This article is part of our ADCC 2022 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Anticipation for the 2022 edition of the ADCC World Championships just keeps growing, even more so now that the invites have started being announced. The first five people to book their place at the event were those that did so the hard way by winning the European, Middle-Eastern, and African trials earlier this year and they were quickly followed by the second wave of hard-fought victories at the North American East Coast trials. Owing in part to the fact that the remaining trial for 2021 was postponed until the following year, the promotion has started now revealing the athletes who haven’t needed to fight their way to the world championships.
ADCC officials also revealed that Gordon Ryan was going to get his wish as he was announced as a competitor in the over 99kg division as well as the superfight championship match against Andre Galvao. Shortly after this, his old rival Felipe Pena did not take the news of Ryan moving up in weight too well and he requested that he be allowed to change divisions to join the over 99kg division to face Ryan at the event. Now, the over 99kg division looks to be one of the most exciting at the event as Ryan’s former teammate Nicky Rodriguez has also been invited to compete.
The 77kg division of ADCC 2022 is also looking stacked as three invites have been given out there, with the first going to the absolute division’s giant-killer from 2019, Lachlan Giles. He will be joined by two veterans of the ADCC world championships as Lucas Lepri will be making his fifth appearance and UFC fighter Davi Ramos will be returning after winning gold in 2015. The final in the latest wave of invites has been given to former Bellator middleweight world champion Rafael Lovato Jr, who will be competing for the seventh time at the world’s most prestigious no gi grappling event.
Each of the invites for the 2022 ADCC World Championships were announced in individual posts to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
