Jiu-Jitsu Weekly Roundup — September 14, 2026: ADCC Worlds Crowns Eight in Krakow

Jiu-Jitsu Weekly Roundup · Monday, September 14, 2026

Every two years the grappling world stops for one weekend, and this was the weekend. The 2026 ADCC World Championship took over TAURON Arena in Krakow, Poland on September 12 and 13, and it delivered records, upsets, a retirement announcement, and one genuinely ugly incident. Here is the full picture, plus where to get on the mats yourself in the days ahead.

ADCC 2026: Eight New World Champions Crowned in Krakow

The weight-class brackets wrapped Sunday with eight champions. On the men's side: Kennedy Maciel at -66kg, Magomed Dzharbaev at -77kg, Pawel Jaworski at -88kg, Luke Griffith at -99kg, and Victor Hugo at +99kg. On the women's side: Jasmine Rocha, Ana Carolina Vieira, and Helena Crevar. Full brackets and every match result are up at FloGrappling.

Europe had its strongest showing in the tournament's history, and the medal count reflected how global the sport has become: South America and Europe led the table, with North America, Oceania and Africa all on the board.

Victor Hugo Wins From the Bottom — Then Says Goodbye to ADCC

The +99kg division produced the story of the tournament. Victor Hugo went against everything ADCC strategy usually rewards and won all four of his matches by submission, every single one from his back. He finished Ruslan Abdulaev, kneebarred Mark Macqueen in the semifinal, and took gold with a shoulder lock on Josh Saunders at 8:49 of the final. After ten years chasing the medal, he used his post-match speech to announce he is done competing at ADCC.

Felipe Pena Makes History in the Absolute

Felipe Pena became the first athlete in ADCC history to win the open-weight absolute bracket twice, submitting Roosevelt Sousa at 10:03 in the final after finishing Ruslan Abdulaev in the semis. Pena had entered the +99kg bracket as well, where an injury kept him out of the bronze-medal match. In the superfight, Yuri Simoes defeated Kaynan Duarte by submission at 22:26, though Duarte appeared to injure his shoulder in overtime.

Helena Crevar, 19, Rewrites the Women's Record Book

Helena Crevar became the youngest woman ever to win an ADCC world title, and did it the hard way — every match by submission, finishing Anabel Lopez with a choke at 6:04 in the +65kg final. Two years after becoming the first woman to win an ADCC Worlds match by heel hook, she now owns two more firsts.

She was not the only teenager who turned heads. Fourteen-year-old Joslyn Molina made the semifinals of her division, lost a tight one to Sarah Galvao, and then won the bronze-medal match — becoming the youngest ADCC medalist on record. Ana Carolina Vieira took -65kg gold with a rear-naked choke on Galvao at 32:29, and Jasmine Rocha closed out her division by submitting Ana Rodrigues in the final.

Kennedy Maciel Follows His Father

At -66kg, Kennedy Maciel came in seeded 13th, beat Fabricio Andrey and Diego Pato on his way through, and finished Gavin Corbe with a triangle armlock at 28:41 in a marathon final. His father, Rubens Cobrinha Maciel, won that same title in 2013, 2015 and 2017 — making Kennedy the first son of an ADCC champion to win one himself, as BJJ Heroes noted in its breakdown.

Poland Gets Its Champion, and Russia Gets a New Name

Pawel Jaworski gave the home crowd its moment, winning -88kg on penalties over Marlon Tajik after submitting Gabriel Brod and Felipe Costa with inside heel hooks earlier in the day. He joins a very short list of European ADCC champions. At -77kg, 32-year-old Magomed Dzharbaev arrived largely unknown outside Russia and left as the division's champion, using wrestling to control Vagner Rocha, Mateusz Szczecinski and PJ Barch across the bracket.

The Numbers, and the Ugly Moment

BJJ Heroes counted 50 submissions across 103 weight-class matches — a 48.5 percent finish rate. Chokes from back control led the way with 19, followed by six straight ankle locks and six triangles. The lesson for the rest of us is the same one ADCC has taught for sixteen editions: stand-up and back attacks win at this level.

The weekend was not without controversy. On day one, a match between Dorian Olivarez and Bekzat Kapashov was stopped after Kapashov bit Olivarez's finger from mount and Olivarez responded with a slap. The match resumed and Olivarez won, but a scuffle involving his team and spectators followed outside the mat area, and ADCC subsequently disqualified Olivarez from the tournament. He had been among the favorites in his division.

The Week Ahead: Where to Compete and What to Watch

ADCC's open-tournament circuit rolls straight on. The ADCC Nashville Open and the ADCC Ecuador Open both run Saturday, September 19, alongside Fight to Win 325, the Shamrock Cup, and the CBJJE International BJJ Championships. FloGrappling's full streaming calendar is here.

On the grassroots side, SmoothComp shows a busy autumn if you are hunting for your next bracket. This coming Saturday alone: NAGA Las Vegas, NewBreed's No-Gi Global Grappling Championship in Chicago, Tap Cancer Out Nashville, NAGA Greensboro, the NewBreed South Carolina State Championship, and Grappling Industries stops in Calgary, Cheyenne and Wisconsin Dells. Looking a bit further out, the UFC BJJ Open No-Gi hits Fort Lauderdale September 26-27, the FUJI BJJ World Championship runs October 10-11 in Fishers, Indiana, and the ADCC US Open series continues in Austin on November 14 and Louisville on December 5.

The big one on the far horizon: the World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship returns to Las Vegas December 10-12. If ADCC weekend lit a fire under you, that is a realistic target to train toward.

Sources

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