Jiu-Jitsu is growing worldwide, just look at the medal podium from Pans!

While the Brazilians took home a large portion of the gold medals at this year’s IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships, there were a number of other international countries well represented on the medal podium. 

In particular the tournament highlighted the high level Americans who are closing the gap on their Brazilian adversaries. 

In fact, two black belt finals featured an all American cast. In the lightweight final Atos’ JT Torres and Michael Liera Jr proved to be the best in their weight category and closed out one of the most talent rich divisions of the weekend. 

One of the biggest winners of the weekend however was Gianni Grippo. The American from Marcelo Garcia Academy earned one of the biggest wins of his career by taking out fellow American Jamil Hill in the finals of the feather weight division. 

Watch Gianni Grippo vs Jamil Hill

American sensation Keenan Cornelius also took home gold in his weight category and bronze in the absolute. 

However it wasn’t just the Americans that brought back hardware. Norway’s Tommy Langaker managed to fight his way to the semi-finals in the absolute division before falling to super heavyweight Gutemberg Pereira. Langaker would be forced to pull out of his weight division due to injury but not before he earned a bronze medal in the open weight. 

Poland’s Maria Malyjasiak had one of the most impressive performances of her young black belt career taking out Brazilian Jessica Flowers and Canada’s Yacinta Nguyen to earn gold for her home country. 

One of the most surprising results(and historic) from the weekend was the all Japanese final in the Roosterweight division. Countrymen Koji Shibamoto and Tomoyuki Hashimoto traveled all the way across the pacific ocean to meet in the finals. Although the fight was razor close Brasa CTA’s Hasimoto walked away with the gold around his neck.

While the rest of the world is still playing catchup to Brazil the IBJJF Pans was one of the most diverse in recent memory. As jiu-jitsu continues to grow all over the World naturally the podium’s are starting to look a little less atypical than they did just a few short years ago.