Key First Round Matches at the 2026 Pan Pacific

Twelve opening matches at the IBJJF Pan Pacific in Melbourne put two Pan Pacific medalists against each other, and three of them are divisions of two, where the first match is the final. Five are in the no-gi tournament on Friday and seven in the gi on Saturday, Melbourne time.

Melbourne is 18 hours ahead of the U.S. West Coast, so every match below happens the afternoon or evening before in the U.S. They’re listed exactly as the IBJJF published them, with the times in Melbourne, PT and ET.

Thomas Messo, who has two of these matches, against Mikael Rhaillander in last year’s gi medium heavy final:

And Courtney Fakiki against Uros Culic in last year’s gi ultra heavy final. Fakiki opens against Otavio Serafim this time:

No-gi, Friday in Melbourne

No-gi brackets · Pan Pacific No-Gi event page

• Middle, 10:12 AM Melbourne, Thu 4:12 PM PT / 7:12 PM ET, Mat 8: Ethan Cannon vs. Tadeu Lobato. Cannon won no-gi light here last year. Lobato took no-gi medium heavy silver in 2024 and 2025.
• Heavy, 10:36 AM Melbourne, Thu 4:36 PM PT / 7:36 PM ET, Mat 8: Lucas Lacerda vs. Nicholas Hughes. Two past no-gi heavy champions here: Lacerda in 2024 and Hughes in 2023.
• Heavy, 10:48 AM Melbourne, Thu 4:48 PM PT / 7:48 PM ET, Mat 8: Maartin Froneman vs. Thomas David. Froneman took no-gi super heavy silver here in 2023, and David took no-gi ultra heavy silver in 2025.
• Medium heavy (final), 11:48 AM Melbourne, Thu 5:48 PM PT / 8:48 PM ET, Mat 8: Thomas Messo vs. Devon Coetzee. Messo has won no-gi medium heavy here three years running. Coetzee is the only other entrant.
• Ultra heavy (final), 12:00 PM Melbourne, Thu 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET, Mat 8: Otavio Serafim vs. Alexander HungaHunga. Serafim is a 2017 European No-Gi champion and took gi ultra heavy silver here in 2024.

Gi, Saturday in Melbourne

Gi brackets · Pan Pacific event page

• Feather, 9:42 AM Melbourne, Fri 3:42 PM PT / 6:42 PM ET, Mat 8: Jihwan Park vs. Keito Oyanagi. Two past feather champions here: Park in 2023, Oyanagi in 2022 and 2024.
• Feather, 10:06 AM Melbourne, Fri 4:06 PM PT / 7:06 PM ET, Mat 8: Patrick Lim vs. Kazuhiro Suzuki. Both are past feather bronze medalists here: Lim in 2024, Suzuki in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
• Medium heavy, 12:18 PM Melbourne, Fri 6:18 PM PT / 9:18 PM ET, Mat 8: Jonathan Ramos vs. Michael Tohme. Ramos won middle here in the gi and no-gi in 2023. Tohme won no-gi medium heavy in 2018 and 2022 and has eight gi medals here, open class included.
• Super heavy, 12:30 PM Melbourne, Fri 6:30 PM PT / 9:30 PM ET, Mat 8: Anton Minenko vs. Thomas David. Minenko has won super heavy here five times, in the gi in 2018 and 2019 and in no-gi in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
• Ultra heavy, 12:30 PM Melbourne, Fri 6:30 PM PT / 9:30 PM ET, Mat 1: Ricky Pachon vs. Thomas Messo. Pachon took super heavy and open class bronze here last year. Messo won gi medium heavy here in 2023 and 2024.
• Ultra heavy, 1:06 PM Melbourne, Fri 7:06 PM PT / 10:06 PM ET, Mat 1: Courtney Fakiki vs. Otavio Serafim. Fakiki took ultra heavy silver here last year, and Serafim took it in 2024.
• Women’s medium heavy (final), 1:18 PM Melbourne, Fri 7:18 PM PT / 10:18 PM ET, Mat 1: Olivia Schauer vs. Tahni Jeynes. Schauer is No. 7 in the women’s gi ranking and a 2026 Pans bronze medalist. Jeynes took heavy silver here last year, gi and no-gi.

What comes next

Thalison Soares, the 2022 world champion, opens at gi light feather at 11:42 AM Saturday in Melbourne, and our story on him has his titles. The rest of the weekend is in The Weekend Ahead and on the calendar.

All results, brackets and videos in this story come from official channels.