particularly large featherweight division with 10 competitors and a small but powerful ultra-heavyweight division! 
• DJ Jackson has signed up at heavyweight(!). The Team Lloyd Irvin competitor is back in the gi in an effort to qualify for Worlds. He gold in the middleweight and silver in the absolute in the IBJJF Dallas Open last month, so should he medal at this tournament then he will have qualified. 
• Roberto 'Cyborg' an Gabriel 'Fedor' are the only two entrants in the black belt ultra-heavyweight division. 

Take a look at the full list of black belt competitors for both tournaments below:

San Diego International Open Black Belt Entrants Miami Spring International Open Black Belt Entrants
BLACK / Adult / Male / Rooster BLACK / Adult / Male / Rooster
Ronald Stephen Henderson Jr. Javier Gomez
Chad Daniel Lundy Marcelo Cohen
   
BLACK / Adult / Male / Light-Feather BLACK / Adult / Male / Light-Feather
Wallace Fernando Santos Lucas dos Santos Pinheiro
  Bruno de Freitas Sena
BLACK / Adult / Male / Feather Mario Escurra
Fabbio Passos de Alencar João Ricardo Bordignon Miyao
Orlando Machado da Silva Junior Alexis Alduncin Barragan
Ary de Melo Farias  
Omar French BLACK / Adult / Male / Feather
Sergio Ernesto Hernandez Jonathan Paul Thomas
  Brian Mahecha
BLACK / Adult / Male / Light Daniel Silva De Oliva
Onofre Cardoso Guimarães Junqueira Francisco Jackson Da Silva Matos
Marcio Andre C. Barbosa Junior Michael Joseph Pepio
Carlos Eduardo Barroso da Silva John Jason Lawrence
Julio Cordova Reyes Christopher M. Kriebel
Victor de Matos Joao Pereira
  Thiago Augusto Araujo Macedo
BLACK / Adult / Male / Middle Samir José Chantre Dahás
Piter Frank Almeida Silva  
Andris Auseklis Brunovskis BLACK / Adult / Male / Light
Nathan Albrecht Mendelsohn Frederico Augusto Alves Silva
Magid Hage IV Kevin Javier Mahecha
Yago Nanci Espíndola Gilson Nunes De Oliveira Neto
Youngam Noh Glaudiston Luiz Simczak
Diego Dias Ramalho Vitor Atalla Riciotti
  Alberto Serrano Govea
BLACK / Adult / Male / Medium-Heavy Felipe Hugo de Souza Simplicio
Andre Luiz Leite Galvão  
Lucas Daniel Silva Barbosa BLACK / Adult / Male / Middle
Eduardo Telles Moreira Jonathan T. Satava
Horlando de Jesus Monteiro Victor Silverio Santos
Justin Workman Edward Hohl
   
BLACK / Adult / Male / Heavy BLACK / Adult / Male / Medium-Heavy
Vitor Fabio Martins Toledo Samir Abdolkader
Gabriel Procópio da Fonseca Valdir Araujo de Lima Júnior
Arnaldo Maidana de Oliveira Thiago Alves de Sousa
Robert Zeps Robby Malof
Nick Schrock  
  BLACK / Adult / Male / Heavy
BLACK / Adult / Male / Super-Heavy Jurandir Vieira da Conceição
Rafael Figueiredo Macedo Fraga Jose M Portillo Jr
Dany Guy Steve Gerard De'Alonzio Jerome Jackson
Wellington Modena Peroto  
  BLACK / Adult / Male / Super-Heavy
BLACK / Adult / Male / Ultra-Heavy Matheus Maia Abreu Lopes
Erberth Santos de Mesquita Helton Jose Mendes da Silva Junior
Carlos Eduardo de Araujo Farias  
  BLACK / Adult / Male / Ultra-Heavy
BLACK / Adult / Female / Light-Feather Gabriel Lyrio Lucas
Rayanne Amanda Carmo dos Santos Roberto de Abreu Filho
   
BLACK / Adult / Female / Light BLACK / Adult / Female / Rooster
Beatriz de Oliveira Mesquita Kanako Inaba
Jena Rae Bishop  
  BLACK / Adult / Female / Light
BLACK / Adult / Female / Middle Andrezza Façanha Pinho
Emilie Maxine M. H. Thylin Melissa Bentley
Mackenzie Lynne Dern