It’s been rumored for some time now but the official announcement has just been made, the ADCC World Championships have now been delayed until 2022. The main reason is of course the current Coronavirus pandemic, which has meant that the event was likely to be forced into having no spectators, or travel restrictions may prevent some athletes from competing. The ADCC organizers were holding out for some time, but when travel restrictions were starting to effect the trials events, postponement started to look likely. The trials events are, after all, where a large percentage of the competitors are sourced and a huge part of the buildup for the eventual World Championships themselves.
The dominoes started falling back in September, when the organization was forced to postpone the European trials event for a little over two months as a result of travel restrictions and limitations on training in certain countries. It was only a matter of weeks before the same fate befell the North American trials, with those too being postponed for a minimum of two months, potentially as much as four. It was in between these two bombshells that we managed to sit down for an exclusive interview with ADCC head organizer Mo Jassim. In it, he was open and honest about the potential for the ADCC World Championships to be delayed until 2022 and wouldn’t rule it out when discussing plans for the future.
Now, when talking to FloGrappling, Mo Jassim confirmed the following statement:
“Due to the delays of the ADCC Trials because of COVID-19, we have decided to postpone the ADCC World Championships to 2022. The health and safety of the competitors, audience and staff is ADCC’s number one priority.”
We will follow the story as it develops and provide updates on both the ADCC trials events, and the eventual world championships.
