The black belt open weight divisions at this year’s IBJJF Pan American Championship have (mostly) finished, and with Atos’ Luiza Monteiro and Rafaela Guedes closing out the women’s class, there’s just one more open weight title on the line.
Fellipe Andrew will be taking on Gustavo Batista for the men’s open weight division at Pans on Sunday after the two athletes made it through some of the top male competitors in jiu-jitsu.
Both Andrew and Batista had a bye in round one, then started their journeys up the bracket with one-sided points victories over Nicholas Ospina and Julian Synan, respectively. Andrew then went on to achieve a shockingly quick victory over Roberto Jimenez in the quarter-finals, countering Jimenez’s toehold with a straight ankle lock that earned him a trip to the semis within the first minute of the match. Batista, meanwhile, was up 13-0 on Jake Watson before finishing the match in about four minutes with a head-arm choke.
In the semifinals, Batista came back from a point deficit against Max Gimenis to choke his opponent and earn his spot in the finals. Andrew took on Murilo Santana and defeated him 6-0 to earn his chance at open weight gold.
You can watch all the matches from this year’s Pans on FloGrappling.
