Giancarlo Bodoni has just become the latest elite grappler to join ONE Championship, signing a contract to make his promotional debut shortly. It’s a big decision for any competitor, as ONE Championship generally only sign exclusive contracts that will take them out of the talent pool for other major promotions other than ADCC and major IBJJF events. That risk of having less competitive opportunities comes with plenty of rewards though of course. ONE contracts are famously lucrative and every match comes with the opportunity to earn a $50,000 ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus that tops an athlete’s purse up to an amount that very few promotions are willing to pay.
Bodoni is a two-time ADCC world champion too, so if anyone is able to put on a show and get a slick submission win then it’s him. He became the only man to win the under 88kg division twice in a row at ADCC 2024 and at the age of 29, it’s not hard to imagine that he could become one of a tiny number of three-time consecutive champions at ADCC 2026. Now fans have an idea of what’s in store for Bodoni in the meantime too, as he’s clearly going to be focusing on his career at ONE Championship and will likely work towards one of the promotion’s titles.
There’s no news yet on who he will be facing in his promotional debut, or what weight class he will be competing in. Giancarlo Bodoni only ever competed at under 88kg at ADCC and most of his appearances at other events have been above that weight class, so it seems as though middleweight (93kg) will be the most likely home for him at ONE Championship. The title there is vacant at the moment so there’s a clear path to it, but there’s also plenty of competitors who would comfortably move up to that weight. Dante Leon, Tye Ruotolo, and Francisco Lo are all currently signed with ONE Championship and could be great opponents for Bodoni in his eventual debut.
ONE Championship announced the news that they had signed Giancarlo Bodoni in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
