The 15th annual Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships kick off next week

In less than a months time, the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation will host the most prestigious event that the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has to offer, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championships. Often referred to as "The Mundials," the tournament draws the best grapplers from around the world, all vying for the title of world champion.

Since its creation in 1996, The Mundials have become the Super Bowl of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, crowning new world champions each year over a span of 4 days.

Many mixed martial artists and trainers have either competed in, or won this tournament in the past. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, Fabricio Werdum, Alexandre Ribeiro, Roger Gracie, and B.J. Penn are just a few current MMA fighters who have won this tournament at the black belt level.

For those of you new to the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the Mundials breakdown like this:

Each person competing represents a team, but competes as an individual.

Competitors are matched according to their belt rank, age, weight and gender. Each age group, belt rank, weight, and gender will have its own world champion at the end of the tournament.

There is also an Absolute (open weight) champion crowned each year. The Absolute champion is the most coveted of all the championships awarded at the Mundials. Weight classes are disregarded as BJJ puts its principles of skill trumping size to the test. Only the very best are crowned champion in this category, and shows that the principles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu hold true even against other practitioners of the sport.

This will mark the third year in which California has hosted the event since moving from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007.

The 15th annual World Jiu-Jitsu Championships will take place from the Long Beach Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. The event will run from June 3rd - June 6th and will be streamed live on the internet for the first time in history.

Props: fiveknuckles.com