The 2022 ADCC World Championships took place on September 17-18, live from Las Vegas, NV. Today we look back at the breakout stars from the event.
Last weekend’s ADCC World Championships produced some wild upsets, break out stars and just about everything in between. The festivities were a brutal yet beautiful display of jiu-jitsu at the highest level. Below I’ve listed some of the athletes that shined the brightest.
Kade Ruotolo – 77 kg. champion
Kade Ruotolo absolutely set the arena on fire like I have never seen at a submission grappling tournament. He did this multiple times throughout the weekend.
In the semifinals, Routolo submitted PJ Barch with a beautiful step over armbar that brought the crowd to its feet. In the finals, he became the youngest ADCC champion at just 19-years old by submitting fellow young gun Mica Galvao via inside heel hook. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. Kade finished the tournament with a perfect submission rate.
Amy Campo – 60+ kg. champion
What a tournament for Amy Campo who was just as inspiring on the mic afterwards as she was on the mat.
Campo pulled off what were in my opinion two of the bigger upsets of the weekend. In the semifinals, needing a score late, she hit a beautiful arm drag on ADCC legend Gabi Garcia to take the victory.
In her finals bout against Rafaela Guedes, she again found herself down late in the match. Trailing 2-0, Campo found her way to Guedes’ back with around 4 minutes left but was unable to secure the secondary hook and score points. Again having to dig deep late she was able to finally secure her second hook with 20 seconds left in the bout to take a 3-2 victory becoming America’s first female to win this weight division.
Giancarlo Bodoni – 88 kg. champion
Giancarlo Bodoni had one of the most impressive tournament runs of the weekend on his way to becoming the 88 kg. champion.
In the opening round, he scored a hard fought decision victory over Isaque Bahiense before submitting 2019 ADCC champion Matheus Diniz, Eoghan O’Flannagan and Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa in succession. Bodoni’s blend of wrestling, guard passing and opportunistic submission hunting were truly sublime.
Two division favorites go down
In two of the biggest upsets of the tournament, a pair of #1-seeded favorites fell victim to shocking upsets on day 1 of the tournament. Garry Tonon fell to Sam McNally of Ireland. In the waning moments of the bout, McNally was able to take the back of Tonon and secure the victory.
The 77 kg. quarterfinals saw PJ Barch take out two-time ADCC champion JT Torres. An interesting bout that took place mostly on the feet, Barch was able to score a takedown and guard pass to secure the upset victory.
Gordon Ryan – “The King”
You may be wondering why I am putting Gordon Ryan on a list of breakout stars when he was clearly the overwhelming favorite to win his division and win his main event superfight with Andre Galvao (both of which he did).
I have never seen the sport in the spotlight as much as it was this weekend. It truly feels like jiu-jitsu is on the cusp of breaking through to the mainstream orbit and Gordon Ryan is a big part of that. He brings tons of eyes to the sport and on the biggest stage on possibly the sport’s biggest night he delivered in emphatic fashion.
This post was authored by BJJ black belt and submission grappling superfan Kurt Chase-Patrick.
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