The inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame has continued to grow at a rapid pace with the inclusion of it’s latest inductee, Baret Yoshida. Yoshida has now become the third American to be included in the ADCC Hall of Fame after Dean Lister became the first and Mark Kerr recently became the second. Not only that, but Yoshida has also broken a trend that has taken place among the inductees as he is now the first person to be included who has never actually won an ADCC world championship.
Yoshida has been an almost permanent fixture in the 66kg weight division, with him also having appeared at an incredible number of different editions of the ADCC world championships. It all started in 1999 when the Hawaii native competed for the first time and went out in the quarter-final of his weightclass and the opening round of the absolute division. He came back the following year in 2000 but couldn’t make it past the opening round as he was unfortunate enough to come up against fellow Hall of Famer and the eventual winner that year, Royler Gracie.
In 2001 Yoshida managed to secure his first podium-placement when he made it all the way to the final only to cross paths with Royler Gracie once again and had to settle for a silver medal. 2003 saw him come away with another silver medal after meeting Leo Vieira in the final that time around. After a short break Yoshida came back to win a bronze medal in 2007 and make another attempt at the absolute division, although this time he couldn’t get past Andre Galvao.
Baret Yoshida went out in the opening round of his weightclass in the next edition in 2009, and went out in the second round in 2011 after facing another ADCC Hall of Famer and future three-time champion, Rubens ‘Cobrinha’ Charles. In his most recent two attempts in 2013 and 2017, Yoshida again went out in the opening round after losing incredibly close matches.
Baret Yoshida was announced as the third American to be included in the ADCC Hall of Fame in a post to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
