Seven teams shared the 10 available gold medals in the adult male purple belt divisions on day one of th IBJJF 2018 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship. 

Atos led the way with four golds: 

• Raul Basilio of Almeida JJ (Atos International) won light-featherweight after beating highly-successful competitor Diego “Pato” Batista of Cicero Costha in the final 2-0. Basilio, younger brother of famous female black belt competitor Bianca, avenged the loss of his teammate Andre Massaro, who lost to Batista in the semi. 

• Mendes brothers-trained Johnatha Alves of Art of Jiu-Jitsu steamrolled Guthierry Barbosa in the lightweight final, getting the back and winning via choke in little over a minute. 

• Conner Deangelis took double gold, winning both the heavyweight division and the open class, closing out with middleweight silver medalist Ronaldo Jr. 

Team Lloyd Irvin and Sao Paulo-based Guigo JJ have an arrangement where the Brazilians rep TLI at major tournaments to pool points. That boosted TLI’s medal haul, as Meyram Alves won featherweight gold beating the new Atos recruit Andy Murasaki 6-4 in the final. The featherweight podium saw two of the four medals go to TLI, and two go to Atos. 

Lucas Gualberto on top. Photo: Will Safford

Lucas Gualberto is an Alliance competitor from Mario Reis’s gym in the south of Brazil, the same team that produced 2017 black belt world champ Nicholas Meregali. Gualberto got a last minute takedown to get the winning score over Ronaldo Jr in his weight division final. 

Pedro Machado of Gordo JJ defeated French grappler and European champion Reda Mebtouche via referee’s decision in the medium heavyweight final. 

Super heavyweight was won by Wilson Moreira (pictured top), the Cicero Costha / Unity JJ representative who weighs 25lb below his opponents but consistently wins at the higher weight class. “My teammates Italo Moura and Jeferson are at lightweight, and I feel my game works against bigger guys,” said Wilson. “I train with monsters like Devhonte Johnson all the time at Unity, I enjoy fighting the big guys.” 

GF Team ultra heavyweight Wallace Costa, a blue belt world champ in 2017, got gold by beating Taylor Kettler via decision. 

For full results and links to match videos click here

Wallace Costa fights in the ultra heavyweight final against Taylor Kettler. Photo: Will Safford