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It’s cold outside, but the action in the gi heats up back in Lisbon for the first gi Grand Slam event of the year: the IBJJF European Championship

Happy 2025 and get your gis on, folks. The action of the IBJJF European Championships finally returns to Lisbon after sojourns in Rome and Paris.Read on and get a dash of the least you should know about the action in Odivelas in the coming weeks. 

The IBJJF European Championship will be occurring in Lisbon, Portugal from January 17-25, 2025. Black belt divisions will be available on FloGrappling on January 24-25, 2025, local time. 

Men’s Black Belt: Division Picks and Highlights

Rooster: I’ll keep this one simple. It’s Thalison Soares’ division and the other guys are just existing in it, except for maybe Cobrinha Black Belt, Jalen Fonacier. The 2024 Brown Belt World Champion is in his rookie season at Black Belt and with a nickname like “The Future,” he should be looking to put Thalison’s dominance into the past. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Thalison Soares

Light-Feather: Cross your fingers for a matchup between Zach Kaina and Keven Carrasco. Everyone wins with that kind of action. Diogo Reis had initially been registered at Feather, but dropped down to Light-Feather at the last moment. Looking at the rest of this field, Baby Shark is going to eat. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Diogo Reis

Feather: Feather is, bar none, the hottest division in this tournament. With Cole Abate, Kennedy Maciel, and Diego Pato, Feather has a show-stopping lineup. Any matchups with these guys in the mix will be barn-burners, but I’m hoping the bracket gods bless us with a Meyram-Cole showdown. Cole’s in his comeback arc and Meyram is one of the most impressive athletes in the sport. The storyline writes itself.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Diego Pato

Light: The deepest division of Euros, anything could happen at Lightweight. Athletes to watch include AOJ’s Pablo Lavaselli, Atos’ Joao Mendes, and Checkmat’s Matheus Gabriel, along with the Norse favorite, Espen Mathiesen, last year’s runner-up. Without a hitter like Mica Galvao in the mix at Light or Middle, anything could happen in a division this big.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Pablo Lavaselli

Middle: The big news here is that Tainan is back. Dalpra has lost some of his shine due to the loss in ‘23 Worlds against Jansen Gomes and the DQ loss against Francisco Lo at Worlds ‘24 (Can the IBJJF make this a Grand Prix matchup, please?) but he remains as dangerous as ever. I’m hoping for a Euros ‘25 repeat of the Worlds ‘22 final between Tainan Dalpra and Andy Murasaki. I still think Andy was robbed at Worlds against Mica in ‘24 and watching Andy’s improvement and grit in repeat matchups against Galvao in 2024 was a delight. I’d love to witness a similar course of clashes between Andy and Tainan in 2025. Murasaki has come a long way since his last matchup against Dalpra at the IBJJF’s The Crown in 2023. It’s due time for a rematch to see just how far he’s come. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: The heart says Andy Murasaki. The brain says Tainan Dalpra

Medium-Heavy: Medium-Heavy is short on talent if Isaque is being considered a favorite for this division, but looking at the list of names, it’s probably the truth. Aside from Bahiense, keep an eye on the very explosive Uanderson Ferreira and the return of Rafael Silveira. SIlveira, a 2023 Brown Belt World Champ from Atos, was sidelined in the tail end of the 2024 season due to back surgery, but returns to the mats and makes his debut at Medium-Heavy at Euros 2025. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Isaque Bahiense, for lack of more proven options

Heavy: Wardzinski turned heads with a show-stopping performance at Worlds 2024, and is single-handedly “making the gi great again” in the heavier weight classes. In the absence of guys like Fellipe Andrew, unless we have a breakout star on our hands, this division belongs to “The Wizard.”

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Adam Wardzinski, with no shortage of butterfly sweeps

Super-Heavy and Ultra-Heavy: I’ll have my eye on Anderson Munis and Nico Maglicic, respectively, but until Victor Hugo and Nicholas Meregali re-enter the field at these weight classes, I’ll be focused on the lighter boys. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Anderson Munis for Super-Heavy. Whoever gasses out last for Ultra-Heavy. 

