Several of the most significant storylines of the season have coalesced into an absolute fantastic heavyweight division at this year's World Championships. 

There are many fan favorites and past champions, and blazing hot rookies in the bracket, but the wild year that 2019 has been means that the bracket could be one by anyone. 

Let's ring those off now: 

• Keenan Cornelius - Now A Free Agent; can he pull off what he's never been able to do with Atos?
• Leandro Lo's Most inconsistent year to date.
• Kaynan Duarte's incredible ascent as a first-year black belt.
• The specter of Patrick Gaudio and other hungry spoilers

Keenan's much-discussed departure from Atos needs little introduction 

However, his status as a ronin athlete sets up one of the most compelling matches of the entire event, namely: the American versus rising superstar Kaynan Duarte, which could very well go down in the semi-final. 

We analyzed the possible outcome of this match in detail in our dream matchups article, but in short: it's a battle of two elite competitors, now ex-teammates, who know each other's game and have a whole lot on the line at this weeks event.

In short, Keenan stands in the way of Kaynan adding his name to the short list of competitors who've won worlds in their first year as a black belt, while Kaynan is one of Keenan's key challenges to finally securing a gold medal after chasing the dream for five years. 

There's also the added heat and pressure on both competitors to perform well after Keenan's very public departure from team Atos.

Unfortunately for Adam Wardzinski, he'll likely have to face Kaynan Duarte in the quarter-final.  The pair have battled three times this year alone, Duarte winning all of them. Wardzinski is surely always game for scrap, but he'll need to pull off the performance of a lifetime to get past Kaynan. 

Leandro Lo hasn't secured a gold medal in 2019 

In fact, he kicked off the year by losing decisively to old rival Nicholas Meregali in a super fight at BJJ stars.  

Lo didn't fare much better at Pans, and his shocking submission loss to Adam Wardzinski in the semi-finals left many wondering what was going with the typically flawless athlete? 

A tough question to answer, to be sure, but despite his rocky year, Leandro should still be considered a favorite of a division at Worlds.  One doesn't become a six-time world Champion by folding when the things get tough.

It's quite likely that Lo's first match of the event will be first-year black belt Dominique Bell.  The Atos athlete is limitlessly talented, but it would be a shocking upset if he took out Leandro in the first round.  

Meanwhile, Jackson Sousa is set to meet Checkmat teammate Arnaldo Maidana in the first round; seeing as Jackson is the senior athlete and on Checkmat's 'A' team, it's likely he'll pass Maidana to meet Leandro in the Quarter-final.

Interestingly enough, Sousa and Lo have never met before in competition, and the bout presents a thrilling clash of styles.  Jackson is consistently high energy, whereas Lo prefers to move in short, yet explosive bursts. Both are masters of positional warfare and winning a majority of their matches via points instead of submissions.  

We expect Leandro to pull guard in this match, look to wrestle up from the bottom to score the two points and remain on top, but Jackson's blitzing passing sequences are among some of the best and could pose a huge threat to Lo's success this weekend at the pyramid. 

The other side of bracket two features three more MONSTER competitors: Patrick Gaudio, Tim Spriggs, and Vinicius 'Trator' Ferreira, with Gaudio being the most likely candidate to advance his way to the semi-final.

A perennial contender, Gaudio is a 2x Worlds silver medalist;  Gaudio also gave Leandro Lo a run for his money way back at the 2017 Abu Dhabi World Pro. 

In his opening round of the tournament, The GF Team lion Gaudio will be looking to replicate his impressive win of Tim Spriggs from 3 months ago at BJJ stars where he'll then likely meet Alliance's Vinicius 'Trator' Ferreira. 

Trator himself is a fierce competitor, and he had a surprise upset victory of Kaynan Duarte a few weeks ago at Brazilian Nations on his path to winning gold. He's not a household name just yet, but an impressive showing against a big name like Gaudio, Spriggs, and potentially Leandro, could catapult Trator's reputation to sit among the greats. 

Leandro Lo vs Patrick Gaudio - 2016 Abu Dhabi World Pro

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