The 2026 ADCC World Championships begin on Sept. 12, but the thrills starts a day earlier when each athlete's pathway to the championship is unveiled.
At 3 p.m. ET, the matchups and seeding for every division at ADCC Poland will be revealed to grappling fans.
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- Here's What Happened At The 2024 ADCC World Championship
The bracket sets the tone for the rest of the tournament, with an athlete’s path which opponents they may have to go through, and in what order.
Here are live updates for the ADCC World Championship bracket reveal, with matchups and seeding updated in real time.
8:44 PM
First round matches you can't miss at ADCC 2026 in Poland
With the brackets official, we now know what to watch for early tomorrow morning. These are the matches I'm most excited about:
-66kg
- Nico Mikuliszyn vs Gavin Corbe
-77kg
- Vagner Rocha vs Michael Sainz
- Tommy Langaker vs Taylor Pearman
- Oliver Taza vs Jacob Bornemann
-88kg
- Gustavo Batista vs Nathan Haddad
- Faris Ben-Lamkiden vs Marlon Tajik
-99kg
- Adam Wardzinski vs Eoghan O'Flanagan
- Achilles Rocha vs Declan Moody
- Michael Pixley vs Daniel Schuardt
+99kg
- Haisam Rida vs Nick Hartman
- Roosevelt Sousa vs Brandon Reed
-55kg
- Ana Mayordomo vs Sheliah Lindsey
-65kg
- Ana Carolina Vieira vs Nadia Frankland
+65kg
- Nia Blackman vs Elizabeth Mitrovic
- Paige Ivette Clymer vs Yara Soares
8:42 PM
+99kg: Pena, Manasoiu, Hugo, Saunders are the top 4 seeds
Felipe Pena (#1) vs Belal Etiabari (#16)
Haisam Rida (#8) vs Nick Hartman (#9)
Josh Saunders (#4) vs Francis Pana (#13)
Roosevelt Sousa (#5) vs Brandon Reed (#12)
Dan Manasoiu (#2) vs Pedro Lucas (#15)
Pouya Rahmani (#7) vs Mark Macqueen (#10)
Victor Hugo (#3) vs Heikki Jussila (#14)
Ruslan Abdulaev (#6) vs Tito John Carle (#11)
8:11 PM
-99kg: Wardzinski vs O'Flanagan, Moody vs Rocha to hit in the first round
Kaynan Duarte gets the expected no.1 seed, and a first round bout against Atos teammate Nico Maglicic (#16).
Javier Zaruski, also representing Atos, gets the no.8 spot against no.9, Vinicius Lessa.
Michael Pixley scores the no.4 seed and will take on no.13 Daniel Schuardt of Australia.
Great Britain's Eoghan O'Flanagan gets the no.4 seed, and a match with Polish hero Adam Wardzinski (#13).
Luke Griffith is the no.2 seed on the other side of the bracket, taking on Poland's Marcin Maciulewicz (#15).
Steffan Banta (#7) will face Patrick Gaudio (#10).
Roberto Cyborg (#3) will face Eli Braz (#14).
Declan Moody (#6) will face Achilles Rocha (#11)
Keep your eyes on first round matches between Pixley and Schuardt, Wardzinski and O'Flannigan, and especially Moody and Rocha.
8:04 PM
-88kg: Costa, Wojcik, Tajik, Diniz the top seeds
Felipe Costa gets the no.1 seed off of his third place finish at ADCC 2024, and will take on Poland's Mateusz Mazur (#16).
Poland's Pavel Jaworski is the no.8 and will face Roberto Dib Frias (#9).
Matheus Diniz (#4) gets the no.13, Australia's Lucas Kanard.
Jon Blank (#5) will take on Brazil's Gabriel Brod (#12).
On the other side, Chris Wojcik gets the no.2 seed and will face Santeri Lilius (#15).
Jozef Chen (#7) will face Peruvian Franco Diaz (#10).
Sweden's Marlon Tajik gets a surprisingly high no.3 seed, to take on no.14, Faris Ben-Lamkaden.
Gustavo Batista's no.6 seed earns him a first round matchup against North American Trials winner Nathan Haddad (#11)
7:57 PM
-77kg top seeds: Rocha, Barch, Leon, Dorsey
Vagner Rocha gets the no.1 seed at 77kg, and will face Miami neighbor Michael Saenz, who drew the no.16 spot.
Alexander De Jesus "Robinho" gets the no.8 spot and will face Magomed Dzharbaev, the no.9.
