By Michael Sears 

After a long day of many matches, the 2018 IBJJF World blue belt absolute champions were decided.

AOJ duo clean up – again

The Atos duo of Tainan Dalpra and Mateus Rodrigues both won Worlds gold a year ago in the juvenile blue belt division, and earlier this year closed out the Pans open class in their first year at adult. Dalpra and Rodrigues repeated their double gold feat from Pans at the Worlds, and the day capped off with them receiving their purples belts on the podium from their instructors the Mendes brothers.

Dalpra had earlier submitted all seven opponents on his way to gold at middleweight, probably the most dominant performance by any blue belt today. Rodrigues battled his way through some close matches to come out on top at medium-heavy. In all it would take five matches for the pair to close out the open, with Rodrigues receiving a first round bye.

Rodrigues had to defeat two 2018 World champions to kae the final. First up was light-feather champ Fabricio Andrey Junior. Next in the semifinal he was matched up with lightweight champ Lucas Protasio, who won double gold at Brasileiro. An early takedown by Rodrigues gave him a lead he would never relinquish, holding on to defeat the extremely tough Protasio. Dalpra would do some heavy lifting on his side of the bracket, including defeating the super-heavy champ and an ultra-heavy medalist.

Blue belts everywhere will breathe a sigh of relief as they both were promoted to purple belt on the podium. 

After earlier bronze, Clay bounces back to win gold

Elisabeth Clay of Ares BJJ won her weight and the open class at Pans in March, but shockingly went down in the semifinal of the medium-heavyweight division earlier on Thursday. Clay would however bounce back and completely dominate the open class at Worlds, not conceding a single point and winning by submission in the final.

Photo: Michael Sears

After an 8-0 win in the first round of the open class, Elisabeth had a hard fought match with super-heavy bronze medalist Claudia Pirvu in which she came out on top by one advantage. A 2-0 victory over Madison Wolfe of Soul Fighters put Elisabeth into the final, with a chance to become a 2018 World champion despite the earlier loss at her weight.

Waiting for Clay was middleweight gold medalist Deise Leonanjo of Alliance, who won two matches on the other side to make the final. Clay blew through Leonanjo’s guard, finishing the match with a cross collar choke and taking the gold medal in dominant fashion.

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