The IBJJF Phoenix Open 2023 took place on July 29th and 30th, 2023 and the tournament attracted quite a few high-level grapplers to compete. While there was significantly more competitors choosing to enter the gi divisions on the first day, there were a handful of people who managed to take home two gold medals. Both Roiter Lima and Samuel Nagai won their respective divisions at light-featherweight and lightweight, before being given default medals in their no gi divisions. Both of them had tough brackets on the first day though, particularly Nagai who had to defeat Danilo Moreira in the final of his division.
Jackson Nagai also competed on both days, winning a pair of gold medals in the gi and no gi middleweight divisions. As a result of his success, Mathias Luna had to settle for a silver medal from the division shortly before he came back the next day to win gold in the no gi absolute division. His brother Matheus Luna only competed on the first day but he won gold in the gi at medium-heavyweight before taking home a bronze medal from the absolute division. Mateus Rodrigues was the man who the won the absolute division, although he wasn’t able to make it a pair of gold medals as he lost out on the top spot of the heavyweight podium to Horlando Monteiro.
The most surprising entrants at the IBJJF Phoenix Open 2023 were Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira and Fellipe Andrew, who dominated the featherweight and heavyweight divisions in the gi respectively. Andrew had some particularly tough opposition though, as he had to beat Italo Lima Costa in the final. There wasn’t very many competitors in the women’s divisions and they were really a showcase for two grapplers in particular. Melissa Stricker won gold in the women’s super-heavyweight division in the gi but had to settle for silver in the absolute, with Leticia Cardozo taking home the gold. Cardozo took a default gold medal from the heavyweight division but she returned on the second day to win another hard-fought gold medal from the no gi absolute division.
