The women’s under 65kg division at ADCC 2024 is now completely booked out, as all four invites available in the division have now been announced. This makes it the first division to fill up with competitors, as there will only be 8 spaces in the bracket and the other 4 will go to the winners of ADCC Trials. There’s no reigning champion in the division as it was newly created for this edition of ADCC, and none of the women invited won gold at ADCC 2022 either. The first invite did go out to a former champion though, as Beatriz ‘Bia’ Mesquita actually won the under 60kg division back in 2017 and came out with a bronze medal last time around.
The next invite went out to the other medalist from the under 60kg division at ADCC 2022, as top Canadian grappler Brianna Ste-Marie won the silver medal back then. She stands a great chance of coming away with the gold medal this time around thanks to the fact that the only woman who beat her at ADCC last time around will not be competing in the same division. On the other hand, there will also be several new challenges waiting for Ste-Marie in the bracket and anything can happen in a tournament as unpredictable as ADCC.
Amanda Leve earned the next invite in this recent batch and she definitely earned her place, as she has already managed to put in some fantastic performances under the ADCC ruleset. She actually won the over 65kg division at the ADCC North American East Coast Trials in 2023, although there was no invite available for female competitors at that edition of ADCC Trials unfortunately. She returned to win an invite at the ADCC North American West Coast Trials 2024, but she had to settle for a silver medal this time and it’s great to see that she’s been given an invite regardless.
The final of the invites announced for the women’s under 65kg division at ADCC 2024 went out to Morgan Black, who actually had a similar story to Leve coming up to this point. She also competed at the North American East Coast Trials last year and also won a gold medal without an invite, although she was competing at this weight class. When she returned in the North American West Coast Trials she actually faced the same opponent she beat in the previous final, Helena Crevar, and couldn’t repeat the same success as last time. Black also gets an invite regardless and those first two matches have set up a potential trilogy match at some point at ADCC 2024.
The four invites for the women’s under 65kg division at ADCC 2024 were all announced in a series of posts to the promotion’s official Instagram account: