No-Gi Pans 2026: The ADCC Medalists Who Didn't Take the Fall Off

Thirty-Second Breakdown

No-Gi Pans runs this weekend in Secaucus with more than 2,300 registered athletes, and the most interesting thread running through the black belt divisions is how many of them were competing in Kraków three weeks ago. ADCC Worlds ended September 13. Most athletes coming off a two-day, multi-match world championship take the rest of the month off. At least three ADCC finalists did not, and they are walking into a completely different ruleset with almost no recovery window. That contrast, ADCC's submission-hunting format against IBJJF's points-based one, is the actual story of this weekend.

The ADCC Carryover

Pawel Jaworski is the headline. He won ADCC gold at 88kg in Kraków, becoming only the fourth European athlete ever to take an ADCC world title, and he did it in a 0-0 points final against Marlon Tajik after two-time champion Giancarlo Bodoni withdrew injured. He is entered at medium heavyweight here. Winning an ADCC title and then entering a major IBJJF tournament three weeks later is an unusual choice, and it is worth watching whether the same patient, control-heavy game that won him a 0-0 decision translates cleanly to a format that actively rewards passing and positional points rather than just denying the other guy anything.

On the women's side, two athletes who lost ADCC finals are back. Sarah Galvao competes at middleweight after dropping the ADCC 65kg final to Ana Carolina Vieira, a rematch loss that reversed her earlier win over Vieira at CJI 2. Anabel Lopez Beard is entered at heavyweight after losing the +65kg final to Helena Crevar in just over six minutes. Both are in the position of having come close at the biggest event on the calendar and having an immediate opportunity to put a title on the board under a different ruleset. That is a genuinely different psychological situation than arriving fresh, and it tends to produce either very sharp or very flat performances rather than anything in between.

Divisions Worth Watching

Super heavyweight has Andre Galvao entered alongside Nata Tenca. Galvao needs no introduction and his presence alone makes this the division most people will check first.

Medium heavyweight is Jaworski's bracket, with Jacob Couch and Wallisson Oliveira Souza also entered. On paper it is the deepest men's division of the weekend.

Middleweight pairs Kieran Kichuk of Cicero Costha against a field that includes Tarik Hopstock of Frontline Academy, two athletes with genuinely different approaches to the same weight class.

What the Ruleset Changes

This is the part that matters most for anyone watching both events back to back. ADCC's format, especially with its overtime structure and its penalty system for pulling guard, pushes athletes toward submission hunting and rewards aggression in a way IBJJF no-gi does not. IBJJF no-gi is points-based: two points for a takedown or a sweep, three for a guard pass, four for mount or back control. An athlete who spent months preparing a game optimized for ADCC scoring has to re-weight what they are chasing, and three weeks is not a long time to make that adjustment.

The practical version: expect more deliberate guard passing and positional advancement than you saw in Kraków, and expect athletes who are used to hunting the finish to occasionally find themselves ahead on points and unsure whether to keep pushing. The differences between IBJJF and ADCC leg lock rules are the sharpest edge of this, and worth understanding before you watch, since what is legal in one format is a disqualification in the other.

A Note on the Venue

Secaucus puts one of the year's biggest no-gi tournaments squarely in North Jersey, which makes this the most accessible major IBJJF event of the year for anyone training in the New York and New Jersey corridor. If you have been meaning to watch a major tournament in person rather than on a stream, the barrier this weekend is about as low as it gets in this sport.

How to Watch

All three days stream on FloGrappling. Black belt divisions typically run later in the schedule than the lower belts and the age divisions, so check the daily mat schedule rather than assuming the marquee matches are early. We will have a results breakdown once the black belt finals are in.

Related

ADCC Worlds 2026 Results · Leg Lock Rules: IBJJF vs ADCC · Gi vs No-Gi Competition Rules · BJJ Techniques Glossary

Sources

• IBJJF: Pan IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship 2026
• FloGrappling: Who's In For the 2026 IBJJF No-Gi Pan Championships
• Yahoo Sports: Everything To Know About The 2026 Pan IBJJF No-Gi Championship

Forca Fight Lab commentary represents independent technical analysis from the Forca Method team. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in partnership with the IBJJF, or with any athlete named in this piece.