American Nationals has kicked off and all the action is live now, but the IBJJF calendar features more exciting action this weekend with the Asian Championships and São Paulo BJJ Pro. With the season restarting, we can expect many of the biggest names in gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu to being returning to the mats with new goals and focuses to work toward.

No one will draw more attention than Tainan Dalpra, the elite middleweight who will have his first match after a surprise upset loss to Jansen Gomes in the 2023 World Finals. The match marked Tainan's first IBJJF loss at black belt, after a run of 60 straight victories to begin his career. Art of Jiu-Jitsu is sending a really impressive team, so Tainan will be busy competing, coaching, and supporting his fellow AOJ athletes. With a division of four, he will aim to begin gaining new momentum - and potentially start another lengthy streak - this weekend.

Hear From Tainan After The 2023 World Finals

With AOJ in attendance, there will be plenty of great grappling talent to appreciate in Japan. That includes 4-time world champion Mayssa Bastos (entered at light-feather), 2023 brown belt world champion Shelby Murphey (rooster) making her black belt debut, 2022 World Champion Thalison Soares (light-feather), and 2-time World Medalist Margot Ciccarelli (light).

The event will have a lot of good athletes outside of AOJ as well, including long-time Japanese standout Koji Shibamoto (rooster) and WNO veteran Alexa Yanes (feather). Also, good luck to FloGrappling's own Chase Smith, who will be competing in the black belt Masters divisions. Has his game been sufficiently fixed? Let's find out.

The São Paulo BJJ Pro event is a tournament that offers a cash prize to the champion and runner up of men's black belt featherweight, middleweight, heavyweight, and ultra-heavyweight, as well as the absolute for women's black belt. Champions will each receive R$6400 ($1298.28), with the runners up receiving R$1500 ($304.28).

While the brackets are packed with tough Brazilian grapplers, a few names do stick out. Cleber Sousa is entered at featherweight, and Alex Munis is at heavyweight. The women's divisions are deep as well, featuring world class talents Brenda Larissa, Julia Alves, Thalyta Lima, and Ingridd Alves among others.

While the Asian and Sao Paulo events won't be streaming live on FloGrappling, you can catch all of American Nationals live now.