The full ultra-heavyweight division has just been announced for The Crown 2024 on November 17th, 2024 and it’s full of the best IBJJF competitors in the world. It’s the heaviest division available and because the tournament only operates four men’s divisions, it’s got many of the biggest names in the sport condensed into one eight-man bracket. This will only be the second time that this event has taken place after its debut in 2023 and not every division has the reigning champion returning, although thankfully this weight class does. The ultra-heavyweight division was pretty anti-climactic back at The Crown 2023, so hopefully the new invitees will be able to shake things up.
Erich Munis was the champion last year after getting the only win in the division by advantages, and he’s back now with the goal of registering a clearer victory. The default silver medalist from last year, Roosevelt Sousa, is also back again and it’ll be interesting to see how he does with a much bigger bracket ahead of him. One of the other top contenders in the bracket is a man who has had some fantastic performances in the absolute division at major IBJJF events this year, Gutemberg Pereira. Although these three men will be very tough to beat, the rest of the division has just as much of a chance of coming out on top.
Marcus Ribeiro is another top-ranked ultra-heavyweight contender who will be looking to come out of The Crown 2024 having proven his position among the other IBJJF competitors. There’s another two grapplers who might not be ranked as highly on a global scale, but they’re both among the very best gi competitors in Europe. Kristof Szucs and Kjetil Lydvo will be representing Hungary and Norway respectively and although they will be considered underdogs in this division, they’re far too skilled to be counted out. If any of the top contenders do look past them, they could be in for a very rude awakening on the mats.
The final two men rounding out the bracket are another pair who will be up against some difficult odds, although for slightly different reasons. Felipe Costa and Pedro Machado have both proven themselves to be elite competitors, but at slightly lower weight classes than this. Costa most recently stood on the podium of the under 88kg division at ADCC 2024 and Machado is known as a heavyweight normally. There’s no news on why Costa has chosen to make the jump up in weight but Machado is doing so to avoid facing his teammate Gustavo Batista, who is already part of the heavyweight lineup.
The full IBJJF: The Crown 2024 event, including the ultra-heavyweight division above, is available to watch live on November 17th, 2024, on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.
