The city of Irvine, Calif., prepares to host another edition of the traditional Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship, which is the second most important in the IBJJF calendar. The gym at the University of Irvine will host athletes from 20th to March 24th.
This will be the first time that PED testing will be introduced. Many people were saying that this would mean that many of the top black belts would not show. This hasn’t been the case as most of the top togs are present. Among the biggest surprises, the return of double world champion Gabriel Vella, and the non-appearance of the name of Marcus Buchecha Almeida, for now. See some of the top favorites:
Bantamweight: Bruno Malfacine, Caio Terra, Fabbio Passos, Raul Marcello, Joseph Capizzi, Felipe Costa
Featherweight: Guilherme Mendes, Laercio Fernandes, Thomas Lisboa, Gabriel Willcox
Flyweight: Rubens Cobrinha, Rafael Mendes, Isaque Paiva, Augusto Tanquinho, Kim Terra, Italo Lins, Ed Ramos, Samir Chantre, Wellington Megaton
Lightweight: Lucas Lepri, Michael Langhi, Oliver Geddes, Vinicius Marinho, JT Torres, Tanner Rice, Zak Maxwell, Maiky Reiter, Marcel Goncalves, Nathan Mendelsohn, Carlos Eduardo Vieira, Gabriel Goulart
Middle weight: Otavio Sousa, Leandro Lo, DJ Jackson, Magid Hage, Clark Gracie, Jake Mackenzie, Lucas Rocha, Vitor Henrique, Gabriel Rollo, Ian McPherson
Light-heavyweight: Romulo Barral, Tarsis Humphreys, André Galvão, Abmar Barbosa, Guto Campos, Rodrigo Fajardo, Felipe Preguiça Pena, Renato Cardoso, Raul Castillo, Ben Baxter
Heavyweight: Tarcisio Jardim, Luiz Panza, Nivaldo Oliveira, Roberto Tossa, Hugo Britto, Diego Herzog
Superheavy: Bernardo Faria, Léo Nogueira, Gabriel Vella, James Puopolo
Ultra heavyweight Weight: Alexander Trans, Orlando Sanchez, Roberto Cyborg
Female: Luiza Monteiro, Mackenzie Dern, Ana Carolina Hare, Nyjah Easton, Beatriz Mesquita, Talita Treta, Gabi Garcia
Brown belt: Keenan Cornelius, Gianni Grippo, Paulo and Joao Miyao, Vitor Pascoal, Francisco Iturralde, Ben Henderson, Victor Silverio, Ilke Bulut, Kaue Damasceno.
