2019 IBJJF Worlds: The Greatest Roosterweight Division, Ever
2019 IBJJF Worlds: The Greatest Roosterweight Division, Ever
There's a very good chance we'll never see another black belt roosterweight bracket quite like this again.
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Let's make this absolutely clear: there's a very good chance we'll never see another black belt roosterweight bracket quite like this again.
As initially pointed out by BJJ Heroes – there are no less than five former world champions present this year, presented in Chronological order, they are:
- Omar Salum (1999 / 2000)
- Felipe Costa (2003)
- Bruno Malfacine (2007 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2014/ 2015 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018)
- Caio Terra (2008 / 2013)
- Mikey Musumeci (2017 / 2018) (both titles earned in the light-featherweight division)
To add to the insanity, the first half of the bracket contains four of those five names: Costa, Malfacine, Terra, and Musumeci – only one will go on to fight in the final.
Why did this happen? Whereas the brackets used to be designed by a committee of various team reps, the process has been 100% automated for some time now and competitors are positioned via a robust system that places them based on activity, major wins, and more. It is complicated but everyone agrees is as fair as it can be– it had to be for all the team leaders to give it their backing.
Bracket 1/2: A Question of Three- Malfacine, Terra, Musumeci
The question of team loyalty is a factor here.
Old friends and fellow Brasa teammates Caio Terra and Felipe Costa are set to meet in the second round.
Given the high stakes of worlds and the fact that Terra is the younger, more recently active competitor, it seems likely that he will advance to the quarter-final; there, he will be in prime position to take on roosterweight superstar Bruno Malfacine (barring any shock from results Bruno's first match).
Terra and Malfacine know each other's game intimately, the duo have faced off a staggering 11 different times over the years, with 10x World Champ Malfacine generally getting the better results (7 wins for Malfacine, 4 Wins for Terra).
Bruno Malfacine vs Caio Terra - 2017 World Championships
Regardless of the outcome, we expect Terra and Bruno to write yet another thrilling chapter to their historic rivalry, and the result of their bout has tremendous implications for the rest of the bracket – namely: what happens to Mikey Musumeci?
Will he need to fight Malfacine in a generational bout for the ages? Or will a decision be made between him and Caio about who will go on to the final?
To met Terra or Malfacine in the semi-final, Musumeci will likely have to go through two of Japans finest – his first match is with Asian Open Silver Medalist Shohei Watanabe; it's a safe bet to think that Musumeci will have to face Pans Silver medalist Koji Shibamoto in his second match of the tournament.
Bracket 2/2: The Roosterweight New Wave
The second half of the bracket could be considered a stronghold of the new generation – save for one man – the 1999 & 2000 World Champ, Omar Salum.
It's been more than a few years since Salum has been present at the Pyramid, and he's got a hell of a task in front of him for his match with Atos Competitor and 2019 Pan and Brazilian National Champion Cleber Sousa.
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Moving on, a second-round between Carlos 'Bebeto' Oliveira of GF Team and Cicero Ribeiro is a true contest between up and coming talents. The match is actually a repeat of the 2018 Roostewrieght brown belt final that went down to the wire. Bebeto ended up losing the match on penalty points and will certainly be hungry to get that win back.
Carlos Olivera vs Cicero Riberio - 2018 World Championships
The winner of that will almost certainly meet the #3 seed 2018 Black belt silver medalist Rodeni Barbosa of Qatar BJJ.
Barbosa has looked on fire all year, winning both the European Championships and Brazilian Nationals silver medalist (losing out to Cleber Sousa in the final). Look for him to be one of the fiercest competitors on this side of the bracket and a strong candidate for one half of the final.
Rodeni Barbosa in action.
Rounding out the rooster weight division are two more Japanese athletes: Tomoyuki Hashimoto and Nobuhiro Sawada.
Hashimoto holds two wins over Sawada and we don't see why his streak should change this time around, setting up a very compelling potential quarter-final match against Celber Sousa.
Should Tomoyuki make it the semi-final match against Rodeni Barbosa he'll need to reverse a 0-2 streak against the Brazilian to make a berth in the finals match.
