Orlando Sanchez has just been announced as the latest member of the ADCC Hall of Fame to be inducted in 2024, and he will be the first person inducted posthumously. He stormed to the top of the grappling world in incredibly short time, being promoted to black belt by Jose Olimpio in 2012 after just 4 years of training. It was a well-deserved promotion, as Sanchez had already won several gold medals at major IBJJF events as a brown belt. He was also actively competing on the regional MMA circuit at the same time and from 2010 to 2015, he finished every opponent he faced in the first round and retired with a 5-0 (1) record.
He made his first appearance at ADCC shortly after he was promoted to black belt, as he was invited to compete in the over 99kg division at ADCC 2013. Sanchez submitted Kitner Mendoga in the opening round before losing a close match on penalties to Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu. That performance earned him another invite in 2015 and that was the best performance of his career, as he stormed to victory at over 99kg to take home a gold medal. Sanchez beat some of the best competitors in the world like Dean Lister and Vinny Magalhaes along the way and secured his place among his fellow ADCC legends.
Sanchez won a silver medal when he returned in 2017, with his only loss coming on points to Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida in the final. He went 1-1 in 2019 and lost his opening round match in 2022, finishing his ADCC career with a 9-3 record and two medals. Sanchez may well have been invited to return once again at ADCC 2024, but he sadly passed away just a few months after ADCC 2022. Orlando Sanchez has now received the highest honor the promotion can offer by being inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame, ready for ADCC 2024.
ADCC announced the news that Orlando Sanchez was going to become the first posthumous induction into the ADCC Hall of Fame in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
