One of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, Jon Jones, has just announced that he’s considering competing at ADCC 2026. He was recently in attendance at ADCC 2024 to watch the event unfold live, and apparently it has ignited that competitive spark within him. Given that Jones has historically fought at light-heavyweight in the UFC and has only relatively recently moved up to the heavyweight division, he could likely compete at either under or over 99kg at ADCC. Generally speaking, most MMA fighters who take grappling matches tend to compete at higher weight classes than what they would in MMA to avoid cutting as much weight.
There’s a lot of precedence for this as well, as Jones would be far from the first professional MMA fighter to make an appearance at the ADCC world championship. Several former UFC world champions and other top veterans have competed at the event at one point or another; including Georges St-Pierre, Chris Weidman, and Chael Sonnen. Some have done it earlier in their careers and earned their place at the event by winning one of the ADCC Trials tournaments, while others have been invited based on their popularity and skill displayed at the height of their careers.
Jones would almost certainly be the latter, as it’s highly unlikely that he would put himself through the gauntlet of multiple matches in one weekend just to get an invite and ADCC organizers would no doubt love the media attention around him competing. Although this would be the first time that Jones has ever competed at this level of professional grappling, it’s not as if he’s new to the sport at all. He’s an NCJAA champion in wrestling who has competed in NAGA tournaments and a Submission Underground superfight. He also has access to some of the best coaches and training partners available to help him prepare as well, as seen by his recent sparring session with Gordon Ryan.
Jon Jones shared the news that he was considering competing at ADCC 2026 in a recent post to his official Twitter account:
