Five 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 and Germany's Alexander Sak are in the ultra-heavyweight division, Spanish-British Anabel Lopez is at women's super-heavyweight, Hungary's Nikolett Kis is at women's lightweight and the Portugal-based Brazilian Davi Vetoraci is in the heavyweight field. 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.
The second European in the bracket is Alexander Sak. Over the 2025/2026 season he 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. The IBJJF has not announced his opening opponent.
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.
