The Ocean BJJ Pro Championship 2026 season is about to begin, as the promotion has just announced their schedule of Trials events for the year. These are tough open tournaments taking place all across Europe from February to July, building up to the grand finale on September 19th, 2026. Each event will produce winners in the men’s under 80kg division, the women’s under 65kg divisions, and the openweight divisions for both genders. Their last series of Trials events in 2025 were a huge success, with each one attracting some serious talent and some of the best grapplers in Europe ended up earning a place in the final.
This year should be no different and if anything, the competition at the Trials will be even fiercer than before. Ocean BJJ is only gaining more notoriety as time goes on, and the Trials brackets will get tougher and tougher every single time. The hardest part is predicting who will emerge victorious, because qualifying tournaments like this have a habit of ending in an upset. Although a handful of veterans will come in as favorites, they’ll have to make it through several exciting young prospects who will all be eager to make a name for themselves with a big win.
We spoke to Fabrizio Forconi, Co-Owner and Event Manager at Ocean BJJ, and he revealed what he’s most looking forward to for their 2026 season:
“I’m really excited for the kind of matches Ocean is known for high pace, high aggression, and a relentless hunt for the submission, exactly what the Ocean Rules are built to reward. And honestly, I’m a big fan of stand-up too, so I’m hoping for some real fireworks on the feet, especially with our seasonal bonus for the best takedown.”
Despite the fact that this is just the third year for Ocean BJJ as a professional grappling promotion, they’ve already grown a phenomenal amount. They’ve quickly established themselves as one of the biggest promotions in Europe and although Forconi and his team are still working on 2026, he has one eye on the future as well:
”As Ocean keeps growing, I see the qualifiers expanding across Europe starting next year. More stops, bigger stage, same ruthless style. With FloGrappling putting both the Trials and the Finals in front of a global audience, our athletes – especially the winners – get real momentum fast: just look at Paweł Jaworski’s run to 2025 Ocean champion alongside names like Marcin Maciulewicz, Corbin Laporte, Sebastian Patyk, Emma Rosini, Natan Sap, Tom Maenurm or Christian Frillici.”
This year is the priority right now though of course, and the first stop on the schedule is Milan. We’re just days away from that now and Forconi gave us a little spoiler for it:
”Keep an eye on the Grillo brothers, Damiano and Simone, at the Milan trial: they’re about to become regular names across Europe.”
Ocean BJJ Pro Championship 2026 Trials Schedule
Milan, Italy – February 8th – Registration available here
Warsaw, Poland – March 14th – Registration pending
London, England – May 31st – Registration available here
Paris, France – May/June TBC – Registration pending
Barcelona, Spain – June 14th – Registration pending
Roma, Italy – July 19th – Registration pending
Ocean BJJ has announced the schedule for their upcoming Trials in 2026 in a series of posts to their official Instagram account, and future announcements can be found there too:
