Top ATOS competitor Rafael Silveira has just been promoted to black belt on the mats at the IBJJF World Championship after he won the middleweight division at brown belt. 2023 has been very seen Silveira achieve some great things so far, as he won gold in the same division at the IBJJF Pan Championship earlier in the year. He had to beat some of the most promising talents in the BJJ world in order to win both of these tournaments, and many of the people he’s defeated will be competing at the highest levels of the sport over the next few years.
It just so happens that Silveira is a step ahead of them and his coach Andre Galvao has decided that he’s ready for the next level of IBJJF competition now. He had to defeat five tough opponents in order to win the division and he put on several great performances in his matches. When he had his hand raised as the winner of the final match, Galvao threw a black belt onto the mats for Rafael Silveira in order to signal his promotion. Naturally Silveira rushed to celebrate with his coach, shortly before taking the trip to the podium to collect his hard-earned gold medal.
While Silveira definitely deserves to compete among the best on the planet, he’s in a notoriously difficult division when he returns to the IBJJF World Championship next year. The king of the middleweight division is Tainan Dalpra and Tye Ruotolo is the main challenge to his crown this year, so no matter who wins it will be a tough bracket for Silveira when he returns in 2024. He’s far from the only top brown belt competitor to put in an impressive performance at the IBJJF world championship too, as AOJ’s Cole Abate also won gold in the lightweight division.
Rafael Silveira shared the footage of him being promoted to black belt after winning the IBJJF World Championship at brown belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
