A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
Gordon Ryan is no stranger to cryptocurrency as the elite competitor has already managed to secure a $100,000 sponsorship deal with Bitcoin Cash to represent them at ADCC 2022. It doesn’t stop there though, as he has just announced the release of 100 NFTs bearing his likeness as well. As with many NFTs, these will actually serve a functional purpose instead of simply being something tsshat people can buy and sell.
The Gordon Ryan NFT will actually grant the owner free lifetime access to any and all of the instructional content that he releases after the date of purchase. Considering he has also pledged to release six different instructionals every year moving forward and each of his past releases retails at $249, it could mean that his NFT can save the user a pretty decent amount of money over time.
ADCC 2022 set to sell out a record-setting venue
The time is fast approaching for the next edition of ADCC 2022 and the promotion has been a non-stop mission to make the biggest event in professional grappling history. Excitement has been building ever since 2019 when Mo Jassim and his team managed to create something that was beyond what many had imagined a submission grappling tournament could ever achieve.
Then when the announcement was made that ADCC 2022 was taking place in a 13,000 seater venue, naturally people were a little uncertain. As it stands, there’s five months until the event kicks off and all but the cheapest seats have been sold. The organizers are predicting that even they will be sold out in the next two months and the athletes competing will be doing so in front of the biggest crowd in submission grappling history.
New generation of IBJJF Pan champions crowned for 2022
The IBJJF Pan Championship is one of the most hotly-anticipated gi Jiu-Jitsu tournaments of the calendar year and 2022 certainly didn’t disappoint. The coloured belt athletes produced fireworks for days on end as the event was gearing up towards the main event, the adult black belt divisions. This year saw a number of new champions crowned and veteran athletes remained on top after sustained periods of success.
Johnatha Alves and Tainan Dalpra emerged victorious in two of the toughest divisions, men’s Lightweight and Middleweight respectively. Meanwhile, IBJJF and ADCC world champion Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu won another Pan title in the men’s Ultra-Heavyweight division. Gabrieli Pessanha was the only athlete to take two gold medals home as she won both the women’s Sbsolute and Super-Heavyweight divisions.
Full results for the event can be found here.
IBJJF changes rules in an attempt to put an end to closeouts
A closeout is essentially where two teammates or members of the same affiliation reach the final of a major BJJ tournament and choose not to compete in it, deciding the winner between themselves instead. As a result, closeouts have drawn criticism from grappling fans for quite some time. Many feel understandably robbed of a satisfactory ending when two athletes simply choose not to fight in the final of a long tournament.
It seems as though the IBJJF has actually heard the complaints and they have decided to do something about it. In order to encourage teammates to compete against each other in the final of the world championships, no prize money will be given to any gold medalist who did not fight their final match against a teammate. While the punishment is certainly harsh, this should go a long way towards bringing greater legitimacy to IBJJF world titles.
Quick Hits
- Gilbert Burns calls for a rematch against Khamzat Chimaev in the near-future, but this time he wants the fight over five rounds instead.
- According to his long-time coach and mentor Cesar Gracie, Nick Diaz will be returning to combat sports at least once more by the end of 2022.
- The IBJJF has announced the return of their Grand Prix events, with five tournaments scheduled for 2022.
- BJJ legend Mackenzie Dern revealed after her most recent MMA fight that she believes she has the best Jiu-Jitsu in women’s MMA.