The Professional Grappling Federation (PGF) World 6 season begins April 21st, 2024 and we’re providing a full preview of this fantastic event. It will feature four legendary jiu jitsu figures as coaches and 20 outstanding 175lb and below competitors, and it’s all going down live on YouTube during the regular season with the post-season finale tournament being broadcast exclusively on UFC Fight Pass. We’re providing a preview of the league’s unique events, rule set, and the grapplers who will vie for their share of the more than $140,000 up for grabs this upcoming week in Las Vegas. Get ready for a truly unique experience, as 10th Planet Black Belt and PGF World Commissioner puts it: “It’s everything you love about sports, plus Jiu-Jitsu.”
PGF Season 6 Full Preview
The first thing to know about PGF World 6 is it’s not just another tournament – it’s a league. The action starts on April 21st when the four team coaches will assemble their teams via an auction draft. The coaches this season are true legends in jiu jitsu; they are Roger Gracie, Rigan Machado, Jean Jacques Machado, and Dean Lister. These gentlemen will have 10,000 PGF points each to assemble their teams. One by one, the 20 competitors will go up for auction and the highest bidding coach will win them for their team. Each coach can choose how to spend their PGF points, but they must reserve at least 100 for each of their five competitors. Once the teams are set, the regular season begins.
Each night from Monday, April 22nd, to Thursday, April 25th, the teams will face off in three blocks, similar to duels in wrestling. So each PGF World 6 competitor will have three matches a night, and 12 total for the regular season. The individual competitors have two goals. First, competitors will try to accumulate as many points as possible to help their team win the regular season and the $100,000 prize. Second, competitors will try to finish in the top eight in regular season standings so they can make it to the playoffs with a chance to win an additional $20,000 for themselves.
Scoring in PGF World is simple – you either submit your opponent or you get no points. Competitors earn 3 points if they score a Break (joint lock) and they earn 6 points for every Kill (choke). If a grappler secures a submission in less than one minute, they get an additional bonus point. Every match is only six minutes long, so the competitors must push the action if they want to score. With a draw being the same result for a competitor as a loss (no points), the last minute of a PGF World match becomes exciting very quickly. Finally, the team who wins each block will garner an extra team point for every member of their team. If a team was able to win every block in a season, they could earn 12 points for their team members (essentially two Kills or four Breaks worth of points).
On Friday, April 26th, the top eight scoring grappler of the regular season will face off in the post-season tournament. For the finale, matches are extended to 10 minutes with a special overtime. The post-season tournament is single elimination and will crown the PGF World 6 champion. The PGF World 6 champion will earn the title belt as well as $20,000. But if you’re wondering who these 20 competitors are and what kind of chance do they have at winning the PGF World Season 6 title, we’ve got you covered in this preview.
PGF Season 6 Competitor Preview
PJ Barch
Coming off an impressive win at the Polaris 27 Welterweight Grand Prix, there’s some real momentum behind PJ Barch. The ADCC veteran and 10th Planet Black Belt under Richie “Boogeyman” Martinez is generally recognized as the standard bearer for the 10th Planet association. Barch combines a heavy background in wrestling with phenomenal jiu jitsu skills. He can easily score Breaks with his leg locks, but more importantly, he can use his wrestling to take his opponents’ backs and sink in rear naked chokes to earn those six points for the Kill.
Prediction: Favorite
Andy Varela
Andy Varela will be coming to PGF World 6 with a chip on his shoulder. After only giving up 2 points in the entire tournament, Varela had to settle for bronze at ADCC West Coast trials a few weeks ago. Varela brings an exciting style mixing his own brand of wrestling with backflip passes and solid submissions. Bringing the mentality of a street fighter, any opponent disrespecting Varela will find themselves on the wrong end of serious collar ties and likely being dropped on their head. Varela will put some serious points on the board this season. Varela also has a bit of a hometown advantage as this 10th Planet black belt trains out of 10th Planet Las Vegas.
Prediction: Favorite
Renato Canuto
Another competitor with a home field advantage, Renato Canuto has a serious pedigree. Canuto runs Hybrid Jiu-Jitsu in Las Vegas. He’s a multi-time ADCC competitor and IBJJF Gi and No Gi world champion. Canuto has insane quickness and dexterity. The term “human highlight reel” may be overused in sports, but it suits Canuto. Most competitors might be worried about the limitations of a six-minute match, but Canuto only needs a split second to score a takedown, backflip pass, or score a flying armbar. Canuto has been dominant in ADCC and IBJJF formats where one can earn points through takedowns, passing, etc. The question remains “can Canuto still dominate in a submission-only scoring structure?”
Prediction: Popular Favorite, but this writer’s Underdog
Elijah Carlton
The Champ is here! The Champ is here! The Champ is here! While Elijah Carlton is not universally recognizable in Jiu-Jitsu due to a lack of IBJJF and minimal ADCC involvement, the Jabroni Grappler is the Royce Gracie of PGF World. Elijah has a record of 51 wins, 1 loss, and 5 draws in his four seasons competing in PGF World. He won Season 1, came in second in Season 2, won the regular season in Season 3, and won Season 5. No one has more experience in the PGF World ruleset than Elijah. Old school PGF fans have a saying “Never bet against Elijah Carlton in the PGF.” New fans would be wise to listen. Elijah can capitalize on the Kill bonus with his deadly triangles, or he can get the under one minute bonus point as he quickly takes someone’s leg home. Either way, the Jabroni will be putting points on the board this season and will make the playoff tournament.
