Oleksander Kostyuk Takes the Top IBBJF Global Ranking [ Редагувати ]

While people all around the world excitingly watch all the mishaps taking place at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, we can’t but highlight a truly outstanding achievement for our country - a Ukrainian athlete has won 16 medals across four large global-level IBJJF tournaments in just 3 months. Oleksander Kostyuk - a member of the ZR Team has really shown the results to reckon with. Currently, Oleksander is the #1 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete in his own and absolute categories in IBJJF, NoGi, M4.

All in all, during his tour across big American tournaments, Oleksander has managed to win:

• 3 gold and 1 silver medal at Miami Open;
• 3 silver and 1 bronze medal at American National;
• 2 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal at Chicago Open;
• 2 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal at Orlando Open.

We would like to sincerely congratulate our own Oleksander Kostyuk - an owner of the blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and 5th dan black belt in traditional Japanese Motoha Yoshin Ryu Jiu-Jitsu - with such an astounding achievement and contribution to the Jiu-Jitsu culture on the global level!

We are truly amazed by Oleksander’s results this season and, along with his coach Dmitriy Bezugliy, are expecting to see some thrilling performances at PanAmerican (1-5 September 2021, Kissimmee) and World Master (10-13 November 2021, Las Vegas) tournaments.

The IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation) rating continues to rank the top athletes and their teams, each season outlining the absolute global champions. By the way, IBJJF is the oldest and largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu federation in the world that conducts the highest-level championships in the modern BJJ community. This is a fact even despite a practically full lack of prize payments, excluding IBJJF PRO series tournaments. 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has ultimately gained widespread popularity after the professional debut of one of the Gracie family’s athletes in UFC, which stimulated many fans of MMA to start wrapping their heads around BJJ as the major, not secondary discipline.

BJJ can be conducted with athletes wearing either Gi (a special kimono) or a simple rash guard (t-shirt) and shorts. The whole idea of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lies in the pro athlete’s ability to equally efficiently perform in situations when an opponent has clothes to grab on to and when there are absolutely no elements to grab.