Next weekend we will witness the 9th edition of the World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Championship, IBJJF’s premier tournament without the use of the traditional gi.

This competition started back in 2007 and has grown in strength and also in numbers of entrants, with the IBJJF offering a series of no-gi proving grounds in the months leading up to this event.

Article written by Andre Borges of BJJ Heroes

When History Was Written

To quantify the importance of this tournament, just think that it was at the No-Gi Worlds (2012) that the almighty Leandro Lo had his last recorded loss at lightweight, a 9-0 defeat to Augusto ‘Tanquinho’ Mendes.

If that historic moment wasn’t enough, the 2010 No-Gi Worlds marked Marcus Almeida’s first big break at black belt, and the eyes of the grappling community were opened to the now famous Estima Lock in 2011, put to use no less than three times by middleweight Victor Estima.

During the first 3 years of the No-Gi Worlds, the rooster weight division was left unattended, possibly due to the change in the weight limit (122lb instead of 127lb with the gi) proposed by the IBJJF. This opened the doors to both Takeo Tani (2007) and Pablo Teixeira (2008/09) being crowned world champions without competing, the only two men to ‘claim’ this feat.

Caio Terra, King of No-Gi Worlds

Seeing the lack of athletes in these early years at roosterweight Caio Terra chose to test himself and moved up a weight class for the first few years. This move made Terra’s no-gi accomplishments all the more impressive:

• Caio has won an astounding 7 out of 8 available gold medals so far, placing second in the very first edition of the No-Gi Worlds but winning every subsequent title.

• Not only has Terra won the most gold medals in the adult black belt division, he also holds the record for most submissions (8) and best sub-rate among the competition’s champions (60%). Caio is only followed by Rubens ‘Cobrinha’ Charles with 6 finishes (54% submission rate).

No-Gi vs Gi Finishing Rates

When it comes to analyzing the numbers, the IBJJF No-Gi Worlds may be be trickier to read than anticipated.

Going through the results of all the matches recorded since 2007 (over 300) in the male black belt divisions, we have concluded a 30% submission rate, 10% less than that recorded during the world championships with the gi in the past couple of years (on average being 41% in the gi).

If we take the data and go through the tournament’s finals in the past 3 years, the results change drastically, with the No-Gi World Championship reaching 22% submission rate against the gi World Championship’s 16%. This could be attributed to the lengthy divisions the athletes have to go through in the gi Worlds to reach a final, or to the fact that the no-gi divisions are shorter and more evenly matched.

Both gi and no-gi IBJJF Worlds share some interesting similarities. The RNC had been the most popular submission (28%) in no-gi, followed by the armbar (17%), while the choke from the back (23%) and armbar (22%) are the trends with the gi.

Photo: Mike Climbas

No-Gi Brings Out A Different Crew

Another interesting aspect of the No-Gi Worlds is that it combines some of the top gi specialists with no-gi / MMA competitors, making for a very unique grappling event. We have seen in the past MMA stars such as Jeff Monson or Josh Barnett mixing it up with no-gi specialists Pablo Popovitch, Gregor Gracie and Baret Yoshida, and even gi legends Saulo Ribeiro, Cobrinha or Rafael Lovato Jr.


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