Worlds 2018 have begun. A wave of bluebelts received promotions last night for their outstanding performances. And while that's certainly nice the attention of the public is once again turned toward the black belt divisions.
Ultraheavy division is set to feature 19 men including Marcus Almeida Buchecha who will be breaking Roger Gracie's record if he were to repeat last year's success.
In his division will be Joao Rocha - who has some unsettled scores with Buchecha and ADCC victor Yuri Simoes notably. Also featuring active UFC fighter Antonio Braga Neto.
Super heavyweight will be featuring Leandro Lo most notably. The year started spectacularly for Lo but as it went on he lost some of his momentum having been kneebarred by Santos painfully and also losing to Craig Jones via sub at ADCC. Lo will have the biggest opponents in Erberth Santos and new(ish) stand out Meregali.
Heavyweight division will be featuring Keenan Cornelius and Jackson Souza.
Also featuring Europe's biggest hope - Adam Wardzinski.
Middle heavyweight division is in a transitional phase as Leandro Lo has moved up higher and Galvao having retired. Given the stand out performance at Brazilieros our money is on Lucas Hulk Barbosa.
Middleweight seems like a shoe in for Gabriel Arges whose game was recently a subject of series of bjjscout videos. Biggest opposition to Arges will be Otavio Souza and Claudio Calasans.
Further down the weight division there's JT Torres and Lucas Lepri. In what will likely be a gi redux of the adcc 77kg division the two outstanding competitors will be likely to face off in the finals.
Elsewhere with Cobrinha out of Worlds 2018 there's some room for change in Featherweight. It's likely to be between Marcio Andre, AJ Agazarm and Gianni Grippo.
With Paulo Miyao out on a suspension it's likely we'll be seeing Musameci Jr defend the title at 64kg.
Do you agree? Disagree? I'm looking forward to discussing this with anyone willing