Top BJJ coach Melqui Galvao has just started a campaign to bring ADCC 2026 to Brazil instead of the US. Not only is his son, Mica Galvao, the reigning champion at under 77kg; but his other protege Diogo Reis is also the reigning champion at under 66kg. ADCC 2024 was an incredibly successful event for Brazil in general in fact, as 7 out of 10 titles and 18 out of 30 medals were won by Brazilian grapplers. This isn’t unusual at all though; most champions are Brazilian and ADCC 2022 was the only edition in the entire history of the event where the majority of winners were from outside Brazil.
A big part of that is obviously because Jiu-Jitsu is so incredibly popular in Brazil, and many of the best grapplers in the world were born there. ADCC has staged their world championship in Brazil before as well, with Sao Paulo playing host to both the 2003 and 2015 editions of the event. That was back when it regularly toured the world though, with it being in Finland, England, and even China at one point. Since 2019, ADCC has stayed in the US and both of the last two editions took place in Las Vegas. There’s no sign that the promotion is intending to change their recent direction, but Galvao and many others are encouraging them to do so.
Melqui Galvao announced his campaign to bring ADCC 2026 to Brazil in a recent post to his official Instagram account (Translated from the original Portuguese):
“We cried out. We smiled. We cried. Because we simply love what we do. ADCC – The biggest submission grappling event has 15 editions… and 2 were in Brazil. 2003 – Sao Paulo. 2015 – Sao Paulo. The ADCC is the biggest submission grappling event in the world, but Brazil is the heart of Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. The Brazilian cheerleaders are, without a doubt, the most passionate in the world. What causes me to imagine… What if… The next edition of ADCC was in Brazil? What do you think it would be? Today we are officially launching a campaign to bring ADCC back to Brazil. We, as representatives of Brazilian jiujitsu, are willing to help the ADCC achieve the essential support to make the biggest event of all time.”
