We just got our hands on the brackets for the male and female black belt absolute division, and there are some crazy potential matches!

Women's absolute

The women's absolute division is loaded with five black belt world champions from light-featherweight to heavyweight. Some of the first round matches are wild, with showdowns between the super-heavyweight Venla Luukkonen of Finland and the featherweight Amal Amjahid of Belgium. Veteran black belt and former World champ Luiza Monteiro will take on the brand new British black belt Ffion Davies, who recently won No-Gi Worlds. 

Men's absolute

14 of the 24 men's absolute division entrants are heavyweight or bigger, with lightweight Lucas Lepri the smallest among them. If he wins his first match he's looking at a potential showdown with the two 300lb+ monsters Otavio Nalati and Seif-Eddine Houmine. 

On the other side are Fellipe Andrew (Zenith) and Kaynan Duarte (Atos). Andrew is one of the few men to have beaten Kaynan since the Atos prospect got promoted to black belt and they could meet second round. 

Page 2 of the bracket puts former teammates Manuel Ribamar and Igor Schneider on a quarterfinal collision course. Tanner Rice is the lone American on the other side of the page. Also on that side is Atos standout Gustavo Batista, who closed out Pans and Worlds in 2018. 

Watch the 2019 IBJJF European Championships

Jan. 15-20 | Lisbon, Por