Eight matches, two gold medals: Lorenzo Tarouco wins his weight class and the open class at the Pan No-Gi
The Alliance blue belt and Cobrinha student won four matches by submission and beat the same opponent in both finals; he now has four Pan titles at the belt
Lorenzo Tarouco was one of the standouts of the first day of the 2026 IBJJF Pan No-Gi Championship, on Friday, October 2, in New Jersey. The Alliance blue belt, a student of Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, won two gold medals in the adult division: one in his weight class, medium-heavyweight, and one in the open class, the division with no weight limit.
Eight matches, four submissions
He had five matches in his weight class and three in the open class. At medium-heavyweight, for athletes up to about 188 pounds, Tarouco beat Enzo Campos, Tyler Marsee, Colton Anglin and Leo Miller before he defeated Miles Putman, of AOJ, in the final. A few hours later he came back for the open class, won two more matches and met Putman again in the final. He won that one too.
Four of the eight wins came by submission, according to Tarouco. One of them was a foot lock that he finished in 20 seconds.
“I don’t have the words to describe how grateful I am to the Lord for all He does in my life,” he wrote on social media after the double gold.
Four Pan titles as a blue belt
With the two gold medals, Tarouco now has four Pan titles as a blue belt, by his own count. The blue belt is the second belt in jiu-jitsu, after white. Earlier this year he also won bronze at medium-heavyweight at the IBJJF World Championship, which is fought in the gi, the traditional kimono. He called it his first podium at a major gi tournament.
He trains at Alliance in Los Angeles, the gym led by Cobrinha, a multiple-time world champion.
Read also: Hawann Hennye spent four weeks as a purple belt. Now he is a Pan No-Gi champion at brown belt
Who else stood out in the colored belts at the Pan No-Gi? Tell us in the comments.
