The IBJJF Charleston Fall Open 2023 took place across the weekend of October 28th and 29th, 2023 and there was high-level grappling going on in every black belt bracket. There were a number of big names competing at the event and a lot of them ended up competing in both the gi and no gi divisions. One of the most impressive performance on the first day came from Joao Rocha, who managed to win the lightweight division in style. Heavyweight saw an interesting matchup too, as Lucas Calado beat Sean Yadimarco in the only match of the division.
Miranda returned in the absolute division to get a silver medal, but he couldn’t overcome the weight advantage that Jose Inacio Dos Santos had in the final. Dos Santos won the ultra-heavyweight division earlier on in the day and he returned on the second day to increase his medal haul even further. He won both the ultra-heavyweight and the absolute division again, improving his tally to four gold medals from the IBJJF Charleston Fall Open 2023. Johnny Tama left with four medals too, although his were a pair of default gold medals from the gi and no gi middleweight divisions along with a pair of bronze medals from the respective absolute divisions.
The no gi absolute division saw another big achievement, as Emilio Hernandez stepped up after taking a default gold medal at featherweight in order to win a bronze medal there. There weren’t many female black belts taking to the mats and that meant that the only matches in the adult brackets were in the absolute division. It was elite grappler Thamires Monteiro who ended up shining over both days though, as she won both the gi and no gi absolute division after taking a pair of default gold medals in her regular weight classes.
