Both ends of the spectrum. Photo: Erin Herle

Last month the IBJJF announced that females of both adult and master divisions will have two new weight classes: rooster and super-heavy. The additions came after much noise was made for the smallest and the tallest women who wanted a category to themselves.

The female categories vary from the men categories. Their rooster is not ours. Their heaviest will never be our heaviest. But even so, we’ve been expanding our numbers so the divisions should cater to these developments.

As of now the lightest category for the females is light-feather with a weight limit of 118 lbs or 53.5 kg. For the petite, this can be frustrating when the ladies who cut down to the weight are having an easier time than those who try to gain the weight to be closer to the limit. On the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweight category as of now starts above 163.3 lbs or 74 kg and has no cap on the weight limit. So those who are above that weight must fight every other person ho could possibly outweigh them by more than the normal bracket difference, around twelve pounds at most.

The IBJJF has secured the new weight division limits and they will be in effect starting at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship May 28 – June 1. As with every tournament, weigh-ins are handled when an athlete is checked in for their first match. All weigh-ins are done with the gi on so make sure you take into account the weight of your chosen competition gi if you plan on cutting down a division.

Here are the new categories:

Rooster: 107 lbs or 48.5 kg

Super-heavy: over 175 lbs or 79.3 kg with no limit.

Female athletes in the heavyweight division can now compete against those who are more aimed towards their size and the heaviest category can narrow down those most similar in weight.

While the registrations currently open for the IBJJF city tournaments such as Boston Open, New York Open, Boca Raton Open, Las Vegas Open, Copenhagen Open and others will have the same weight classes. The rooster and super-heavy will only apply to the Worlds and after.

Registration for the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship will open soon and give female athletes a chance to join those closer to their weight if they have struggled in the past with losing or gaining the weight necessary to match their opponents.

Check out more information about IBJJF and their events at www.ibjjf.org

Milton celebrates, Glodzinski realizes the mistake and Ivaniel protests

The adult male black belt roosterweight semifinal between Milton Bastos (Brasa CTA) and Ivaniel Oliveira (Checkmat) was nerve-racking.

The drama started early on, when Milton caught Ivaniel in a tight triangle.

Referee Andre Glodzinski was paying close attention to the defense attempt by Ivaniel and at one point he was convinced that the Checkmat athlete had lost conscience, which meant the fight was over.

Glodzinski stopped the match and to his surprise, Ivaniel was wide awake and saying he did not tap.

Bastos’ first triangle

“I saw his legs relaxing and was sure he had slept, so I stopped the match. Thinking back, I should have checked Ivaniel’s legs closely before stopping it. The thing is that the fight prior to that one ended with one of the athletes cold out and my action was to preserve his physical integrity” explained Andre.

The solution for the mistake came in the form of two points for Milton and the restart of the match at the point it was interrupted.

The problem for Bastos was that he went from submitting his opponent to being in deep waters soon after.

As soon as the match restarted, Ivaniel went for it and passed Milton’s guard.

Now behind in the scoreboard, Milton kept playing guard and almost had another triangle choke in place.

Ivaniel passes

Ivaniel escaped and almost got Milton’s back with less than one minute left.

That’s when things got unreal.

With the clock running out, Milton escaped the back attack and rolled on top to attack Ivaniel’s back himself.

First he put the hooks to score 4 points and then went for the neck.

With seconds to the end, Ivaniel did what he didn’t do in the beginning and tapped three times.

The final celebration

Bastos’ celebration came out with the intensity that only those who have to win twice the same match can reach.

He tried to put it into words: “Gosh, it’s hard to explain! It was a relief from the frustration of having the match restarted. This frustration quickly became joy when I tapped him again. I didn’t even know how much time left we had and all I heard was my coaches Samir Chantre and Osvaldo Moizinho telling me to put the hooks in to win. I did that, but I also felt that my hand was deep in his collar and all I wanted was to submit him again.”

Click here and relive the thrills of one of the best matches of the 2014 Pan.

Caio Terra against Bruno Malfacine at Pan 2013. Photo: Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

Caio Terra is again taking part on the World Championship which begins in Long Beach on May 29, but this time he comes with a few extra pounds.

All because of a high turnover of seminars, which led him to have less time to train and lose weight for the greatest championship of the year.

Despite declaring that he is not 100% certain of competing in light featherweight, Caio hopes to have another memorable performance to thrill the crowd. In order to do so, he planned his camp in San Jose, California with the presence of Augusto “Tanquinho” and over 30 black belts.

Check out the chat with Caio, the current worlds silver medalist of the rooster weight division:

GRACIEMAG: You enrolled as a light featherweight. What was the main reason for this change in weight for the Worlds?

CAIO TERRA: I just got back from Asia, where I had a tour of seminars since March. On Sunday of the Pan, I ran out of the venue so I wouldn’t miss my flight (laughs). In fact, I’ll only really know how I’m feeling for the Worlds in a week. The time zone is still complicated, and I didn’t train a lot because I was traveling almost every day and teaching seminars; that’s the reason why I put on weight. I still don’t know if I’m fighting as a light feather, what I know is that I won’t get on a diet. If I lose weight naturally, which is not as likely, I’ll go to rooster weight. But we are less than 20 days from the Worlds, I don’t know if I can make it. Anyway, I am very motivated to fight as a light feather again.

This is a category with a monster, Guilherme Mendes, triple world champion (2009/11/12). How would you stop him?

Guilherme is good on top and bottom, a very complete athlete that has to be respected. But before fighting him, I need to fight several other very good guys. I just hope I have a good performance because if that happens I’m sure I’ll get a good result.

If you lose weight and really go to the rooster category, have you thought of something special for a possible reunion with Bruno Malfacine, the current champion of the division?

I will count on the help of Augusto Tanquinho in training. I’m glad to have Tanquinho because he may be the guy with a game more like Malfacine’s. I’m hoping Bruno also comes to the heavier category, because it will make it the toughest light feather division of all time and the winner would be a great champion. The owner of the gold would be seen as a living legend (laughs)!

Who else may go to your camp in San Jose?

Let’s see, Leandro Lo I think has some problems and I don’t think he’s coming. It’s a shame. But we are expecting a really good group; our team has Samir Chantre, Oswaldo Queixinho, Flavio Meier, Jeff Galiotto and others. We will count on the whole crew of Soul Fighter and from Claudio Franca’s school, and several other black belts from various teams.

Among the youth, who do you think will draw attention at the Worlds 2013?

I have some very tough blue belts: Edwin Barone, Joshua Vasquez, Ryan Walsh, Kaniela and Dominic Knuz. All with the chance of being world champions. Besides them, I see a great future for Márcio André, purple belt at Nova União, who is a super talented kid. There are also Edwin Najmi, Dante Leon and Michael Liera, all on the right track.

To check who is already confirmed for the World, visit the IBJJF website.

If you would like to register for the 2013 World Championship, click here.