After waging an absolute war against the dynamic Kaynan Duarte, IBJJF Absolute finalist Leandro Lo closed out the championship match with his longtime friend and rival Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida. This marks the third time the two men have met in the absolute finals, with Buchecha giving the win to Lo due to injury the previous year. With this, Buchecha has won the absolute division a staggering 13 times.
In the women’s absolute, Nathiely Karoline de Jesus defeated Beatriz Mesquita 4-0. Crossing paths for the first time on the tournament stage, the two grapplers both began by pulling guard with Mesquita ending up in closed guard. Grip fighting took them both to the edge of the mat where they were dragged back to center. Threading a lasso with her left leg, de Jesus keeps Mesquita at a distance while establishing control of both sleeves.
After maintaining position for several minutes, de Jesus is able to sweep after Mesquita disengages the grip fighting in order to attempt to pass. Keeping grips on the collar and pant leg of Mesquita, de Jesus fights off a half spider guard while trying to pass. Mesquita earns an advantage from a takedown that puts her opponent out of bounds, so they are again reset.
This phase mirrors the beginning of the match, with both fighters pulling guard and de Jesus ending up on bottom. After attempting to stack de Jesus several times, Mesquita decides to attempt a toe hold after collecting her right leg. Transitioning to a kneebar after the toe hold doesn’t work, de Jesus sprint escapes from the leg entanglement and once again has Mesquita in her closed guard.
With less than 20 seconds on the clock, de Jesus takes advantage of Mesquita’s knee slide attempt to pull off a sweep, earning a second two points. Despite Mequita making one final toe hold attempt, the buzzer sounded and de Jesus was crowned the winner.
