The black belts hit the mats at 9.30am (PST) sharp on Saturday December 15. With 167 men and 34 women signed up there are a ton of competitors to keep an eye on. 

Many of these will face off in the opening round of the tournament, meaning staying on top of the action is going to be more important than ever. 

Use this below guide to catch some potentially explosive first round matches featuring some of the best black belts to have signed up. For full brackets make sure to check out the IBJJF website. 

Kennedy Maciel vs Matheus Gabriel 

Featherweight | Mat 11 | Sat 12/15 | 9.30am 

Brandon Walensky vs Frank Rosenthal 

Featherweight | Mat 11 | Sat 12/15 | 9.42am 

Marvin Castelle vs Cole Franson 

Featherweight | Mat 11 | Sat 12/15 | 10.06am 

Jeremiah Vance vs Francisco “Sinistro” Iturralde 

Featherweight | Mat 2 | Sat 12/15 | 11.42am 

Gianni Grippo vs Masahiro Iwasaki 

Lightweight | Mat 3 | Sat 12/15 | 12.18pm 

Lucas Rocha vs Sergio Ardila-Ibarra 

Middleweight | Mat 3 | Sat 12/15 | 9.54am 

Athos Ribeiro vs Michael Perez 

Middleweight | Mat 4 | Sat 12/15 | 10.06am 

Dante Leon vs Jeremy Jackson 

Middleweight | Mat 9 | Sat 12/15 | 9.42am 

Felipe Cesar Silva vs Enrico Cocco 

Middleweight | Mat 9 | Sat 12/15 | 10.06am 

Vitor Oliveira vs Lachlan Giles 

Middleweight | Mat 9 | Sat 12/15 | 10.18am 

Vegard Randeberg vs Viking Wong 

Medium-heavyweight | Mat 4 | Sat 12/15 | 11.54am 

Gabriel Fonseca vs Danilo Borovic 

Medium-heavyweight | Mat 9 | Sat 12/15 | 10.30am 

Isiah Wright vs Gabriel Arges 

Medium-heavyweight | Mat 9 | Sat 12/15 | 11.30am 

Jackson Sousa vs Ben Hodgkinson

Heavyweight | Mat 10 | Sat 12/15 | 12.18pm 

Nick Schrock vs James Brasco 

Heavyweight | Mat 10 | Sat 12/15 | 12.42pm 

Satoshi Ishii vs Aaron “Tex” Johnson 

Ultra-heavyweight | Mat 3 | Sat 12/15 | 1.06pm 

Ffion Davies vs Nathalie Ribeiro 

Featherweight | Mat 3 | Sat 12/15 | 1.30pm 

Heather Raftery vs Amanda Monteiro 

Featherweight | Mat 3 | Sat 12/15 | 2.06pm 

Michelle Nicolini vs Gabi Mccomb 

Featherweight | Mat 10 | Sat 12/15 | 1.42pm