Polaris 27 is scheduled for March 23rd, 2024 and the full lineup for the welterweight grand prix taking place at the event has now been announced. Elite competitors from all around the world have been invited to compete in the 8-man tournament and there several other exciting grapplers booked for the event as well. Ffion Davies will be defending her under 55kg title against Brianna Ste-Marie in one of the biggest matches of the night, and another of the promotion’s belts will be on the line shortly before. Keith Krikorian and Owen Jones are meeting for the vacant featherweight belt in a battle between two top competitors from either side of the ocean.
The welterweight grand prix lineup at Polaris 27 features a nice mixture of young up-and-coming talents as well as veteran competitors. The most experienced no gi grappler in the bracket is ADCC veteran PJ Barch, but he has some very tough opposition waiting for him. The other two highly-experienced competitors actually both have more time on the mats in the gi, as Espen Mathiesen and Levi Jones-Leary are making the transition to high-level no gi competition. Although he hasn’t had the same amount of experience at the highest level, Max Hanson is an incredibly prolific competitor with a ton of matches under his belt for several different smaller promotions.
There are also a pair of young ADCC Trials winners competing in the tournament too, potentially setting up a series of matches if they meet again later this year at ADCC 2024. These two top contenders are Jozef Chen and Luiz Paulo, both of whom put on a series very impressive performances on the way to winning their ADCC invites. Alongside them is Davis Asare, a representative of New Wave Jiu-Jitsu who managed to win a silver medal at ADCC Trials in a huge breakthrough performance earlier this year. Rounding out the bracket is the winner of the Polaris Contenders tournament, Harrison Woods, who might be seen as an underdog but will still present a huge challenge to whoever he faces at the event.
Polaris announced the full lineup for the welterweight grand prix at Polaris 27 in a recent post to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