Women’s Black Belt: Division Picks and Highlights

Rooster: We’ve got a narrow field with interesting competitors in Mara Kelly, Thais Loureiro, Giulia Gregorut, and Yasmyn Castro. I’m most excited to watch Yasmyn Castro, the 2024 Brown Belt World Champ under Marcio Andre in her rookie season at Black Belt. I’m hoping for a Castro vs Gregorut final in which Castro’s sub-oriented style puts Gregorut’s points-playing style under pressure. Without the returning champion out of AOJ, Shelby Murphey, in the mix, this bracket is up for grabs. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Giulia Gregorut

Light-Feather: Watch out for a finals rematch between Jessica Caroline and Mayssa Bastos. Mayssa rarely loses, but took a rare ‘L’ to Jess at the Euros finals in 2024, dashing dreams of a Grand Slam run last year. Odds are that Bastos will look to bury Caroline in a finals matchup in 2025 and prove that the 0-2 loss at Euros 2024 was a mere blip on Bastos’ radar. Mayssa paid Jessica back at Pans in 2024, choking her from the back. I’ve got to wonder about Mayssa at Light-Feather. Does she not want to cut to Rooster at the first event of the year? Does she expect better competition at Light-Feather? Or–gossip alert–she’d dated Castro for a while–is this a way of avoiding a lover’s quarrel on the mat?

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Mayssa Bastos 

Feather: All eyes should be on Cassia Moura, Bruno Bastos’ golden girl who is coming off her first No Gi grand slam win at No Gi Worlds after one of the shortest promotion cycles in the IBJJF, going from Blue Belt to Black Belt in a year. The bracket is pretty light, and odds are Moura could get to a finals match without much resistance. My dream matchup for her is against Emily Pakulski out of Unity, freshly (and finally) promoted by Murilo Santana. Pakulski has been long due for her Black Belt and given her track record at the colored belts, she’d be a great “youth vs experience” kind of challenge for Moura.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Cassia Moura 

Light: Ffion is back in the gi, ladies and gentlemen, and the only person who’s going to hold a candle to her in this division is Janaina Lebre, who’s played “bridesmaid” to Ffion’s “bride” on more than one occasion in an IBJJF majors final, most recently at Worlds 2023. Lebre’s been working hard since switching over to AOJ. Ffion is always dangerous, but has been spending more time out of the gi and opening a new academy in the UK. Can Lebre pull off an upset over jiu-jitsu’s sweetheart in Ffion Davies, the closest thing to a Taylor Swift this sport has ever seen? We’ll find out soon enough. Here’s hoping their seeding leads to a finals matchup rather than an opening round.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Ffion Davies

Middle: Without Lis Clay or Thalyta Silva in this bracket, and with both Sabatha Lais and Chloe McNally coming down from Medium Heavy to Middle, this bracket could get interesting. Vannessa Griffin has been a consistent contender, but never quite cracked a gold medal at Black Belt. If there’s a year or bracket in which she pulls it off, it’s Euros 2025. Noteworthy black belt rookies in this division include ADCC veteran, Sula-Mae Loewenthal and Worlds 2024 Brown Belt silver medalist, Gabrielle Czernik.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Sabatha Lais 

Medium-Heavy: My money’s on returning champion, Aurelie Le Vern taking on Ingridd Alves in a finals match. Le Vern’s old school style has been dominant in and out of the gi in the last year, and she’s been criminally underrated–probably because there tends to be less action at the heavier weights. Keep an eye on Giovanna Carneiro and Nia Blackman in this division as well. Blackman, in particular, will be looking to make a strong statement in her debut season at Black Belt. 

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Aurelie Le Vern

Heavy: Melissa Stricker vs Izadora Silva is a likely finals match for this division, but keep your eye on Giovanna Jara. Jara has been off the mats between injury and pregnancy in the last few years, and if she looks even remotely as good at Black Belt as she did in her 2022 heyday and Brown Belt, she’ll set this division and the Absolute on fire.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Melissa Stricker

Super-Heavy: It’s Gabi Pessana versus Yara Soares in the finals, no doubt. Pessanha takes it via submission. It’s just a matter of when and how in the match she does it–at Worlds 2024, she subbed Soares via footlock–twice.

Man Alive’s Winning Pick: Gabrieli Pessanha