IBJJF 2017 European Championships By The Numbers
We love to look over data from jiu-jitsu tournaments. Analyzing the figures helps us spot important trends in the sport and gives fans, athletes and coaches a better understanding of the game as a whole.
The IBJJF 2017 European Championships was a huge event – over 3900 athletes from 72 countries – but we’re going to take a deep dive into one division: the adult male black belts.
There were 154 male black belt matches across 10 weight categories (including the absolute, or open weight).
The largest category was the openweight with 35 matches. After this was the middleweight division, which had 19 matches.
| Division | No. of Matches | Submissions | Sub % |
| Absolute | 35 | 14 | 40% |
| Middleweight | 19 | 9 | 47.30% |
| Featherweight | 19 | 9 | 47.30% |
| Medium heavyweight | 18 | 8 | 44.40% |
| Lightweight | 17 | 6 | 41.10% |
| Heavyweight | 16 | 3 | 18.75% |
| Ultra heavyweight | 8 | 5 | 62.50% |
| Roosterweight | 8 | 3 | 18.75% |
| Light featherweight | 8 | 3 | 18.75% |
| Super heavyweight | 6 | 1 | 16.60% |
The lowest was the super heavyweight division, with a submission rate of 16.6%.
The athlete with the most matches was Leandro Lo, who tallied up 9 matches in his weight division and the absolute, winning 7 by points and 2 by submission (28.5%).
Two athletes shared the top spot for the highest number of submissions.
Alliance teammates Rubens 'Cobrinha' Charles and Alec Baulding (featherweight and middleweight champions, respectively) both won 3 of their 4 matches by submission, a finishing rate of 75%.
Next was Claudio Calasans, who submitted 3 of his 5 opponents. All of Calasans’s matches took place in the absolute division, and all of his opponents were heavier than him.
Overall, 60 of the 154 black belt adult male matches ended by submission – a total of 38.9%.
| Method | RW | LFW | FW | LW | MW | MHW | HW | SHW | UHW | ABS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armlock | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Choke | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |
| Leglock | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Triangle | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Wristlock | 1 |
Stay tuned for more breakdowns like this for future events.