VF Comunica will stream Brave Challenge II live on YouTube: format, brackets and schedule
Max Gimenis’ event takes place on Saturday, October 10, in Maryland, with a wheel that decides between gi and no-gi, two US$ 1,000 Grand Prix tournaments and names like Tayane Porfírio, Letícia Teixeira and Maia Matalon
VF Comunica will stream Brave Challenge II live on its YouTube channel. The event takes place this Saturday, October 10, at Culture of Jiu-Jitsu, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in the United States. The card has 24 matches. There are two Grand Prix tournaments that pay US$ 1,000 to each champion, ten superfights and a special rule: the athletes only find out right before the match if they will fight in the gi or in no-gi.
The wheel decides: gi or no-gi
The gi is the traditional kimono of jiu-jitsu. No-gi is jiu-jitsu without it. Before each match at Brave Challenge, a wheel is spun to decide which of the two the match will be. The matches last six minutes. Organizer Max Gimenis sees the wheel as the main mark of the event. The idea is to make athletes move between both styles, at a time when many of them focus on only one.
Women’s Grand Prix: eight athletes in the open class
A Grand Prix, or GP, is a bracket tournament where the winner of each match moves on until one champion is left. The women’s GP is an open class, with no weight limit, and it puts purple, brown and black belts together. The eight athletes are:
- Tayane Porfírio
- Letícia Teixeira
- Maia Matalon
- Saidah Durkee
- Juliana Conroy
- Sara Mascone
- Livia Afonso
- Jonna Wood
Tayane Porfírio was the last athlete to enter the bracket. She has seven world titles and two Grand Slam titles. Letícia Teixeira, a black belt from Atos, was a world, European and Brazilian champion at brown belt. They are on opposite sides of the bracket, so they can only meet in the final.
Maia Matalon and Saidah Durkee come straight from the IBJJF Pan No-Gi. Last Sunday, they fought each other in the black belt heavyweight final, and Matalon won. See all the Pan No-Gi 2026 champions.
Men’s Grand Prix up to 185 pounds
The men’s GP has eight brown and black belts up to 185 pounds, about 84kg. The champion takes US$ 1,000 and the event belt. The athletes are:
- Pedro Rubim
- Rhenan Henrique
- Dustin Wagner
- Angelo Claiborne
- Luiz Augusto
- Miles Da Silva
- Diallo Braithwaite
- Carlos Heredia
The same prize for men and women
Both GPs pay the same amount. In an exclusive interview with VF Comunica, Max Gimenis said that if the women deliver the same as the men, there is no reason to pay them differently. Read the full interview.
Gimenis was born in Rio de Janeiro and grew up in the Cascadura neighborhood. He is a GF Team black belt. At super-heavyweight, he was a Pan American champion in 2020 and a world championship runner-up in 2021. Today he leads Culture of Jiu-Jitsu, the academy that hosts the event.
The ten superfights
A superfight is a single match between two athletes, outside the tournament brackets.
- Ezra James vs. Kaiden Colon (kids match)
- Oscar Bisneto vs. Leo da Silva
- TJ Amir vs. Marcos Bleuesteen
- Junior Bonilla vs. Hudahayfah Amonulla
- Gabriel Hernandez vs. Max Fuller
- Giovanny Bonilla vs. Daniel Calderon
- Caden Lam vs. Joshua Wong
- Elijah Brinegar vs. Jordan Haxton
- Felipe Oliveira vs. Jeremy Collins
- Justin High vs. Douglas Souza
Schedule (Eastern Time)
- 4:30 p.m.: opening ceremony
- 4:40 p.m.: first match, a quarterfinal of the women’s GP
- 7:00 and 7:10 p.m.: women’s GP semifinals
- 7:30 and 7:40 p.m.: men’s GP semifinals
- 8:35 p.m.: women’s GP final
- 8:55 p.m.: men’s GP final
How to watch
The event will be streamed live on the VF Comunica YouTube channel. Turn on notifications to know when the stream starts.
Who wins the Brave Challenge II Grand Prix titles? Leave your pick in the comments.
