Baret Yoshida has just made history by becoming the first person to compete at ADCC Trials after already having been inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame. The achievement is not only a testament to his skill level but also the insane longevity that Yoshida has been able to enjoy, as he stepped on the mats at the ADCC North American East Coast Trials 2024 on March 30th at the age of 48. More impressively, Yoshida wasn’t just there to take part and he actually managed to win his opening round match by submitting 18 year-old competitor Jayden Autry with an Anaconda Choke.
That put Yoshida into the third round of the tournament and he stepped back on the mats later on that same day, this time against top competitor CJ Murdock. Sadly the Cinderella story ended there for Yoshida, as Murdock managed to put up an 8-point lead before submitting him with an armbar. It was still a fantastic achievement for a competitor approaching his 50s who has already spent decades competing in the sport though. In fact, Yoshida actually made his ADCC debut all the way back in 1999, before Murdock had started training Jiu-Jitsu and before Autry was even born.
Yoshida has competed at more ADCC world championship events than anyone else in history and his 10 appearances between 1999 and 2017 is a record that will be incredibly difficult to beat. That, along with his pair of silver medals and one bronze medal, is the reason that he was inducted into the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame in 2022. Although Baret Yoshida has lost out on the chance to win an invite at the ADCC North American East Coast Trials 2024, he’s at least been able to set another record by becoming the first Hall of Famer to return to compete at a Trials event.
FloGrappling uploaded some footage of Baret Yoshida winning a match at the ADCC North American East Coast Trials 2024 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
