ADCC 2019 Recap

Photo courtesy of Mike Calimbas

Oh boy, was this a hell of an event. We had upsets, returning champs reclaiming their crowns, new coronations that felt inevitable, and even some tempers flaring up due to the results of matches. Let’s get right into it because there’s plenty to talk about from the event.

66 KG

In my preview, I mentioned that an Augusto Mendes win was not an impossible feat, though I will admit I did not see it as the most likely scenario. Well, he did it. At 36 years old, he has finally achieved the title of ADCC champion. To do it, he had to run through Keith Krikorian, Matheus Gabriel, Paulo Miyao, and Kennedy Maciel. It seems like a fitting cap to his career (though I highly doubt he will be simply retiring from competition).

In 2nd we had Kennedy Maciel (who I should remind you, is just 22 years old), and in 3rd, Paulo Miyao. Sadly, and surprisingly for me and many others, Gianni (one of my favorites to win) was eliminated in the very first round, losing 4-0. I know he will learn from this and come back stronger.

Oh, and I’d be remiss not to mention Tye Ruotolo, who put everyone in the division on notice with his stellar performances during the event. Despite being only 16 years old, he defeated Bruno Frazatto and Pablo Mantovini to make it to the semi-finals, where he was submitted by 2nd place finisher Kennedy Maciel. Tye is one to watch, and that’s an understatement.

77 KG

JT Torres, now two-time and back-to-back ADCC champion. Torres was perfect, and that is a literal statement considering he went through the whole tournament without single point being scored against him in his run, capping off with victories over Garry Tonon and Vagner Rocha.

I predicted a Torres win, but he did it in a fashion that surprised even me. Vagner Rocha took second place, someone I put in as an honorable mention. I predicted Lucas Lepri would be on the podium, but he was upset by Dante Leon, who would end up losing to Vagner Rocha in the semi-finals, and to Garry Tonon for third place. Garry took third, and I feel bad for not including him as someone to watch in the preview. Tonon is not just a huge name, but he is legitimately an elite BJJ competitor and he proved it once again. While he may not be at the level of Gordon Ryan, he is still someone who has the capability to reach the top of the BJJ mountain in time.

To Jon Satava, you should have been given points for that pass, absolutely absurd. Still love you man.

88KG

I’ve been waiting for this one.

Matheus Diniz is an ADCC Champion. I knew he could do it; the man is a freaking monster on the mats. I plan to do a far more in depth breakdown so I won’t go too in depth with my gushing here.

Matheus had to compete against both of the other men I talked about in my preview to do it as well, so when you have the divisional king defeat the other two major threats, Josh Hinger and Craig Jones, that is even more impressive. Matheus has long been an elite competitor just lacking that world title to let everyone know, and now he has it. Long live the 88 KG king, may he reign in, well, not peace. You know what I mean.

Craig Jones of course took second place, losing 2-0 to Matheus in the finals. For the bronze, we had Josh Hinger submit the streaking Jon Blank, who himself had a rough road in the tournament defeating Rustam Chsiev and Murilo Santana. Respect for getting over two tough competitors too. This division has a lot to offer and I’m excited to see more from all of these guys. Also, I was perfect in my predictions of the podium for this division, just Saiyan.

-99 KG

Whelp, Gordon Ryan is an absolute force. There’s no doubt just how good he is, now taking his second title in his second division. Ryan blew through his first two opponents via submission before facing off against Lucas Barbosa in the semi-finals. This was not an easy match for Ryan, but he shut down Barbosa’s wrestling and took the back at the end to get the victory.

In the finals, we had a wonderful surprise (for me) as another of my teammates at Marcelo, Vinicius Ferreira Gazola, made it to the finals himself, defeating Jackson Souza and Vinny Magalhaes, both of whom I mentioned in my preview of this division. “Trator” put up a fight but eventually was submitted, Ryan’s third submission of the tournament.

Ryan is the king of the castle right now, and it’s hard to see who’s going to stop him there. Lucas Barbosa also took third as Vinny was unable to compete for bronze.

99+ KG

Well, this division was just crazy. It started off according to plan I would say, at least with my predictions. But in the quarterfinals, we started to see some names get bumped off. Orlando Sanchez was beaten by Nicky Rodriguez and Yuri Simoes was eliminated by Kaynan Duarte.

The semi-finals are where shit hit the fan. Kaynan Duarte defeated Marcus freaking Almeida and Nicky Rodriguez beat Roberto Abreu. Abreu was extremely upset with the result and refused to compete for bronze, resulting in Almeida taking third. Regardless, we see Kaynan defeat Nicky Rodriguez to cap off a ridiculous run through ADCC. He’s just 21 years old and already ADCC champ. That is crazy, and to do it while also defeating someone like Almeida along the way is completely absurd.

Kaynan’s rookie black belt season is easily among the best in recent memory and the sky is the limit for him in the competitive grappling world. Seriously, go take a look at this kids record, 82 wins, just 12 losses, all from 2018 forward, and he’s already got the IBJJF World title and ADCC title under his belt.

Absolute

Gordon Ryan is kind of just wrecking everyone. In my preview, I said how excited I was to see Ryan vs. Almeida in the finals of the absolute division, and we got that.

In what was as tight as possibly could be, no points were scored by either man, with finals being decided by a penalty for Almeida. Ryan is now a two-time ADCC champion in two weight classes, with an absolute title on top of that. He’s got so much more time to work in the sport too, so there’s really no telling just how far he can go.

With Almeida, second place wouldn’t be that bad if he was not upset in his own division. Becoming a three-time ADCC champion would have been another feather in his loaded cap, but it was not meant to be this year, and I’m quite curious if we see Gordon make a move up in weight again to try and take over a third weight class in 2021.

Lachlan Giles took third and piqued everyone’s interest as well. Despite being one of the smaller competitors, Lachlan submitted everyone in his run of wins at absolute, only losing to Gordon Ryan and submitting Kaynan Duarte, Patrick Gaudio, and Mahamed Aly. Excellent work from Lachlan.