The BJJ Stars 15 Grand Prix is coming up in just a little over a month and they have assembled one of the best brackets of the year. 8 top middleweights will take part in the one night tournament, going down April 26th in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a big cash prize. Stars like Mica Galvão, PJ Barch, and Izaak Michell will all be a part of the action. You can watch everything exclusively on FloGrappling.

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There's a lot of ways that things could shake out with the bracket but I took my best guess at how the paths may look once we get going Let's take a look;

Keep in mind the numbers aren't real 'seeds', just how things work out for where we want the bracket to fall. These also aren't predictions for who will beat who.

We decided to go with Mica at the top because he is the current BJJ Stars champion a weight below. He's the star of the bracket and the best pound-for-pound athlete in the mix so we think it's only fair to credit the ADCC Champ with the top consideration. He's been especially good at BJJ Stars, with the Brazilian crowds helping to inspire some of his best performances.

The next big question was where do we put PJ Barch? Surely a rematch between him and Mica is one of the biggest matches that the bracket could produce so I nearly put as the first round. Get it out of the way and ensure that fans don't miss a major rematch. But, that just didn't seem fair for a big cash bracket to have those guys do what's basically a final in the very first round. So we put Barch on the other side, where he will have a more fair path to the finals.

Looking at the bracket, the most proven middleweight is WNO Champion Jonnatas Gracie, who we currently rank as the 2nd best 185lber on Earth. It's only fair to him to seed him apart from Galvão. Jonnatas has won 31 of his last 33 matches and if he can win this GP he will be the top ranked middleweight in the world.

When deciding among who should be the last of the four top seeded athletes, we favored Australia's Izaak Michell in the four spot, potentially seeing Mica in the semifinal. He's probably the best wrestler in the bracket and the inaugural Who's Next Champion. The biggest criticism for Izaak right now is probably that he isn't pulling the trigger against elite opponents and instead can end up hand fighting for too long. If he can stay aggressive, he will stand a good chance of winning it all here.

BJJ Stars is a predominantly Brazilian company and so I figured it would be appropriate to make the first round Brazil vs The World. I also wanted to keep Taza and Izaak apart, as they are both New Wave. I did end up getting backed into putting Taza in a rematch with Jonnatas (from WNO in 2023) but they have both kept growing as athletes since then so I think it's ok.

I'm definitely interested to see how Isaque Bahiense and Gabriel Almeida do in this bracket. They are both big and strong for the weight class, so a 24-hour weigh in really benefits them here. I also think it is a mistake to overlook Dorsey, who placed a surprising 4th at ADCC Worlds using strong wrestling and pressure.

BJJ Stars 15 Full Card

• Meyram Maquine vs Diogo Reis
• Erich Munis vs Adam Wardzinski
• Gabi Pessanha vs Tayane Porfirio
• Leo Ferreira vs Hygor Brito
• The 185lbs No-Gi Grand Prix
  • Mica Galvão
  • Gabriel Almeida
  • Elijah Dorsey
  • Oliver Taza
  • Isaque Bahiense
  • PJ Barch
  • Jonnatas Gracie
  • Izaak Michell

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