The IBJJF Orange County Spring Open 2025 took place on April 19th, 2025 and although there was only gi divisions available, it still attracted some of the best in the world.The men’s double champion was Helder Junior; who won gold at ultra-heavyweight and in the absolute. He had some very tough opposition in both brackets too, beating Vinicius ‘Trator’ Ferreira in the final of his weight class and Mateus Rodrigues in the final of the absolute. That was the second silver medal that Rodrigues won, as he stood on the podium next to his Art of Jiu-Jitsu teammate Francisco Papasidero at super-heavyweight.
ADCC veteran Elder Cruz was one of the absolute bronze medallists and he actually earned another bronze medal too, as he finished third at heavyweight. That was yet another stacked bracket though, with Paulo Merlin winning silver and Jansen Gomes winning gold. Arthur Mariath won the medium-heavyweight division but it was Art of Jiu-Jitsu that won most of the weight classes below that. Pablo Lavaselli won middleweight gold, while Guilherme Fernandes beat Jonata Gomes in the final to win the lightweight division. The final AOJ black belt champion came at featherweight, where Cole Abate took gold over his teammate Gustavo Ogawa.
Rodnei Barbosa helped to buck the trend by winning the light-featherweight division, beating AOJ’s Marcos Guedes in the final in order to do so. There was plenty of action in the women’s divisions at the IBJJF Orange County Spring Open 2025 as well, with Melissa Stricker emerging as the double champion after getting a default gold at heavyweight and winning the absolute. Top European grappler Astrid Scholin got a huge win over Emily Nicholson to win the featherweight title, but she had to settle for bronze in the absolute while Nicholson won another silver there. Mayara Melo also stood out, getting a pair of solid wins to take home gold at lightweight.