Elijah Dorsey rightfully gets his seed at no.4, and will take on Poland's Matheus Gamrot of UFC fame at no.13
Matheus Szczinski gets the no.5 seed, and will face Julio Martins of Brazil, the no.12 seed.
On the other side, PJ Barch is awarded the no.2 seed, and faces Kaya Rudolph, the no.15.
Tommy Langaker is the no.7, standing across from Taylor Pearman, the no.11.
Dante Leon gets the no.2 seed, and a matchup against Russia's Nikolay Betrov.
Oliver Taza rounds it off as the no.6 seed, facing the no.11 Jacob Bornemann.
The -77kg is slated to deliver a few can't miss first round matches. I'm particularly excited about Langaker vs Pearman, and Taza vs Bornemann.
7:49 PM
Pato, Jones, Olivarez get top three seeds at -66kg
Diego Pato gets his much-deserved no.1 seed and will take on Polish invitee Jakub Wiklacz (#16). Waiting for them will be either Gianni Grippo (#8) or Felipe Machado (#9).
Fabricio Andrey gets the no.4 seed and will face Brazilian Trials winner David Santos (#13).
Andrey and Santos will feed into against either no.5 Kennedy Maciel or Kamil Wilk (#12).
On the other side, Owen Jones takes the no.2 seed, and so will face the no.15 seed from Japan, Ryoma Anraku.
Hometown hero Nico Mikuliszyn (#6) will face Gavin Corbe (#11).
Dorian Olivarez gets the no.3 seed and will take on Kazakstan's Bekzat Zapashov (#14).
Dominic Mejia (#7) faces Türkiye's Ygit Hanay (#10)
7:45 PM
Are Helena Crevar and Gabi Pessanha on collision course at +65kg?
Helena Crevar gets the no.1 seed and takes on Matilda Reid of Australia first. The winner will face either Nia Blackman or Elizabith Mitrovic.
On the other side, Gabrieli Pessanha will face Anabel Lopez of Spain. The winner there will take on either Paige Ivette Clymer or Yara Soares.
The way this bracket is shaped, Crevar and Pessanha could meet in the final, a long-awaited showdown between two of the greatest female competitors in contemporary jiu-jitsu.
7:40 PM
Sarah Galvão recieves the no.2 seed
Returning champ Ana Carolina Vieira gets the no.1 seed, and will face the Asia/Australia Trials winner Nadia Frankland in the opening match. The winner will take on either Ane Svendsen or Mo Black.
On the other side, Sarah Galvão is the anchor at no.2, and will face South American Trials winner Livia Barasine. The winner there will take on either Injana Goodman or 14-year old prodigy Joslyn Molina.
Look out for the matchup between no.1 and no.8 seeds Vieira and Frankland. Vieira has experience on her side, but don't sleep on Frankland's ability to attack from all positions.
7:37 PM
Jasmine Rocha gets the no.1 seed in the -55kg bracket
Returning ADCC bronze medalist Jasmine Rocha will take on Asian Trials winner Kanae Ikeda in the first round.
North American Trials winner Ana Mayordomo will face Sheliah Lindsey.
Returning two-time veteran Mayssa Bastos will face Valerie Hamilton on the other side of the bracket. The winner there will face the winner of Ana Rodrigues and Janette Gloger, the European Trials winner from Germany.
7:21 PM
The bracket reveal is officially live!
Tune into FloGrappling or the FloGrappling YouTube channel now, or keep this page refreshed for the biggest news and updates. Up first, the -women's -55kg division.
6:57 PM
When will the ADCC 2026 brackets be released?
The brackets for ADCC 2026 in Krakow, Poland are right around the corner! Watch live on FloGrappling at 3:15 p.m. ET to see the brackets as they're unveiled live, and watch the competitors from each of the first round matches face off before the showdown at Day 1 of ADCC Poland. First matches kick off tomorrow, Sept. 12 at 4 a.m. ET.
Can't watch the bracket reveal live?
Keep this article open and refresh the page for live updates in real time. We'll be bringing you the latest news, analysis and predictions throughout the bracketing event.
6:10 PM
Top seed predictions for each division
We'll be learning how each of the 104 athletes will be seeded across the five male and three female weight classes in less than an hour; but it's fun to speculate.
-66kg
- Diego Pato is the most decorated ADCC competitor among the group with a bronze medal in 2022 and a silver medal in 2024. He's the obvious no.1 seed for me.
