Reserve your Saturday! This weekend sees the Final Four of the third Judo Pro League take place at the Dojo de Paris. Three matches are on the programme, and there's no doubt that there'll be plenty of ippons and suspense before the winner of this new season's event is revealed.

For this 2024-2025 edition, it was impossible to dream of a better line-up, as all four teams present finished in the top four places in the elimination phase! Will Judo Nice Métropole, holders of the title and extremely impressive so far, retain their title? Will Sainte-Geneviève Sports Judo, a club that has been known for years to have team competitions in its DNA, go for the victory it came so close to last season? Can Auxerre Judo and US Orléans Loiret JJ topple the two 2024 finalists in the semi-finals?

Semi-final 1: Judo Nice Métropole/Auxerre Judo
This meeting will pit the first against the fourth in the mini-championship phase. The Nice franchise is the logical favorite. And with good reason, as their record so far is as perfect as it is frightening for their opponents. In the qualifying rounds, they won four of their four matches, before dominating their quarter-final against JC Chilly-Mazarin Morangis from start to finish with an unbeatable scoreline: ten to zero!

Ahead of this Final Four, their third in a row (final in 2023, victory in 2024), the momentum of the Nice team, bronze medallists in the recent Champions League, is breathtaking, as they remain the only unbeaten team in this third edition and dominate all the statistics: number of points, number of bonus points, number of fights won, number of ippons. One group nissart solid, experienced, built around judokas born and trained by clubs in the Alpes-Maritimes, or who have passed through Nice's Pôle Espoirs, such as Rania Drid, double national medallist in the -63kg class, Luca Otmane, recent French champion in the -81kg class, or Guerman Andreev, French champion in 2021 in the +100kg class. Reinforced by the women's group from AS Chelles Judo, Nice's franchise is a frightening prospect.

For their part, the Auxerre-based team led by President Nassar Elassri - technical director of the town's AuxR Judo club - have nothing to lose in their first Final Four appearance. After three wins and one defeat in the qualifying rounds, the local franchise is still on the back of a solid quarter-final performance with a five-to-three win over FLAM 91. Modelled around the JC Pontault-Combault women's group and the Sucy Judo men's group, the Yonnaise team will be able to count on its 2024 French champion in the -52kg category, Julie Weill-dit-Morey, but also perhaps on Belgian Toma Nikifirov, a recent world medalist in the +100kg category and a regular on the world circuit's biggest competitions.

France Judo / Pauce

Semi-final 2: US Orléans Loiret JJ/Sainte-Geneviève Sports Judo
A French judo institution, US Orléans Loiret JJ has decided to launch a new cycle at the start of this Olympiad. And so far, all the lights are green: at the French senior championships, the Loiret club won four medals, including a title, and three silver medals. In the Judo Pro League, President Maëlle Di Cintio's club finished second with three wins, one loss and two bonus points. Relying on the group that shone in Chalon-sur-Saône at the beginning of November - Anaïs Perrot, Martha Fawaz, Arnaud Aregba, Max Laborde - and quality reinforcements, such as French +78kg champion Anne-Fatoumata Mbairo, the Orléanais serenely dominated Montpellier Judo Olympic five to two to qualify for their second Final Four after the first edition. The USO's highly consistent, high-calibre squad is sure to have what it takes to topple the Genovese citadel.

The Sainte-Geneviève Sports Judo team is sure to be out for revenge from last season. Beaten two to one by Judo Nice Métropole at the end of a breathtaking final, Laurent Bosch and Edouard Gingreau's team arrived at the Paris Dojo full of confidence, buoyed by a magnificent, hard-fought victory over OM Judo in the quarter-finals: trailing three to nil, the Rouge et Blanc found the resources not to give up, and went on to secure qualification in the final bout, with Amadou Meité's heavyweight ippon victory! Victorious on points (thirty-two to thirty-one), the Essonne-based club had a number of trump cards up its sleeve, including its runner-up in the 2024 French +100kg championship, Kaila Issoufi, who also won silver at Chalon-sur-Saône in the -70kg category, and Quentin Joubert, the 2023 French champion in the -81kg category and a remarkable ne-waza performer.

France Judo / Pauce