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.
Five more elite competitors have just received their invites to ADCC 2022, expanding the lineup to be even more impressive than ever before. The first of the latest batch of athletes to receive their invites was Vinny Magalhaes, who will now be the third former ADCC world champion to enter the 99kg division. Magalhaes won the over 99kg division all the way back in 2011 and has won three bronze medals on the ADCC mats alongside an impressive MMA career that included a stint on The Ultimate Fighter. He will face tough opposition in the form of Tim Spriggs, Patrick Gaudio, and fellow former ADCC world champions Yuri Simoes and Kaynan Duarte.
ADCC 2019 medalist Lucas ‘Hulk’ Barbosa has also received one of the most recent invites, although he will be changing things up slightly by moving down to 88kg this time around. The division’s reigning champion Matheus Diniz will be making things difficult for him however as he is also returning once again, as are two impressive competitors in the 88kg division, Xande Ribeiro and Craig Jones.
The 66kg division is where most of the recent action has taken place though, with all three of the remaining invites given out to athletes in that weightclass. First up was Gabriel Sousa, who is new to ADCC entirely but earned his place at the tournament by virtue of a string of impressive performances and being ranked second in his weightclass by FloGrappling. Perhaps his best showing came at the Who’s Number One Championships where he finished second after submitting Mikey Musumeci with a north-south choke.
He was quickly followed by the Canadian phenom and one of the biggest figures in the B-Team, Ethan Crelinsten. He won his place at ADCC 2017 with a solid performance at the East coast trials and managed to repeat that feat in 2018 when he dominated the West coast trials. He was forced out of ADCC 2019 due to an injury, which is part of the reason why he’s been given an invite this time around. This is something he actually shares in common with the final invite, Geo Martinez.
Martinez also withdrew from ADCC 2019 due to an injury, although he’s been a consistent figure for the promotion in the years leading up to that event. He won the first of his invites at an ADCC trials event all the way back in 2014, finishing with fourth place in 2015. Martinez then returned in 2017 but couldn’t make it past the second round when he was shut down by the legendary Paulo Miyao. This will mark his third ADCC appearance and Martinez will actually be one of the most experienced competitors in the 66kg division this year.
All five of the most recent invites were announced in separate posts to the official Instagram account for ADCC:
