Crown 2026 middleweight bracket has Mica Galvão, four first-timers and no former Crown champion
The IBJJF has announced seven of the eight names, and several of them already fought each other in 2026. Andy Murasaki and Tainan Dalpra, the only two who have won this division at the Crown, are not on the list so far
The middleweight bracket of the Crown 2026 is one name away from being complete. The Crown is an invitation-only tournament of the IBJJF, the biggest jiu-jitsu federation in the world. The IBJJF has already announced seven of the eight athletes who will compete on November 8 at the Walter Pyramid, in Long Beach, California: Mica Galvão, Tarcisio Santos, Jackson Nagai, José Steve, Leonardo “Leleo” Souza, Rafael Gamba and Uanderson Ferreira. Four of them will compete in the tournament for the first time: Galvão, Santos, Souza and Gamba.
The list also stands out for who is not on it yet. In three editions, the Crown has had only two middleweight champions: Tainan Dalpra, in 2023, and Andy Murasaki, in 2024 and 2025. Neither of them had been announced when this story was published. If the last spot goes to another athlete, the division will have a first-time champion in November. See five names who could take the last spot.
Galvão makes his debut after two years away from the IBJJF’s biggest tournaments
Mica Galvão is the biggest name in the bracket, and he will compete in the Crown for the first time. According to the IBJJF, he is back after two years away from the federation’s major tournaments. In 2024, the athlete from Manaus, Brazil, won the European, Pan, Brazilian Nationals and World Championships. In August of the same year, he won the ADCC, the most important no-gi tournament in the sport. In 2026, he competed at the New Jersey Spring Open and won the medium-heavyweight and open class divisions. His spot in the Crown was announced in September.
A bracket of athletes who already know each other
Many of the confirmed athletes fought each other this season. At the World Championship, in June, Tarcisio Santos beat Andy Murasaki at lightweight and lost in the semifinal to Jackson Nagai, who won with a choke from the back and later took the silver medal. After that, already at middleweight, Santos beat Leleo Souza twice at Jiu-Jitsu CON, in the semifinal of the weight division and in the semifinal of the open class. He left the event with both gold medals.
Nagai and José Steve are the only ones on the list who were in the Crown middleweight bracket last year. Nagai reached the final and lost to Andy Murasaki by 4-0. Steve, who is from Belgium, lost in the quarterfinals to Mateus Moraes by referee decision. In 2026, Steve reached the finals of the European Championship and the Brazilian Nationals, lost both to Tainan Dalpra, and won bronze at the World Championship.
Three new black belts and the most experienced name on the list
The bracket also puts together athletes at very different moments of their black belt careers. Rafael Gamba, from Alliance, won the European, Brazilian Nationals and World Championships as a brown belt in 2026. He received his black belt on the Worlds podium, and the Crown will be his first tournament at the new rank. Santos, 20, has been a black belt since December 2025, and Steve since July of the same year. The most experienced is Jackson Nagai, 32, a black belt since January 2020 and the 2024 world champion, who spoke to VF Comunica about the legacy he wants to leave.
Who moves up and who moves down in weight
The Crown has only four men’s divisions: featherweight (up to 154.6 lbs), middleweight (up to 181.6 lbs), heavyweight (up to 208 lbs) and ultra-heavyweight. Because of that, athletes who compete in the weight classes in between have to pick a side. Santos and Souza, who came from lightweight, moved up. Uanderson Ferreira went the other way. The athlete from Rio de Janeiro, who represents Commando Group, is a two-time World Pro champion as a black belt and won the IBJJF Asian Championship in 2026 at medium-heavyweight. He competed in the first edition of the Crown, in 2023, in the heavyweight bracket, and now drops to middleweight.
How the Crown works
The fourth edition of the Crown has 48 invited athletes in six brackets of eight, and all the matches happen in one night. To win the title and the US$ 20,000 paid to the champion of each division, an athlete has to win three matches. The event is streamed on FloGrappling. VF Comunica’s coverage of the Crown is presented by Kingz.
Read also: Davi Vetoraci confirmed at heavyweight for the 2026 Crown; Gustavo Batista is out with an injury.
In your opinion, who is the favorite in the Crown 2026 middleweight division?