- Kennedy Maciel took second at ADCC in his debut way back in 2019. In both 2022 and 2024 he went 1-1. If his result from seven years ago still carries bracketing weight, he may hold his position as the no.2 seed. But I'm not so sure the value of that medal will hold up (in a bracketing sense, at least). Regardless, I have him as a top-six seed.
- You could make a case for Owen Jones as the no.3 seed. He has the highest finishing position of any of the remaining athletes in the bracket, taking fourth place in 2024 after losing to Pato in the semis.
- If you take away Maciel's 2019 breakout performance, he and Fabricio Andrey have an almost identical ADCC record. Both men have won the South American Trials in dominant fashion; and both have gone 1-1 in each of the last two editions of the World Championships. I'd make the case that that puts Andrey within two seeds of Maciel, wherever he falls.
- It's unclear from this point if — and how — veteran status will trump trials performances in seeding considerations. The rest of the division's returning veterans are: Dorian Olivarez, Gianni Grippo, Kauã Gabriel.
-77kg
- I'd consider Vagner Rocha as clear cut of a no.1 seed as exists in any division in this tournament. No, he's never won gold. But the six-time ADCC veteran has appeared on the podium four times in two different weight divisions. He won a silver medal in 2024 at -77kg, a silver seven years prior in the same weight class, and bronzes from 2017 and 2022 in the -77kg and -88kg divisions, respectively.
- While the no.1 seed in this division appears a no-brainer, predicting the no.2 through no.6 becomes a complete guessing game. Is it Dante Leon, who took fourth in 2019, bronze in 2022, and then lost in the first round of -77kg in 2024? It could well be, as Leon vindicated himself in 2024 with a bronze medal run in the absolute. In that run, he sniped the newly-crowned -77kg champ with a foot lock and also knocked off the reigning two-time -88kg champ by decision.
- Supposing Dante gets the no.2, we slip into dice roll territory quickly. My guess:
- No.3: PJ Barch
- No.4: Elijah Dorsey
- No.5: Mateusz Szczeciński
- No.6: Magomed Dhzarbaev or Jacob Bornemann (Personally, I hope these two are the eight and nine seeds. This matchup has first round fireworks written all over it.)
-88kg
- Where do we start in this division? Does the no.1 seed go to the 2019 champ at -88kg, Matheus Diniz, or someone with more recent success? 2024 semifinalists returning to this division include bronze medalist Felipe Costa and fourth place winner Chris Wojcik. It's the most we have to go on for the top three seeds here.
- My prediction for seeds four through six, in no specific order:
- Pawel Jaworski, Jon Blank, Santeri Lillius
-99kg
- Finally! A clear-cut no.1: returning (four-time) champion Kaynan Duarte.
- You probably have to go with Roberto Cyborg as the no.2. He's got seven podiums at ADCC since 2009, including an absolute title in 2013. He took second in the absolute in 2024 and third in his weight class in the same year.
- The only person who might have claim to Cyborg's spot as the no.2, and will be the obvious no.2 or no.3 seed, is Luke Griffith, who took second place at +99kg in 2024.
- Four through six (again, no specifc order)
- Declan Moody, Eoghan O'Flanagan, Patrick Gaudio
+99kg
- Fortunately, another clear cut no.1 in the heaviest weight category: returning champion and one-time absolute champ Felipe Pena.
- I'll take Big Dan Manasoiu as the no.2 off his third place finish in this weight category in 2024, and Josh Saunders as the no.3 for his fourth place finish in the same category in the same year.
- My gut says the four through six seeds are (in this order):
- Victor Hugo, Roosevelt Sousa, Brandon Reed
Women's -55kg
- I'm feeling brave; I'm going to predict the whole bracket here:
- #1 Jasmine Rocha vs #8 Kanae Ikeda
- #4 Sheliah Lindsey vs #5 Janette Gloger
- #2 Ana Rodrigues vs #7 Valerie Hamilton
- #3 Mayssa Bastos vs #6 Ana Mayordomo
Women's -65kg
- Again, these are predictions:
- #1 Ana Carolina Vieira vs #8 Ane Svendsen
- #4 Nadia Frankland vs #5 Livia Barasine
- #2 Sarah Galvão vs #7 Injana Goodman
- #3 Mo Black vs #6 Joslyn Molina
Women's +65kg
- Last predictions:
- #1 Helena Crevar vs #8 Nia Blackman
- #4 Paige Ivette Clymer vs #5 Yara Soares
- #2 Gabi Pessanha vs #7 Matilda Reid
- #3 Elizabeth Mitrovic vs #6 Anabel Lopez