Grapplefest have just broke completely new ground by partnering with ADCC in order to become their official European superfight show. It’s undoubtedly a huge opportunity for the UK promotion, as they will now be affiliated with the biggest name in no gi grappling. The ADCC world championship is the most prestigious no gi grappling tournament around, and the promotion has recently been expanding their offering even further. Where they originally focused their biennial world championship and the 8 ADCC Trials building up to them, they’ve now put a huge effort into expanding what they do in almost every continent by increasing the number of ADCC Open events dramatically.
That has been the main drive of their work in North and South America over the last few years, and they’ve recently introduced a few National Championships too. Now it seems like they’re making an effort to improve what they do in Europe too, but though a slightly different avenue. Rather than travelling around to host ADCC open tournaments, this partnership with Grapplefest gives them greater reach in the European Jiu-Jitsu scene through superfight shows. Grapplefest usually host around 2 or 3 shows a year with dozens of matches on each card, meaning that there’s a lot more opportunity for European grapplers to compete under ADCC rules now.
Not only will the partnership likely help Grapplefest attract more attention from fans but jt will probably give them an easier time attracting top competitors too. They’ve already had multiple ADCC medallists and Trials winners step on their mats in the past, both from around Europe and flying in from other continents too. Now they’ll likely be able to stack their cards with fantastic matchups even moreso than they already did; starting with Grapplefest 20 on February 28th, 2026. That’s the first event of this new partnership, and every match on the card will be contested under ADCC rules.
Grapplefest announced the news that they will now be the official European ADCC superfight show in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
