ADCC has handed out the first four invites for renowned grapplers to participate in the upcoming World Championships. Among invitees, there’s one female competitor, two from 88kg weight class and one from 99kg weight class.
Despite promotion’s declaration about expanding women’s divisions, there is no news about changing things from where they are now. That means that women will compete in two weight classes with eight competitors each. One of them will be Bianca Basilio, who is a 2019 ADCC 60kg World Champion and won her 2 of 3 bouts via submission.
In the 99kg weight class we will see Felipe Pena in action. He’s a division’s silver medalist from 2015 and 2017. He also won the absolute division in 2017 when he has defeated Gordon Ryanb via a judge’s decision. In 2019 he has unsuccessfully attempted to grab the superfight championship and lost to Andre Galvao.
As for the 88kg weight class invitations were handed to Craig Jones and Alexandre Ribeiro. The Australian athlete is a division’s silver medalist from 2019. Two years earlier in the third-place bout, he was bested by another invitee, Ribeiro.
Ribeiro has returned to active competition in 2020 after two years of hiatus. Since then he had three bouts, resulting in two victories and a draw. He has won gold in 2007 in 99 kg division, but now he’ll enter another weight class – 88kg, to be specific.
Featured Image courtesy of ADCC Instagram.
