Kasai Pro 7 Heavyweight Tournament Preview
Grappling Rewind has created a graphical preview of Kasai Pro 7 heavyweight tournament. Our formula for this graphic takes into account victories against other members of the heavyweight tournament, and points tallied from major tournament wins since 2017.
Frontrunners
Cyborg
Cyborg has impressive wins over some of the toughest opponents in the tournament, his recent dominant run at the IBJJF Grand Prix put him as the frontrunner. Cyborg has been extremely active in No-Gi participating in both IBJJF No-Gi worlds and ADCC in 2019. He is the current IBJJF No-Gi world champion at weight, and former ADCC 2013 Absolute champion; and three time ADCC World Championship bronze medalist 2017/2013/2011. This depth of experience and top level competition put him as the favorite of this event.
Hulk
Cyborg is closely followed by Hulk, who has his own slew of wins over tournament opponents, as well as unparalleled activity, and consistency. This is reflected by his high tournament victory point total present in the graphic. Hulk is the ADCC 2019 bronze medalist, Shan IBJJF World No-Gi Championship at weight and absolute in 2017, and at weight in 2016 and 2015.
Gaudio
Patrick Gaudio is a strong candidate as well, having faced off with Hulk 5 times since 2017 and winning twice. With his recent kneebar victory in his divisions finals at the 2020 IBJJF Europeans this displays that he is currently in top form for this event.
The Contenders
Rodriguez and Magalhaes
The disruptive forces of Nicky Rodriguez and Vinny Magalhaes will be tested in the grueling Kasai round robin format which favors consistency over all else. Both grapplers have faced other members of the Kasai Pro 7 lineup, with Rodriguez taking a close victory over the tournament favorite Cyborg at ADCC 2019; and Magalhaes taking a victory over Bruno Bastos in the time period considered in the graphic.
Boehm
Underdog Kyle Boehm has a recent overtime victory over Hulk in the BJJ Fanatics Black Belt GP. This victory came after a dominate regulation period that saw Hulk with dominate passing position that will score in Kasai.
Rocha
A top contender always, and one of the top picks to win the IBJJF majors João Gabriel Rocha has wins over both Bastos and Gaudio for the time period reviewed.
Bastos
The events dark horse of the tournament is Bruno Bastos having no wins against other members of the bracket for the time period reviewed. Bastos goes into this event with a recent third victory over Tom Deblass at a Kasai Super Series. His familiarity with the Kasai rule set may play a factor in this event.
Video Preview for Kasai Pro 7
Watch short form preview of the event below. Time stamp for Kasai Pro 7 is 1:58:18. You can find this preview as a podcast Grappling Rewind Podcast episode #116 on all podcast platforms or at the link below.
Disclaimer:
All the information and data in this article has been obtained to the best of the ability of the Grappling Rewind team, and there may be discrepancies within the data set reviewed, due to the various locations and formats that matchups results are posted.
Written by: Emil Sandoz-Rosado, and Maine Miller,
Graphic by Emil