Craig Jones: Unnamed Gi World champion is currently in arbitration with USADA over suspension

Many combat sports, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, are affected by PED use, but some athletes achieve success through hard work and fair play.

Fair play is essential, and organizations like the IBJJF implement testing protocols to deter PED use and reward athletes who compete fairly.

USADA and IBJJF suspended five Nogi Worlds winners for PED use, including Igor Nascimento da Costa Feliz, Jonnatas Gracie, Roberto ‘Cyborg’ de Abreu Filho, Henrique Ceconi, and Vagner Rocha.

Rocha previously admitted to being on TRT, perhaps in an attempt to pre-empt USADA’s press release.
There were suspicions USADA might not be testing in 2022 because in 2021 the pandemic may have hindered USADA’s testing efforts.

15 competitors were likely tested after Nogi Worlds, and prior to that 15 competitors were tested at Gi World championships.

B Team’s Craig Jones posted a video reacting to the latest development and slipped in a really interesting nugget at the end of the video. According to Jones, a Gi world champion is currently still in arbitration with USADA over the suspension.

List of Gi World Champions from 2022:

Nicholas Meregali (Open Class)
Victor Hugo (Ultra-Heavy)
Erich Munis dos Santos (Super-Heavy)
Kaynan Duarte (Heavy)
Leandro Lo (Medium-Heavy)
Tainan Dalpra (Middle)
Mica Galvao (Light)
Isaac Doederlein (Feather)
Meyram Maquiné Alves (Light feather)
Thalison Soares (Rooster)

Females:
Gabrieli Pessanha (Open Class)
Gabrieli Pessanha (Super-Heavy)
Larissa Dias de Almeida (Heavy)
Ana Carolina Vieira (Medium-Heavy)
Andressa Cintra (Middle)
Ffion Davies (Light)
Bianca Basilio (Feather)
Ana Cristina Araujo Rodrigues (Light feather)
Mayssa Bastos (Rooster)

Jones went on to provide the following clues:
“Yet, one of those, I have it on good authority that a very famous young Gi athlete tested positive at Gi worlds and he’s elected to go through arbitration to try to settle the positive result he had.”

I remember when Felipe Pena tested positive, he went through arbitration, took up to two years for us to learn the results of his positive test. ”

“So who knows when we’re gonna hear about this athlete testing positive, but you might be able to speculate who it is by paying
attention to who continues to compete in IBJF events that was a world’s champion in the Gi.”

By observing the list above it’s easy to dismiss several of the men. Leandro Lo tragically passed away. Victor Hugo has been calling out Roberto Abreu all over social media – and also he’s competed at the Nogi Worlds therefor he’s not the one.

Kaynan Duarte’s balding is incredibly suspect however he’s competed at Europeans and won, to the chagrin of Gordon Ryan.

Nicholas Meregali (Open Class), 28 years old
Erich Munis dos Santos (Super-Heavy), 25 years old
Tainan Dalpra (Middle), 22 years old
Mica Galvao (Light), 18 years old
Isaac Doederlein (Feather), 29 years old
Meyram Maquiné Alves (Light feather), 23 years old
Thalison Soares (Rooster), 23 years old

Based on Jones remarking that the alleged champion is very young and very famous, it could be Mica Galvao, Dalpra or Soares.

Galvao made waves as the next Brazilian hope. Thalison Soares was known as the third Miyao prior to move to Australia. Soares also competed at Europeans.

Dalpra competed at IBJJF Grand Prix so that seems unlikely.

Galvao seems like the most likely culprit but considering how hard to navigate IBJJF results are a different culprit wouldn’t surprise us.

Either way, this is a very interesting revelation.