The Ocean BJJ Pro Championship 2025 is scheduled for September 20th, 2025 and the promotion has just finished announcing the 9 special guests who have been invited to compete. Every other slot in the tournament has been filled by the winners of one of this year’s Trials events, with these being the only competitors who haven’t had to win their invite. Some of them have been invited on the basis of their successes at different events throughout their careers, and 3 of them have been invited because they won their respective divisions at the inaugural edition of the Ocean BJJ Pro Championship last year.
The first reigning champion who will be returning is Gamila Kanew, and she will actually be competing in both the under and over 65kg divisions. She won both of those brackets last year and is the only female champion that the promotion has had, so attempting to defend both titles at once is truly an impressive effort. She has some very tough opponents waiting for her of course, with Martina Zola and Eleftheria Christodolou standing out as her biggest threats. Kanew had talented grapplers in her bracket last time around though and she managed to win both then, so it’s not hard to imagine her doing the same again.
The men’s champions are Tarik Hopstock and Luccas Lira at under and over 80kg respectively, and both of them are returning here. They also have plenty of challenging matches waiting for them in their brackets, but they are also still among the favorites to win. Pawel Jaworski is another of the special guests for 2025 and he also has experience at Ocean BJJ Pro Championship, as he competed in both weight classes last year. He made deep runs and got big wins in both, so now he’s coming back to do the same after being invited as a guest at over 80kg and winning his spot at under 80kg in the very first Trial.
Manuel Pilato is also returning as one of the special guests at over 80kg, after he was on the receiving end of a shock upset in the opening round last year. He came in with big expectations as one of Italy’s top competitors so he’ll likely be eager to prove himself this year. Then the final man rounding out that bracket is Alexander Sak, who will be making his promotional debut. The German black belt is a veteran and he’s shared the mats with some of the best in the world, so he also represents a tough matchup for anyone who ends up facing him.
The under 80kg division is also drawing in talent from all over the world, starting with Kenta Iwamoto. Iwamoto has won ADCC Trials multiple times over the last few years and is coming in fresh off one of the best performances of his career at CJI 2. He will be joined by Alexandre De Jesus and Jed Hue, who have both been competing successfully at the highest level for several years now. De Jesus has won ADCC Trials before and the IBJJF No Gi World Championship last year, while Hue has established himself as one of the UK’s top grapplers and will be a very familiar face for any Polaris fans.
The full Ocean BJJ Pro Championship grand finale 2025, including all of the special guests above, will be available to watch live on September 20th, 2025 on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.
