André Galvão celebrates winning Houston Open in February 2012. Photo by Mike Calimbas.
This coming December 8, the pyramid-shaped gymnasium in Long Beach, California, will host the inaugural IBJJ Pro League, with cash prizes for the top performers among a handful of competitors who placed at the top of the table the past season.
To spice up the under-88 kg division, André Galvão of team Atos and Vitor Oliveira of GFTeam confirmed that they will indeed join the running in the League. The IBJJF has been announcing the names already assured a shot at the 5,000 dollars in prize money. Each division will feature eight fighters.
Check out the names confirmed so far:
Under-64 kg division: Koji Shibamoto, Laércio Fernandes, Daniel Beleza, Caio Terra, Rafael Barata
Under-76 kg division: Augusto Tanquinho, Jonathan Torres, Leandro Lo, Samir Chantre, Lucas Lepri, Rubens Cobrinha
Under-88.3 kg division: Bruno Antunes, Rômulo Barral, Otavio Sousa, Vitor Oliveira, André Galvão
Over-88.3 kg division: Gustavo Pires, Bruno Bastos
The Long Beach Open will take place on the very same day as the Pro League, and it would behoove anyone hoping to get in on future installments of the professional competition to join in: the Long Beach Open is a qualifying event for the 2013 IBJJ Pro. Sign up for the new IBJJF tournament by clicking here.
