EBI 24 has just been announced and the bantamweights will be hitting the mat on July 27th, 2025 and the first competitors have just been confirmed. The promotion always delivers entertaining events and this latest one will be no exception, as two former champions will be competing in the same bracket. They’re both dropping down from the featherweight division but they earned their titles under slightly different rulesets within the group of events founded and run by Eddie Bravo. Although Combat Jiu-Jitsu is very different to regular EBI rules of course, winning a title there is just as challenging as doing so here.
Demian Balderrama is the one looking to become a double champion under EBI rules, as he actually won the most recent edition of the event just a few months ago. He submitted all four of his opponents at EBI 23: The Featherweights and will definitely be one of the favorites to win gold here. The other champion and top contender coming over from CJJ is Gabriel Austin Daffron, who achieved his success by submitting three out of four opponents in regulation time a little over a year ago at the Combat Jiu-Jitsu featherweight Worlds 2024. Both men are capable of finishing the match in a variety of ways and it’ll be tough to stop either one of them.
Veteran competitors Marcelo Cohen and Manny Vazquez have also been confirmed, while EBI 23 has also drawn in some elite MMA talent as well. UFC veteran Edgar Chairez will be competing in the tournament and with 8 submission wins during his MMA career, he should make for a tough opponent for anyone who comes across him in the bracket. The promotion has also announced an excellent superfight between two exciting female MMA fighters, as Montserrat Ruiz and Julieta Martinez will be battling it out. Ruiz is a UFC veteran with a 10-4 professional MMA record, while Martinez is a top prospect with a 9-0 record.
The Eddie Bravo Invitational announced the news that EBI 24 was going to feature bantamweights in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
