This recap of day 2 is part of our week of ADCC 2022 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
That was one wild weekend with over a hundred grappling matches between elite athletes at the very peak of our sport. With day 2 of ADCC 2022 over, all seven of the champions have been crowned in each of the weightclasses and we also have a new absolute champion as well. As if that wasn’t enough, fans were also treated to a Hall of Fame ceremony that officially inducted the twelve athletes who make up the inaugural class and of course the conclusion to the rivalry between Gordon Ryan and Andre Galvao that fans have been eagerly awaiting for three years. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the five biggest storylines that emerged on day 2 of ADCC:
ADCC 2022 Day 2 Recap
The queen dethroned
Gabi Garcia is the most successful female competitor in ADCC history for a reason, and it takes something truly special to deny her a world championship. It turns out that Amy Campo has that something special as she went to war with Garcia in an incredibly tough match, scoring the only points in the dying seconds in order to book her place in the final. Campo didn’t just stop there though, as she had one more opponent standing in between her and glory. Rafaela Guedes was more than game and she really did put everything on the line in order to emerge victorious, but Campo managed to win an incredibly close match 3-2 on points.
The first British ADCC champion
Take a bow Ffion Davies, you’ve done yourself and your country proud. There have been several athletes from the UK who have managed to battle their way through the European trials to make it to ADCC in the past, including a few at this very event. To date Davies was the only one who had ever managed to reach the podium, taking home a silver medal in 2019. She won her first match on day 1 before coming back with a force and putting on a clinic on day 2 of ADCC 2022. She beat her old foe from the semi-finals of 2019, Bia Mesquita, 6-0 on points before coming up against the newcomer Brianna Ste-Marie in the final and putting on a clinic from start to finish. Davies won the final 10-0 on points and ended up becoming the very first ADCC champion not only from Wales, but also from anywhere in the UK.
Welcome to the big leagues kids
Youth reigned supreme at ADCC 2022 and nowhere was that more present on day 2 than in the 77kg division. PJ Barch had already taken out the reigning champion JT Torres on day 1 but he came up against the unstoppable force that is Kade Ruotolo in the semi-finals. Ruotolo submitted Barch with an armbar before meeting Mica Galvao in the final, where either man would become the youngest champion in ADCC history when they won. Ruotolo locked up a lightning-quick heelhook to become the first person to submit Galvao, and finished the weekend with a 100% submission rate. He wasn’t the only young champion though, as Diogo ‘Baby Shark’ Reis also won the 66kg division just a matter of months after his 20th birthday.
Ruotolo earns redemption
You’d be forgiven for forgetting about Tye Ruotolo given that he was taken out of the 88kg division in the very first round by his teammate Josh Hinger. He came back on day 2 determined to make sure that wasn’t the end of his ADCC journey this year when he entered the absolute division. Ruotolo put such an incredible pace on his opponent’s that he managed to submit Pedro Marinho in the opening round and wear down Felipe Pena in an incredibly close match. He took on Nicholas Meregali in the semi-final and came within inches of finishing him with a D’arce Choke before losing a razor-thin judge’s decision. Sadly for fans, they didn’t get to see him one more time as Cyborg wasn’t able to compete in the third-place match and he won the bronze medal by default.
Our full play-by-play of the Absolute division can be found here.
The king does what the king wants
Gordon Ryan silenced every single person who doubted him on day 2 of ADCC 2022. There wasn’t much question anyway after he put in two stellar performances on the first day, but he opened the show on the sunday with the quickest submission of the whole event. It took Ryan just eleven seconds to submit Roosevelt Sousa with a heelhook and book his place in the final. There he met Nicky Rodriguez and although that may have been a tough stylistic match on paper, he submitted him with a heelhook early on in the match too. Then when he was on the mats to close the show against Andre Galvao, he did pretty much exactly what he said he would. He swept Galvao, showed excellent top pressure and passing, took his back, and submitted him with a rear-naked choke. Long live the king.
Our full play-by-play of the superfight between Gordon Ryan and Andre Galvao can be found here.
Click here to see the rest of our coverage of the 2022 ADCC world championships.
The full ADCC 2022 event replay, including the recap of all matches from day 1 and 2, will be available to watch on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.
