Although the ADCC Trials don’t start until more towards the end of 2023, the promotion is still incredibly busy this year as they are putting more work than ever before into their ADCC Open events, including the upcoming Mexico Edition on March 18th in Guadalajara. This tournament will be one of several ADCC Opens that are set to take place across North America in 2023, including the very first ADCC Canada Open. The majority of these tournaments are going to be staged in the United States of course, and ADCC has already announced the first few taking place there as well.
These tournaments are a fantastic idea, as it gives competitors a great opportunity to get plenty of practice in competing under the ADCC ruleset. Given that the majority of lower-level BJJ tournaments across the world use the IBJJF ruleset instead, it’s always been difficult for athletes to get a good amount of preparation in for the ADCC world championships. After all, that event only happens once every two years and although there are several trials leading up to it, the majority of competitors will only be eligible to compete in two of them and are unlikely to compete again if they win qualification on their first attempt.
While everyone is able to replicate the ruleset in the training room, competing under it is an entirely different prospect. That’s why the upcoming ADCC Opens are invaluable for the development of up-and-coming grapplers, while they also give recreational practitioners an opportunity to experience something different too. Just prior to ADCC 2022, the promotion put together a fantastic open event that attracted a wide range of competitors from the casual to the top-tier athletes like Tammi Musumeci, Jacob Couch, and Andrew Tackett. Now that ADCC has moved to UFC Fight Pass, part of that streaming deal also means that these ADCC Open events will be shown live as well, further increasing their value and importance.
ADCC announced the news of the first ADCC Mexico Open in 2023 in a post to the promotion’s official Instagram account: