Xande Ribeiro has just announced that he intends to make his return to BJJ competition in 2025, something he revealed an interview with FloGrappling during Jiu-Jitsu Con. Although he was at one point one of the top competitors in the world, Ribeiro has been officially retired from the sport for the last two years. He was very active during the peak of his career from 2001 to 2018 and won multiple ADCC and IBJJF World Championship titles during that time, but he began to slow down after that. From 2019 to 2022 he only competed a total of five times, with the final time he stepped on the mats coming at ADCC 2022.
FloGrappling caught up with Ribeiro while he was busy coaching his team at Jiu-Jitsu Con 2024 and that’s when he revealed that he wanted to return to the competitive side of the sport:
”The past two years after my retirement I haven’t done anything but build a business, build a brand, and coach my guys but I do feel the little itch. So I’m back in competition next year but it’s not to prove that I can be a champ or anything. It’s just to keep myself healthy, inspire the students, and like I said I like to be in the party. I’m not sure about (IBJJF Master World Championship) because it’s just so much people it’s very difficult for me not to commit into the team because it’s just such a big tournament.”
Xande Ribeiro is known for his success at ADCC and major IBJJF events, but he explained that he has his eyes on one particular BJJ tournament for his return at the beginning of 2025:
“I’ll pick some things like superfights for Who’s Number One maybe, BJJ Stars. We never know what’s gonna happen there. I do plan on competing at (the IBJJF European Championship) next year, maybe just competing in countries that they don’t have access to us so it will be a fun journey.”
