The next edition of The Crown is scheduled for November 17th, 2024 and the IBJJF have just announced the full lineup for the women’s super-heavyweight division. Despite the fact that the division is stacked with incredible competitors, there is still one woman who stands out as the clear favorite to take home the title. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise either, as she won the inaugural edition of The Crown last year and has won every single major gi grappling tournament for several years now. Only a truly elite grappler could win such a prestigious event but it takes something truly special to win multiple IBJJF Grand Slams.
That woman is Gabrieli Pessanha and she’s beaten every single other woman in this lineup before, some of them multiple times over. Although last year’s silver medalist is absent, the bronze medalist Melissa Stricker will be making her return and she’ll no doubt be eager to face Pessanha after not getting the chance to do so in 2023. Pessanha has been unbeaten for so long now and became the double champion for the fourth year in a row at the IBJJF World Championship 2024, but she isn’t the only reigning world champion who’s been invited to compete in this weight class.
Tamiris Silva is the reigning heavyweight world champion and she’ll be moving up in weight in order to face Pessanha and the other elite competitors. Nathiely De Jesus will also be competing and with five IBJJF World Championship gold medals under her belt, she’s definitely going to be a threat. Although these four women might be the top contenders to take home the title in the women’s super-heavyweight division of The Crown 2024, there’s an IBJJF No Gi World Championship winner in the mix as well. That’s Mayara Custodio, and the veteran grappler could definitely make life hard for every one else in the bracket.
The final three women who are rounding out the bracket are all much less experienced as black belts, but each of them have already shown that they have what it takes to compete at this level. Both Giovanna Jara and Maria Vicentini have only been black belts for a little over a year but they both stood on the podium of major events already. Jara won ADCC Trials while she was still a brown belt, and Vicentini took a silver medal at the IBJJF World Championship on her first attempt as a black belt this year. Isabely Lemos is the final woman in the lineup and she won the IBJJF Grand Slam at brown belt this year, being promoted to black belt on the podium of the world championship just four months ago.
The full IBJJF: The Crown 2024 event, including the women’s super-heavyweight division above, is available to watch live on November 17th, 2024, on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.
