Who Could Win The Absolute At The IBJJF 2022 No-Gi World Championships?
Who Could Win The Absolute At The IBJJF 2022 No-Gi World Championships?
The absolute category is one of the things that makes jiu-jitsu truly special.
Open to all-comers: an athlete from any weight class is welcome to register for the open class - and only the best athlete is able to climb to the top of the podium.
Entire careers have been launched by a dominant performance in the open-weight category, which is why many fans wait on the edge of their seat to find out the final list of contestants who have thrown their hat into the ring.
While we won’t know the finalized roster for the absolute at the IBJJF 2022 No-Gi World Championship until Friday, Dec. 9, there’s some reasonable speculation to be done about who we may see and who stands in a good position to capture gold.
The Big Four: Victor Hugo, Cyborg, Roosevelt Sousa, & Davi Cabral
Taking nothing away from their technical capabilities, there's no denying absolute category favors the heaviest and strongest athletes. As such - a quick review of the ultra-heavyweight category gives delivers a few favorites for our absolute.
Two names immediately jump to the front: Victor Hugo the 2019 No-Gi Worldabsolute champ and Cyborg - who last won the absolute in 2010 but has picked up wins in his weight classes as recently as 2021. They also have a history: the duo split wins and titles in the absolute and ultra-heavyweight category in the 2019 No-Gi World Championships.
Should either competitor enter the open class they should be considered to be among the favorites.
Watch: Victor Hugo vs Cyborg Abreu 2019 IBJJF No-Gi Worlds.
A second pair of athletes may also emerge to make things interesting.
Roosevelt Sousa - a teammate of Cyborg - has consistently found his way to the top of the podium. A dangerous leg locker, Sousa has excellent finishing capabilities and wins over many of the best ultra-heavyweights. If both Fight sports athletes enter the absolute bracket they could stack the odds in their favor of finding one of their own taking home gold in the coveted absolute division.
Roosevelt Sousa vs Joao Gabriel ADCC 2022
We also have Davi Cabral from GF Team. Cabral has captured some of jiu-jitsu's most important titles as a colored belt and has made an impact over the last two years during his early experiences in the black belt ranks- including a No-Gi pans title earlier this year after defeating rising start Haisam Rida.
Cabral has savvy wrestling on the feet and a strong passing game - keep an eye out for that dogbar submission from top as well.
Davi Cabral vs Haisam Rida - 2022 IBJJF No-Gi Pans
