The middleweight division for The Crown has just been announced and the IBJJF has managed to invite four of the best competitors at that weight class to compete on November 19th, 2023. This is now the second men’s division lineup that has been confirmed for the event, as the 4-man featherweight bracket was announced just a few weeks ago. Both of these divisions are stacked with elite competitors but the men aren’t the only ones who’ve been invited so far, as the women’s lightweight division has also been confirmed. With this latest announcement, we now know half of all of the grapplers competing at the event.
$15,000 is available for the divisional winners at The Crown, so it stands to reason that the IBJJF has been able to attract some of the best middleweight grapplers on the planet. The obvious favorite heading in to the tournament is Tainan Dalpra, who was the undisputed greatest middleweight on the planet until incredibly recently. He had beaten pretty much everyone in the division and won back-to-back IBJJF World Championship gold medals but was handed his first IBJJF loss by Jansen Gomes earlier this year.
There might actually be a rematch of the middleweight IBJJF World Championship final in 2022, as Dalpra’s old foe Andy Murasaki has also been invited to compete in this division at The Crown. Alongside him, Pedro Maia will also be involved and he will no doubt be eager to get one back against Dalpra after going 0-3 against him during their careers so far. It isn’t all rematches though, as Maia and Murasaki haven’t faced each other before at black belt. Jackson Nagai is the final entrant and he’s going to present a whole new challenge for each of the other men in the bracket, with his most recent success coming in the lightweight division of the IBJJF World Championship 2023.
