ADCC Trials winner Owen Jones has just been promoted to brown belt in BJJ by the head coach at Apex BJJ, David Cartwright-Khoza. The promotion comes after Jones shocked the world and came out of nowhere to run through the 66kg division at the ADCC European, Middle-Eastern, and African Trials 2023. Jones announced his arrival to the highest level of the sport in style, and it’s clear that the brown belt promotion is well-deserved. Winning an invite to ADCC is an incredible achievement for any competitor, but even more so when it’s done as an underdog in a division full of elite competitors.
Both of the most recent ADCC Trials winners in that division, Sam McNally and Ashley Williams, were in the bracket and they weren’t alone either. Kamil Wilk is among the top competitors in Europe and Robert Degle is one of the best leglockers on the planet, but Jones managed to reach the top of the podium ahead of all of them. In fact, he actually met both Degle and Williams on the mat and beat both of them in direct matches in order to advance further in the division. It will undoubtedly go down as one of the most impressive runs from an underdog in ADCC Trials history, and it’ll be interesting to see what Jones is able to accomplish at ADCC 2024.
Newly-promoted BJJ brown belt Owen Jones now has just a little under a year to prepare for the biggest challenge of his career, and he’s already started booking matches against high-level opponents. He’s going to compete on the main card of Polaris 26 against Bart Dubbeldam and getting another win here will likely set him up for even more matches against tougher opponents in the future. With major promotions like Polaris and Grapplefest being based in the UK, there should be no shortage of elite grapplers who would be willing to travel there to face him.
Owen Jones announced the news that he had been promoted to BJJ brown belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
