This article is part of our ADCC 2022 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Anticipation for ADCC 2022 has been building greater and greater by the day, with Patrick Gaudio leading the way in the latest wave of invites announced. Each one of them was announced in individual posts to the official ADCC Instagram account, and the first of the most recent batch of invites to be handed out was given to the reigning 88kg world champion Matheus Diniz. Diniz will be joining a whole host of tough competitors at 88kg like Josh Hinger, Xande Ribeiro; and the man who he beat in the final of ADCC 2019, Craig Jones.
Next up was Yuri Simoes, a two-time ADCC world champion in the 88kg and 99kg divisions who will be attempting to win his third title as he enters the 99kg division once again. He will have strong opposition in his weightclass, not least of all from the surprise invite given to Nicholas Meregali. Simoes isn’t the only 99kg competitor in the latest wave of ADCC 2022 invites however and he will also be joined by the current WNO Heavyweight champion Tim Spriggs, and Patrick Gaudio. This means that the 99kg division is starting to fill up fast after Kaynan Duarte was also invited not so long ago.
The final person to join Patrick Gaudio and the other recent ADCC invites was another surprise, this time in the form of Joao Gabriel Rocha. Rocha is a veteran competitor who first managed to win a silver medal on the ADCC mats back in the over 99kg division in 2013, and then earned another one in the absolute division in 2015. He’s been absent from the tournament since then, but will have a good chance of reaching the podium once again in a stacked division that already contains Nicky Rodriguez, Felipe Pena, and Gordon Ryan.
