The IBJJF Grand Prix 2023: Men’s Lightweight and Women’s Heavyweight divisions took place on March 3rd, 2023 and both of the tournaments delivered fantastic results. There was only one submission finish out of eleven matches on the card, but there was plenty of action and excitement regardless. Andy Murasaki scored the only submission win in the men’s lightweight tournament, although he lost an incredibly close final match against Johnatha Alves. Although he was dominated by Alves in the opening round, late replacement Elijah Dorsey came back in the third-place match to win bronze.
The women’s heavyweight tournament featured something of a Cinderella story, as Nathiely de Jesus returned from some time away from the sport to have a child and looked just as dominant as ever. She overcame the eventual bronze medallist Andressa Cintra in the opening round before having one of the closest matches of the night against Ana Vieira, winning the final by just a single advantage. On the other side of the bracket, Melissa Stricker Cueto took home the bronze medal by defeating Cintra in the third-place match. There were also several superfights on the card, with the main event being an excellent matchup between Tainan Dalpra and Isaque Bahiense. This should have been a close match on paper but Dalpra really ran away with it and ended up winning by a seventeen point margin.
IBJJF Grand Prix 2023: Men’s Lightweight And Women’s Heavyweight Full Results And Review
Superfights
Tainan Dalpra defeats Isaque Bahiense via Decision – 19-2 on Points
Ronaldo Junior defeats Francisco Lo via Decision – 5-2 on Advantages
Janaina Lebre defeats Nathalie Ribeiro via Decision – 3-2 on Points
Men’s Lightweight Tournament
Johnatha Alves defeats Elijah Dorsey via Decision – 15-0 on Points
Andy Murasaki defeats Carlos Henrique by Submission – Bow and Arrow Choke (7:29)
Third-place Match
Elijah Dorsey defeats Carlos Henrique via Decision – 5-2 on Points
Final
Johnatha Alves defeats Andy Murasaki via Decision – Referee Decision
Women’s Heavyweight Tournament
Nathiely de Jesus defeats Andressa Cintra via Decision – 6-4 on Points
Ana Carolina Vieira defeats Melissa Stricker Cueto via Decision – 2-0 on Advantages
Third-place Match
Melissa Stricker Cueto defeats Andressa Cintra via Decision – Referee Decision
Final
Nathiely De Jesus defeats Ana Vieira via Decision – 1-0 on Advantages
The full IBJJF Grand Prix 2023: Men’s Lightweight and Women’s Heavyweight event replay, including all of the above results, is available to watch on FloGrappling.