Article by Michael Sears |

The male and female black belt open divisions played out on Saturday, and all the matches through the semifinal have taken place. The final match In the open class for both groups will take place on Sunday.

In the male open class, Joao Gabriel Rocha (Soul Fighters) and Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa (Atos) have advanced to the final. Neither man has ever won the open at Nogi Worlds, while Hulk is a two time champion in his weight.

Rocha tapped his way to the semifinal on his side of the bracket, submitting his first three opponents. In the semifinal Rocha would face off with former Nogi World champion Keenan Cornelius.

A hard fought ten-minute match would see Rocha win 4-2 from two takedowns. Throughout the match Joao repeatedly stuffed Keenan’s takedown attempts, and when in guard Cornelius was unable to disrupt Rocha’s base.

Joao Gabriel vs Arnaldo Maidana

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Hulk only had two matches to make the final after his first two opponents withdrew. Submitting his first opponent with an arm triangle, Hulk was matched up with Jackson Sousa (Checkmat) in the semifinal.

Lucas Barbosa vs Jacksons Sousa

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Earlier disqualified from his bracket for not making weight, Sousa had been flawless in the open division to that point. After winning his first two matches by a combined score of 23-0, Jackson edged out Jared Dopp (Ribeiro) in a tight 0-0 match by one advantage.

Sousa jumped out to an early 4-0 lead by taking Barbosa’s back, and looked to have Hulk in some serious trouble early on. Hulk went on to escape Souza’s back control, eventually tying the score up at 4-4 after taking Sousa’s back himself. Hulk was not going to let this chance slip away from him though, and finished Jackson with a rear naked choke to move on to the open class final.

The women’s open class ended up being a closeout between Gracie Barra teammates Ana Laura Cordeiro and Jessic Flowers. The two women also closed out the heavyweight division this weekend.

This is Flowers first Nogi World title, while the veteran Cordeiro has won everything there is to win in the sport. Cordeiro was a Nogi Worlds double gold winner back in 2008, and won the gi Worlds in the same year. More recently Ana Laura took home the gold medal in the +60kg division at ADCC 2015. Flowers was elated to be able to share the victory with one of her heroes from the Gracie Barra team.