European athletes compete at The Crown this Sunday

Seven European black belts compete at The Crown 2026 on Sunday 8 November at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. The IBJJF has drawn the brackets: France's Seif-Eddine Houmine, Germany's Alexander Sak and the Portugal-based Brazilian Matheus Vetoraci are in the ultra-heavyweight division, his twin brother Davi Vetoraci is at heavyweight, Belgium's José Steve is at middleweight, Spanish-British Anabel Lopez is at women's super-heavyweight and Hungary's Nikolett Kis is at women's lightweight. Each division has eight athletes, and three wins take the title and $20,000. Matches start at 10:00 AM PST and are shown live on FloGrappling.

Ultra-heavyweight

Houmine, the GF Team athlete who won the European, Pan and World titles at ultra-heavyweight this season, opens against Thierry Felipe. Felipe is 22, was recently promoted to black belt and makes his black belt debut at the event. He had asked for this match publicly, writing that he wanted "the two biggest in the bracket" to meet. Houmine is 38. In an interview with VF Comunica he said Felipe's youth and aggression made him a threat, and that experience and control of the pace could decide the match.

Two Europeans meet in the other half of the bracket: Alexander Sak opens against Matheus Vetoraci. Over the 2025/2026 season Sak won nine Open titles, most of them in Europe, along with double gold at the Asian Championship and a World Master title, and he finished his preparation with a camp in Qatar. Vetoraci, who moved from Rio de Janeiro to Portugal with his twin brother at the end of 2021 and competes for Blvckout, won the 2025 European medium-heavyweight title in a division he closed out with his brother. In January he reached the heavyweight final at the 2026 European Championship, submitting Nolan Stuart on the way, before losing to Leonardo Ferreira.

Middleweight

Belgium's José Steve opens against Uanderson Ferreira in his second Crown appearance. A black belt since July 2025 under Khalid Houry at CENS Academy in Belgium, where he has trained since 2013, Steve prepares for the big tournaments at Dream Art in Brazil. In his first season at black belt he took silver at the European Championship in January, two weeks after tearing a meniscus, and bronze at the World Championship.

Women's divisions

At women's super-heavyweight, Anabel Lopez opens against Hazel Butcher. Lopez won World No-Gi and Pan No-Gi titles this year and took silver at the European Championship, and she prepared for Long Beach at Fightzone in London.

Her half of the bracket also holds Gabrieli Pessanha, who has won all three editions of The Crown at super-heavyweight and opens against Maria Ruffatto. The two have met twice within a year: Pessanha beat Lopez at The Crown in 2025, and Lopez beat Pessanha on a referee decision at ADCC 2026 in Kraków, on her way to silver at +65kg. If both win their openers, they meet in the semi-final.

In the lightweight bracket, Hungary's Nikolett Kis meets two-time world champion Janaina Lebre in the opening round. Kis received her black belt in September, after winning the 2026 brown belt World title with three submissions and double gold at the European Championship.

Heavyweight

Davi Vetoraci opens against Nolan Stuart, the defending Crown heavyweight champion. The 2025 European medium-heavyweight champion, who also took bronze at the 2024 European Championship, moved up to heavyweight at the 2026 European Championship, where he was beaten by his brother Matheus on advantages. At The Crown he again competes one division above the class in which he won his European title.