By Hywel Teague

The 2018 World Pro in Abu Dhabi saw an explosive and dramatic series of events that led to last year's champion failing to qualify for the main bracket on Thursday. 

World Pro regulations limit two participants per country in the main weight division. The top-ranked competitor from that country is entered into the main bracket, while every other athlete of the same nationality must fight among themselves for the chance to get into the bracket.

The 62kg Brazilian country qualifier contained Bianca Basilio, Luiza Monteiro, Nadia Melo and 2017 World Pro champion Beatriz Mesquita. They would fight in a round-robin, with the highest-placing athlete entered into the main division on Friday. 

The round-robin went as follows: 

Mesquita lost to Monteiro via an advantage in a close 2-2 match but bounced back to submit Basilio with an armlock. Basilio defeated Monteiro with a belly-down footlock that led to Monteiro being carted off in a wheelchair. 

Complicating matters is the fact that Monteiro and Basilio are teammates and had closed out at Pans just last March. UAEJJF tournaments do not permit closeouts and so they fought, and Basilio looked distraught having injured Monteiro. 

Basilio and Monteiro had both beaten Melo, with Basilio winning 4-0 and Monteiro 4-2. However, Melo did not return to fight Mesquita, with Mesquita winning via walkover. 

Mesquita, Monteiro, and Basilio finished with the same number of wins, so we turned to the UAEJJF rulebook to determine who would advance. 

We took this info from the UAEJJF site. 

ROUND-ROBIN RULES:

In the case of 6 competitors or less: a round robin system produces the gold and silver and one bronze for the 3rd place.

“Round Robin” Is defined as a system where each competitor will compete against each other.

To define the winners the following criteria are used:

1. First criteria: Number of wins

2. Second criteria (in case of an equal number of wins): The highest sum of submissions will decide

3. Third criteria (in case of an equal number of wins): The highest sum of winning score points will decide.

Example: Red scored two points and one advantage and Blue scored two points and zero advantages: the advantage is defined as the winning score (1 point) for Red.

4. Fourth criteria (in case of equal number of wins and sum of winning score points): Direct comparison.

If two contestants have equal number of wins and sum of score point, the contestant who won the contest between them is defined as better

5. Fifth criteria (in case of equal number of wins and no direct comparison possible because of “beating in circle”): The shortest accumulated time of all winning contests will decide

6. Sixth criteria (in case of equal time): Weight at the weigh-in. The competitor with the lower weight is defined as better.

7. Seventh criteria (in case of same weight): Decision matches. A knock-out system between the involved players will be used. A new draw has to be performed.

Basilio and Mesquita both had two wins and one loss, each having a submission win. That means we must move down to the third criteria to determine who advanced—as Basilio had more points, she was declared the winner of the group. 

Basilio will enter the -62kg main bracket on Friday. She will face Myriam Zitouni of France in the opening match. Watch it on Mat 7.

Beatriz Mesquita taps Bianca Basilio with an armlock. Photo: Michael Sears

Beatriz Mesquita vs. Luiza Monteiro. Photo: Michael Sears

Beatriz Mesquita. Photo: Michael Sears

Bianca Basilio. Photo: Michael Sears