The 2022 Brazilian National Championships will take place at the Ginasio Jose Correa in Sao Paulo, Brazil from May 6-14. Historically, the event has always been one of the toughest major tournaments on the calendar as many athletes who are unable to compete outside of Brazil are present and are hungry for gold. This year will be no exception as Dream Art, Fight Sports, Atos, Cicero Costha, Alliance, CheckMat, and Nova Uniao are bringing their best competitors. There are many interesting storylines heading into the event including the Fight Sports Brazil team bringing their elite group of black belts to the tournament and team Dream Art chasing their second straight team title. The following is a preview of the adult male black belt divisions.

Rooster

2021 Champion - Yuri Hendrex

The rooster weight division has grown tremendously over the past few years, which is evidenced by the amount of elite competitors at the major tournaments. This year’s rooster weight division at the Brazilian Nationals includes Roiter Lima of Gracie Barra, Nathannael Fernandes of Fight Sports Brazil, and Rodrigo Otavio of Dream Art, among other great competitors. Roiter is a No-Gi World and No-Gi Pans silver medalist. Nathannael is a student of Melqui Galvao and recently won the light feather division at the Rio Open. Rodrigo also won the Rio Open but in the rooster weight division. Other potential contenders include brown belt European champion Italo Frota and Felipe Pena black belt Oziel Santos.

Light feather

2021 Champion - Meyram Alves

Light feather is another division that has a lot of young talented competitors. Diogo Reis of Fight Sports Brazil made his IBJJF black belt debut at Curitiba Open, where he won all his fights by submission. The Melqui Galvao black belt has an aggressive game from top and bottom and will look to win his first major title as a black belt in Sao Paulo. Cleber Sousa of Atos Jiu-Jitsu won the Brazilian Nationals as a black belt in 2019 and has also performed well at the event in the lower belts. Jhonas Lisboa, who placed third at the 2021 Brazilian Nationals, is also in the division.

Feather

2021 Champion - Fabricio Andrey

Fabricio Andrey of Fight Sports Brazil will return to the featherweight division looking for his second Brazilian National title as a black belt. The 2021 gold medalist will have plenty of challengers waiting for him at featherweight. 2022 European champion Diego Sodre of Nova Uniao will bring his exciting and aggressive style to the division. Kennedy Maciel of Alliance and Samuel Nagai of CheckMat are also in the bracket. Both athletes have had plenty of success in recent open tournaments in 2022.

Light

2021 Champion - Matheus Gabriel

Generally known as one of the toughest weight classes in jiu-jitsu, this year’s lightweight division at Brazilian Nationals further reinforces that sentiment. Pans and Worlds silver medalist Lucas Valente of Gracie Barra will be competing at lightweight along with Alexandre Molinaro, Ygor Rodrigues, Lucas Gualberto, Luiz Paulo, Pablo Lavaselli, and Natan Chueng. With no shortage of talent at lightweight it’s hard to predict a potential champion. But you can be certain that you’ll see many action-packed fights full of great passing, guard work, and submissions.

Middle

2021 Champion - Leonardo Lara

Another division that is bound to be both competitive and exciting is middleweight. Micael Galvao of Fight Sport Brazil is one the most exciting young black belts in the sport, and he’ll look for his first major title as a black belt this weekend. Mica competed at the Curitiba Open in March where he had four fights and finished all of them by submission. 2021 Brazilian National silver medalist Wallison Oliveira will also join the middleweight division along with Felipe Pena black belt Servio Tulio.

Medium-Heavy

2021 Champion - Mauricio Oliveira

Three time Brazilian National champion Murilo Santana will return to Sao Paulo this weekend in search of his fourth title. Murilo has a long history of competition in Brazil where he’s achieved some of the best competitive results of his career. Dream Art competitors Rafael Paganini and Alex Munis are also in at medium-heavy along with Matheus Spirandeli of Alliance and Wellington Luis of Ns Brotherhood.

Heavy

2021 Champion - Gabriel Oliveira

Heavyweight standout Rider Zuchi has been extremely active as a competitor in 2022. He won the Rio Fall Open, the Curitiba Open, the Sul Brasileiro, and the Rio Summer Open this year. The Ns Brotherhood black belt has utilized his guard passing and back takes to collect both heavyweight and open class gold medals. Joining Rider at heavyweight will be Ns Brotherhood teammates Pedro Elias and Leandro Santos. Adam Bradley of Atos and Filipe Pimentel Pinheiro of Qatar BJJ / Vision Brazil will also be searching for gold in Sao Paulo.

Super-Heavy

2021 Champion - Erich Munis

The super-heavy division at the 2022 Brazilian Nationals includes some of the most accomplished competitors of the event. #1 ranked adult male black belt Fellipe Andrew will enter the division looking for his second Brazilian Nationals title as a black belt. The division is stacked with other elite competitors like Devhonte Johnson, Marcus “Scooby”, Anderson Munis, and Nicholas Meregali. We’ll likely see some of these competitors contending for open class gold as well.

Ultra-Heavy

2021 Champion - Yatan Bueno

Coming off a second place finish at the 2022 Pans, Gutemberg Pereira of GF Team will look to win his first Brazilian National title. Caio Terra Association’s Mason Fowler will make his black belt debut in the ultra-heavy division after winning the Worlds as a brown belt. Other potential contenders in the division include Pedro Alex of GF Team and Otavio Nalati of Guigo JJ.

Open Class

2021 Champion - Erich Munis

The 2022 Brazilian National open class division is bound to be one for the ages. Competitors such as Gutenberg Pereira, Fellipe Andrew, Nicholas Meregalli, Mason Fowler, Rider Zuchi, and Murilo Santana all have the technique and physical conditioning to win open class gold. We could also see lighter competitors such as Mica Galvao or Lucas Valente enter the division, which would add even more excitement to the open class.