BJJ weight classes

Two things make jiu jitsu different from every other combat sport on this site. Your uniform counts toward the limit. And at IBJJF events you step on the scale minutes before you compete, not the day before.

IBJJF, gi

Nine divisions for men, eight for women, because the women's ladder stops at an open-ended Super Heavy rather than adding an Ultra Heavy on top. Masters use the same limits as adults.

IBJJF, no-gi

The standard is the same; the difference is the kimono. No-gi limits run 2 to 3 kg lower precisely because the gi is not on the scale, and the gap widens slightly as the divisions climb.

The gi is part of your weight

This catches more first-time competitors than anything else in the sport.

You weigh in fully dressed, in the gi and belt you are about to compete in. Most adult gis add somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. So a man at 68 kg in his underwear is not a Feather. Depending on his kimono he is a Feather with 500 g to spare or he is over, and he will not know which until he is standing on the scale in the bullpen.

The weigh-in is minutes before you compete

At IBJJF events you weigh in as you enter the bullpen, roughly 30 to 60 minutes before your division starts, on the same day you compete. One attempt. Come in over your registered limit and you are out, and depending on the event there may be no move to a higher division either.

Which removes the entire professional playbook. There is no night to recover in, no refill window, no rehydration protocol. Whatever comes off is off while you are competing.

So the class has to be a weight you carry, in a gi, on an ordinary day. Not a weight you reach. How the format actually works, and what that means for the week before.

ADCC runs the opposite system

At the ADCC World Championship there are 5 men's divisions and 3 women's, against the IBJJF's nine and eight.

Eleven kilos between 76.9 and 87.9 leaves real room inside a single bracket, and that is deliberate. Wide divisions reward the better grappler rather than the better weight cutter.

ADCC also weighs the day before. Which, combined with wide brackets, produces the opposite incentive to the IBJJF: a cut becomes possible, an overnight refill becomes possible, and competitors can be noticeably heavier on the mat than their weigh-in number suggests.

ADCC open events and trials use a different, narrower ladder again, commonly -60, -65, -70, -76, -83, -91, -100 and +100 kg, with a 0.5 kg allowance and a same-day option no later than 2 hours before the division starts. The organisation is not one system.

Which means the same athlete has two answers

A 78 kg man competing IBJJF gi weighs in dressed, so his kimono puts him around 80 kg, and he enters Middle at 82.3 with room. The same man at ADCC weighs in stripped, the night before, into a 76.9 or an 87.9 bracket, and the sensible choice depends on whether he wants to be the big man in the lower one or give away 9 kg in the upper.

Two organisations, one body, entirely different decisions. Never carry a division name across from one to the other.

The open class

Alongside the weight brackets the IBJJF runs an absolute division for blue belt and above. Anyone can enter, whatever they weigh, which is how a 70 kg Feather ends up across from somebody 40 kg heavier.

It is the one bracket where making weight is irrelevant, and for a lot of competitors it is the most instructive day of the year.

Choosing, if you are new to this

• Weigh yourself in the gi you will wear, on an ordinary training day, mid-week.
• Enter the division that number already fits. In a sport that weighs you 30 minutes before you compete, that is the whole method.
• If it is close, take the gi seriously before you take the diet seriously.
• Check the chart linked on your specific event page. Charts differ between event types, and juvenile and kids tables differ again.

Reducing toward a class here means arriving depleted, because nothing gets put back. For a sport decided by grip endurance and problem-solving under fatigue, that is an expensive trade for a lower number.

A note on the other organisations

NAGA, UAEJJF, SJJIF and the various professional invitationals all run their own limits, their own names, and their own weigh-in timing. Some weigh the day before in underwear. Some invent catchweights for a single match.

And if you are the one taking rounds so that somebody else can make a weight, that is its own job with its own cost. Somebody else's camp, your head.

The names do not transfer. Neither does the arithmetic. Whatever you have registered for, read that event's chart and that event's weigh-in rule, and read them before you pay rather than in the bullpen.

Common questions

What are the IBJJF weight classes?

Nine adult male gi divisions, in kilograms: Rooster 57.5, Light Feather 64, Feather 70, Light 76, Middle 82.3, Medium Heavy 88.3, Heavy 94.3, Super Heavy 100.5, and Ultra Heavy with no upper limit. Women have eight, using the same division names, from Rooster at 48.5 kg to an open-ended Super Heavy.

Does the gi count toward your weight class?

Yes. At IBJJF events you weigh in fully dressed, in the gi and belt you are about to compete in. Most adult gis add 1.5 to 2.5 kg, which is why no-gi limits sit 2 to 3 kg lower for the same division name.

When do you weigh in for BJJ?

At IBJJF events, as you enter the bullpen, roughly 30 to 60 minutes before your division starts, on the day you compete. ADCC weighs the day before. That single difference changes what is possible in the week beforehand more than any chart does.

What are the ADCC weight classes?

At the World Championship, five men's divisions at 65.9, 76.9, 87.9, 98.9 and plus 99 kg, with an Absolute, and three women's divisions at 55, 65 and plus 65 kg. ADCC opens and trials use a different, narrower ladder.

What happens if you miss weight in BJJ?

At an IBJJF event you get one attempt and coming in over your registered limit means disqualification, with no guarantee of a move to a higher division. There is no allowance and no second weigh-in.

Should I cut weight for a BJJ competition?

In a sport that weighs you 30 minutes before you compete there is nothing to recover in, so whatever you take off you compete with. Enter the division your gi weight already fits. If it is close, a lighter competition kimono is worth 500 g at no physiological cost.