IBJJF Worlds 2019: The Lightweight Showdown of Legends and Rising Stars
IBJJF Worlds 2019: The Lightweight Showdown of Legends and Rising Stars
The lightweight division at Worlds this year is a smattering of legendary athletes and rising new talents.
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The lightweight division at Worlds this year is a smattering of legendary athletes and rising new talents.
Strong predictions for the division include a rematch between Lucas Lepri and Levi-Jones-Leary from the 2019 European Championships, a rematch between Lepri and Renato from last year's worlds final, or a closeout between Lucas Lepri and Michael Langhi.
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Can the Lightweight GOAT Achieve his Sixth World Title?
Lucas Lepri, a 5x Lightweight World Champion, is the #1 seed at Worlds;.
Scheduled to face Athos Ribeiro from Alliance in the first round, Lepri will meet the winner of Jeremy Jackson versus John Combs in the 1/8 final(a first-round match that you will NOT, want to miss, by the way).
From there it's quite likely that Lepri will meet and pass fellow Alliance teammate Johnny Tama and make his way into the semi-final.
The question of who will meet Lucas In the semi-finals is a particularly difficult one to answer, as the other half of bracket #1 is arguably the toughest of the entire division.
Featuring several high-caliber athletes, including 2019 Brazilian National Champ Ygor Rodrigues, Gracie Barra monster Victor Silverio, Yan 'Pica Pau' Lucas from Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu, and Gilson Nunes of Checkmat, as well as stand out competitors Rodrigo Freitas and Lucas Rocha, this quarter of the bracket, is truly anyone's game.
Who will face Levi Jones-Leary in the second Semi-final?
Moving on to bracket 2/2 for the lightweights, we think the big story here is a potential rematch between Levi Jones-Leary and Renato Canuto; we could also see Jones-Leary take on lightweight legend Michael Langhi for the very first time.
Levi's first major challenge of the event should come in the quarter-final where he could meet anyone from Leo Lara, Johnny Souza, Lucas Valente, or Guilherme Rocha. However, despite the setback in Abu Dhabi a few weeks back, we believe Levi Jones-Leary should soar past the opening rounds.
Renato Canuto opens the tournament with a match against the legendary Wellington 'Megaton' Dias. Megaton is undoubtedly a challenge for any opponent, but time is on Renato's size, and we expect the explosive Checkmat athlete to make his way to the second round.
From there Canuto runs into either Alef Brito from Ares – a true dark horse of the division – or Finland's Tommi Pulkkanen representing Hilti BJJ.
Renato Canuto vs Michael Langhi – 2018 World Championships
By all reasonabel estimations, the winner of that 1/8 final match estimations should be meet Michael Langhi from Alliance.
In order to face Canuto (or Brito / Pulkkanen) Langhi needs to beat the 25th ranked seed Fabricio Barros; he'll then go on to either fight GF Team's Jake Mackenzie or get a pass from fellow Alliance teammate Victor Figueiredo (Langhi is the senior ranking athlete in this case).