A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
The lineup for the 2022 ADCC world championships is slowly taking shape as the invites are being announced at a steady pace, and three of the eight trials events have now taken place. This past weekend saw the first South American trials come to a conclusion and five more elite grapplers earn their place at the prestigious tournament. Both veterans and newcomers alike competed at the event and a healthy mix of both emerged victorious.
Mica Galvao put on an incredible display and managed to submit his way to an invite in the 77kg division despite being just 18 years old. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Dream Art head coach Isaque Bahiense managed to win the 88kg division seven years after his first attempt led to a silver medal in 2015. Diogo Reis, Joao Costa, and Roosevelt Sousa rounded out the winners who earned an invite to the 2022 ADCC world championships.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Victor Hugo puts on a fine performance at Fight 2 Win 193
F2W 193 was another successful event for the busiest grappling promotion in America and this one was headlined by a tough battle between Victor Hugo and Igor Schneider. In the end it was Hugo who walked away with the decision victory, but that wasn’t the only match between elite grapplers on the card. The co-main event saw recent ADCC trials winner Giancarlo Bodoni working off his back relentlessly to finish Felipe Costa with a heelhook.
Earlier on in the night, the B-team had a great showing as both Robert Degle and Pierre-Olivier Leclerc managed to outwork their opponents to decision victories, beating Angel Cruz and Kemoy Anderson respectively. There were a number of exciting submission wins throughout the night as so many athletes put it all on the line to finish the fight and F2W put together a highlight reel of each and every one below.
Full results for the event can be found here.
Mark Kerr becomes second American in ADCC Hall of Fame
The ADCC Hall of Fame has been filled to the brim with Brazilian legends so far, with Dean Lister being the lone American until now. ‘The Smashing Machine’ Mark Kerr will now join him, owing to his dominant performances back in the early days of ADCC history. Kerr was an elite wrestler and a two-time UFC Heavyweight tournament winner before he ever even stepped on the ADCC mats, and was a true submission wrestling pioneer.
He first became a champion in the over 99kg weightclass in 1999 before returning in 2000 to add two more gold medals to his collection, winning both his weightclass and the absolute division that time around. In 2001 he defeated Mario Sperry to earn the superfight championship and then came back in 2003 to attempt to defend it against Ricardo Arona, although he lost for the first time under ADCC rules and retired from the competition.
A pair of BJJ world champions return to professional MMA
Lucas ‘Hulk’ Barbosa has been one of the most promising talents to ever come out of ATOS and he’s made good on that many times over by winning five IBJJF world championships and an bronze medal at ADCC 2019. Before any of that happened, Barbosa also embarked on a short-lived MMA career and went 2-1 in the process. Now Barbosa will be returning to the sport at the second PFL Challenger series event on February 25th.
He isn’t the only either, as two-time IBJJF and ADCC world champion Yuri Simoes will be having his second MMA fight for ONE FC on the very same night. Simoes lost his professional debut against Fan Rong at the end of 2020 and will be taking on a tough opponent in Daniyal Zainalov, an undefeated prospect with an impressive 7-0 professional record amassed in smaller Russian promotions.
Quick Hits
- Another surprise invite to ADCC 2022 came this week in the form of five-time IBJJF world champion Mikey Musumeci, despite him never competing at ADCC before.
- Top Checkmat brown belt Elder Cruz has announced his intention to make his MMA debut at some point this year if things go ‘according to plan’.
- UFC strawweight veteran Angela Hill received her purple belt in BJJ from her coaches, Johnny Faria and Jena Bishop.
- Combat Jiu Jitsu world champion Kody Steele recently won his professional MMA debut by Unanimous Decision at Fury FC 56.
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