Jansen Gomes just shocked the world at the IBJJF World Championship 2023 as he dethroned Tainan Dalpra to win gold in the middleweight division. Although he has historically competed at the medium-heavyweight division and done well while doing so, Gomes has never won a world title before. His biggest achievements at that weight was a gold medal at the IBJJF European Championship 2023 and a silver medal at the IBJJF Pan Championship 2023. His decision to drop down to middleweight appears to have paid off in a huge way, as he’s now registered the biggest win of his career so far.
Gomes is undoubtedly a top competitor, but very few people could have predicted that he was going to upset the hierarchy in the middleweight division as much as he did at the IBJJF World Championship 2023. Dalpra was always going to be the favourite leading up to the event given that he hadn’t lost a single match on the IBJJF mats as a black belt at that point, but there was one other name that was emerging as a potential winner. Tye Ruotolo was the lightweight champion from 2022 and he had also moved to middleweight to challenge Dalpra for the crown.
The majority of people looking at the division, including both Ruotolo and Dalpra themselves, predicted that they would be meeting in the middleweight final. Gomes fought tooth and nail to get into the semi-final and guarantee himself a place on the podium, only to be stood across from Ruotolo. It was an incredibly difficult match but in the end, Jansen Gomes defeated Ruotolo and booked his place in the final opposite Tainan Dalpra. That was another gruelling battle that really took everything that Gomes had but he was able to dethrone the king and take his place as the new middleweight world champion.
The footage of Jansen Gomes defeating Tainan Dalpra and being declared the winner of the middleweight division at the IBJJF World Championship 2023 was uploaded to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
