Jiu-Jitsu Weekly Roundup — August 16, 2026: ADCC Field Locked, AOJ Rules Youth Worlds

Jiu-Jitsu Weekly Roundup · Sunday, August 16, 2026

Four weeks out from Kraków, the grappling calendar is starting to compress. The ADCC World Championship field is finally locked, the superfight has a name attached to it, and the sport's youngest competitors just put on a show in Texas. Here's the week in jiu-jitsu.

ADCC 2026: the field is set for Kraków

All 128 competitor slots for the ADCC World Championship are now confirmed ahead of the September 12–13 event at Tauron Arena in Kraków — the first time Poland has hosted the tournament. FloGrappling published an updated rundown of the road to Poland this week, and ADCC's own event page has the official details.

The headline matchup is the superfight: Kaynan Duarte against Yuri Simoes for the vacant title, pitting the last two absolute champions against each other. Duarte earned the shot by winning the 2024 absolute, which traditionally grants a superfight challenge at the following Worlds, and the belt is vacant with Gordon Ryan not on this year's competitor list. The two have history — Duarte beat Simoes 3-0 on points in the second round of ADCC 2019 en route to his first world title. FloGrappling ran interviews with both men in the buildup, including Duarte on the challenges ahead and Simoes saying he is ready. Felipe Pena and Matheus Diniz are both back in the field as well.

ADCC Youth Worlds: AOJ runs the table in Austin

The inaugural ADCC Youth World Championship went down in Austin, Texas on August 9, and Art of Jiu Jitsu took the kids' team title — just weeks after winning the team title at IBJJF Kids Pans. As FloGrappling's Grappling Bulletin put it, AOJ has cemented itself as the best youth competition team in the world right now.

Standout individual champions included Icaro Moreno, Daniel 220, James Ortiz, Chingy Sainz and Zoe Freeman. If you coach kids, the archive of this event is worth an evening — the technical level from the older youth brackets is a straight preview of the black belt scene five years out. Jits Magazine also published full results and highlights.

The concurrent ADCC Austin Open produced gold medal performances from Dorian Olivarez, Placido Santos, Abe La Montagne and Ally Wolski.

IBJJF: The Crown returns November 8, World Masters fills up

The IBJJF confirmed this week that The Crown — its premier invitational, now in its fourth edition — will run on Sunday, November 8, streaming on FloGrappling. That gives the elite black belt scene a clear target on the back half of the calendar after ADCC.

Closer in, the World Master IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship returns to Las Vegas from September 3–5 for competitors over 30, and the athlete list is filling out fast. One name that jumped off the page: UFC featherweight contender Diego Lopes has signed up. FloGrappling has published registration deadlines, pricing, the schedule, and the full breakdown of age divisions, belts and weight classes. The IBJJF also announced that Jiu-Jitsu Con will feature seminars from Carlson Gracie Jr. and Sergio Zimmerman, Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida, and TLI's Elijah Dorsey and Malachi Edmond.

It was a busy weekend for IBJJF Opens as well, with events in San Diego, Chicago and Florianópolis.

Murilo Bustamante receives his red-and-white belt

Brazilian Top Team co-founder Murilo Bustamante was promoted to 8th-degree black belt this week — the red-and-white. A former UFC middleweight champion and one of the most influential coaches to come out of the Carlson Gracie lineage, Bustamante has spent four decades shaping how jiu-jitsu is taught for competition and for fighting. Well earned.

Coming up: UFC BJJ 10, the first UFC BJJ Open, and the grassroots calendar

UFC BJJ 10 lands Thursday, August 20 at 8pm ET, streaming free on the UFC BJJ YouTube channel, with welterweight champion Andrew Tackett defending against Jonnatas Gracie. Full card here.

Two days later, UFC BJJ launches its open-competition arm with the first UFC BJJ Open in Las Vegas on August 22–23, registration running through SmoothComp. That is the most interesting structural development in the sport right now: a promotion with UFC distribution building a grassroots feeder system underneath its pro roster.

Scanning the SmoothComp calendar for the coming week, there is no shortage of mat time: the U.S. Open of Catch Wrestling in Yorba Linda (Aug 22), the 21st Annual North American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament in Cerritos (Aug 22), White Belt Rumble in Mesa (Aug 22), Verde Valley Training Grounds in Cottonwood (Aug 22), Grappling Industries New Mexico in Rio Rancho (Aug 23), and Grappling X in Las Vegas (Aug 23). The ADCC Uberlândia Open follows on August 29.

Further out: AIGA has announced superfights for its September 20 card, with Bre Stikk vs. Olesia Zhuravleva and Maria Luiza vs. Khanna Kaskinova. Polaris 39 returns to the Dome in Doncaster on October 3, with a Polaris / Pro Sport Grappling amateur event at Sports Dock in London on August 30.

Sources

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