ADCC Worlds 2026 Results: Duarte's Brutal Weekend, and the Upsets That Reshaped Every Division

ADCC Worlds 2026 wrapped up Sunday in Kraków, and if you read the preview we ran before the brackets dropped, the honest scorecard on our picks is rough: we called maybe two of nine divisions right. That is not really a complaint about the picks, it is the story of the whole weekend. This was the most upset-heavy ADCC in years, and the biggest storyline had nothing to do with a bracket at all.

Kaynan Duarte tried to do something almost nobody attempts: win his weight class, the absolute, and the superfight in the same two-day window. He came up empty on all three. Luke Griffith submitted him in the 99kg final at the 14:47 mark. Then, hours later, in the superfight against Yuri Simoes, the last two ADCC absolute champions traded a 22-minute war that went to overtime, where Duarte appeared to injure his shoulder before Simoes finished the submission at 22:26. A four-time champion looking to add a fifth title instead left Kraków with nothing, and a visible injury from carrying too much of the weekend on his own back. Workload management is not just a phrase for strength coaches. This is what it looks like when a genuinely elite competitor runs out of tank at the worst possible moment.

The rest of the card matched that energy. At 66kg, with two-time champion Diogo Reis out, Kennedy Maciel won gold over Gavin Corbe by submission at 28:41, a genuinely deep, close final. Maciel is the son of Rubens "Cobrinha" Maciel, the Super Grand Slam winner from the 2010s, which makes this the first time a champion's son has gone on to win ADCC gold himself. Diego Pato took bronze in a stacked bracket.

77kg went to Magomed Dzharbaev over PJ Barch by referee decision, a final tight enough that it needed the judges. Mateusz Szczecinski, the Polaris champion and hometown favorite with the loudest section in the building, took bronze rather than the gold the crowd wanted, and Vagner Rocha's comeback run, competing alongside both of his adult children after a heart attack, ended short of the podium but was one of the more talked-about stories of the weekend regardless of the result.

88kg produced the deepest surprise on the men's side. With two-time champion Giancarlo Bodoni out injured, Pawel Jaworski beat Marlon Tajik in a 0-0 final decided on points, and became just the fourth European athlete ever to win an ADCC world title, joining a list that includes Ffion Davies. For a Polish grappler to do it in Poland, at the first ADCC Worlds held outside the United States, is the kind of storyline that writes itself. Jozef Chen, the submission-hunter we tabbed as the favorite, took bronze instead.

+99kg went the way we expected, with Victor Hugo finishing Josh Saunders by submission at 8:49 for his first ADCC gold, ahead of Felipe Pena, who chose to run the absolute instead of defending his +99kg title there. That decision paid off.

The absolute is where the tournament's biggest historical mark got set. Pena submitted Roosevelt Sousa at 10:03 in the final to win his second ADCC open weight title, making him the first man in the event's history to win the absolute division twice. Four-time and now former 99kg champion Duarte's rough weekend, set against Pena's coronation in the same two days, is as clean a before-and-after as this sport produces.

On the women's side, Mayssa Bastos and the rest of the 55kg field we expected to see up top instead watched Jasmine Rocha take gold over Ana Rodrigues by submission at 25:09. At 65kg, defending champion Ana Carolina Vieira avenged her Combat Jiu-Jitsu Invitational loss to Sarah Galvao, submitting her in the final at 32:29 to keep the title. And at +65kg, Helena Crevar, still one of the youngest elite competitors in the sport, finished Anabel Lopez in just over six minutes for gold, with short-notice entrant Gabi Pessanha's grand slam bid falling short of the podium.

Zoom out and the bigger story is the one about the sport itself. Twenty-three nations competed, nine reached the podium, and this was, by ADCC's own numbers, the most geographically diverse championship the event has run. A tournament that lost Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, both Ruotolo brothers, and Nick Rodriguez to retirement and UFC BJJ's exclusivity rule did not get worse for it. It got less predictable, which for two days in Kraków turned out to be the same thing as better.

We keep the Forca Method BJJ rankings updated after every major event, and this weekend moves several names. Yuri Simoes' superfight win, Duarte's rough double-loss, Pena's second absolute title, and Jaworski's breakthrough all factor into the next rebuild.

Full results

Superfight: Yuri Simoes def. Kaynan Duarte, submission (22:26)

Absolute: Felipe Pena def. Roosevelt Sousa, submission (10:03)

66kg: Kennedy Maciel def. Gavin Corbe, submission (28:41) · bronze: Diego Pato

77kg: Magomed Dzharbaev def. PJ Barch, referee decision · bronze: Mateusz Szczecinski

88kg: Pawel Jaworski def. Marlon Tajik, points (0-0) · bronze: Jozef Chen

99kg: Luke Griffith def. Kaynan Duarte, submission (14:47) · bronze: Daniel Schuardt

+99kg: Victor Hugo def. Josh Saunders, submission (8:49) · bronze: Mark Macqueen

Women's 55kg: Jasmine Rocha def. Ana Rodrigues, submission (25:09) · bronze: Ana Mayordomo

Women's 65kg: Ana Carolina Vieira def. Sarah Galvao, submission (32:29) · bronze: Joslyn Molina

Women's +65kg: Helena Crevar def. Anabel Lopez, submission (6:04) · bronze: Paige Ivette Clymer

FAQ

Who won the ADCC 2026 superfight?

Yuri Simoes submitted Kaynan Duarte at 22:26 in overtime. Duarte appeared to injure his shoulder during the extended match, capping a weekend where he also lost the 99kg final earlier the same day.

Did Kaynan Duarte win anything at ADCC 2026?

No. He lost the 99kg final to Luke Griffith by submission and then lost the superfight to Yuri Simoes hours later, appearing to injure his shoulder in the process. It was the toughest tournament of his career after four previous ADCC titles.

Who won the ADCC 2026 absolute division?

Felipe Pena, submitting Roosevelt Sousa at 10:03. It's his second ADCC absolute title, making him the first man in ADCC history to win the open weight division twice.

How many first-time ADCC champions were there in 2026?

Six of the nine weight-class finals were won by first-time ADCC gold medalists: Kennedy Maciel, Magomed Dzharbaev, Pawel Jaworski, Luke Griffith, Jasmine Rocha, and Helena Crevar. Only Ana Carolina Vieira defended a title, and Victor Hugo and Felipe Pena were already former champions in other categories.

Was this really the first ADCC Worlds outside the United States?

Yes. The 2026 event at the Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland, was the first ADCC World Championship held outside the US since the tournament began, and it drew competitors from 23 nations, the most diverse field in the event's history.