Prediction: PGF Fan Favorite, Possible Underdog in greater community
Max Hanson
A member of Dante Leon’s Adamas Gym and a part of the Pedigo Submission Fighting Association, Max Hanson has been making moves in the Jiu-Jitsu world. Thanks in part to Team Adamas’s relationship with Westside Barbell, Hanson has the strength and stamina to put a serious pace on his opponents. This ability will serve Hanson well in PGF World 6. Besides his physical stamina, Hanson’s mental toughness might just carry the day for him. While the gauntlet of three high-paced, competitive matches a day for four days might break competitors, Hanson has the ability to endure. He’s defended titles in multiple weight classes in promotions on the same day previously. He’s bounced back from being on the wrong end of highlight reel finishes only to win highly competitive tournaments above his normal weight class. Hanson is a true professional and someone to watch for in this PGF World season.
Prediction: Dark Horse
Davis Asare
John Danaher and his New Wave gym have sent a representative to win this season of PGF World. Asare was one of the breakout stars of the ADCC Open circuit in 2023. Recently, he earned the silver medal at the ADCC European Trials. Asare is a submission hunter with wins over multiple other competitors on this roster, including breaking Elijah Carlton’s foot with a toe hold. The last New Wave representative to enter PFG World left victorious as the PGF World Season 4 champion. Asare has a real shot at repeating New Wave’s success in PGF World.
Prediction: Dark Horse
Kevin Beuhring
Kevin Beuhring first stepped on to the PGF World stage as a white belt, scoring all submissions during a PGF World Season 3 qualifier to earn his spot on the roster. As a baby blue belt, he finished in the top five and earned a spot in the finale tournament. Since then, Beuhring has earned championship titles for Sapateiro, Midwest Finishers, Summit Grappling and more. Like Elijah Carlton, Beuhring trains under Sean Applegate at 10th Planet Atlanta. Carlton has said “[Kevin’s] the best grappler in the room right now. He’s scary to touch. Just touching him, connecting with him….I’m not safe in any situation.” If Beuhring can transfer his success in regional competitions and in the training room to the PGF World mats, he’ll be a real contender to make the playoffs and possibly win it all.
Prediction: Dark Horse
John Combs
An ADCC West Coast Trials Champion, Sapateiro Open Weight Champion, and ADCC Chicago Open Champion, Combs looks to rack up the kills this season. He earned his black belt while training at the Easton Training Center in Boulder, Colorado but now trains with the Sapateiro team in Florida. Combs was an All-American wrestler in college and has been a professional grappler for many years. Of his 115 wins in competition, 72% of them were by submission. Of those submissions, 82% of them would qualify as Kills in the PGF World rule set. What does this mean? John Combs is about to put up a lot of points and likely earn himself a spot in the post-season tournament.
Prediction: Dark Horse
AJ Agazarm
This Gracie Barra black belt has been a mainstay of high-level jiu jitsu competition for many years. Agazarm won the silver medal at ADCC 2017 and is an IBJJF no gi World Champion. Not one to rest on his laurels, Agazarm keeps striving, keeps competing. A master of psychological warfare, Agazarm often first off balances his opponents with his words, then uses his D1 wrestling skills to finish taking them down. As with some other competitors on the roster, some wonder if Agazarm can deprogram himself from the points rulesets of other competitions where he’s had such great success. If Agazarm can focus on submissions and find his killing stroke, he could be very dangerous this season.
Prediction: Underdog
Daniel Sathler
Another up-and-coming grappler, in 2019, Sathler came to the United States to join ATOS when he was just 18. Since then, he’s found great success in the IBJJF scene, earning the 2022 Brown Belt World and Pan Championships as well as the 2021 IBJJF No Gi Purple Belt Championship. Earning his black belt midway through 2022, Sathler was ready to take on the other professional grapplers. With all the killers on Andre Galvao’s team, their decision to send Sathler to be their representative at PGF World speaks volumes about him. Sathler is a very active competitor, racking up 30 matches since 2023. Of those 30 matches, he’s secured submissions in about 1/3 of them and only gave up one submission loss. Given these numbers, we know Sathler is a tough competitor who could make a run at the PGF World Title.
Prediction: Underdog
Ben Eddy
Coming out of 10th Planet Austin, Ben Eddy is a 10th Planet Black Belt directly under Eddie Bravo. Bar none, Ben Eddy is the best rubber guard player in competitive jiu jitsu. As Bruce Lee said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Eddy’s game plan is to get his opponent’s in his guard then work his rubber guard game until he secures a hindulotine (guillotine using the rubber guard) or a triangle/triangle armbar. While Eddy has faced some challenges in other rule sets that allowed his opponents to run away from his guard, the PGF World Ruleset will force Eddy’s opponents to engage. Once Ben Eddy gets his opponents in his guard, they are in for a world of hurt. Eddy has made a personal guarantee he will hit at least four hindulotines in the PGF World regular season.
Prediction: Dark Horse
The Rest of the Pack: the Other 10
We’ve only covered half of the field. The other 10 competitors will make the PGF World season very exciting but are admittedly underdogs to win the championship. Here’s a quick run down of the other competitors: Mike John is a 10th Planet Black belt who teaches at 10th Planet Orange and is coming off an impressive submission victory at Subversiv just last week. David Evers is a black belt and the PGF World Season 3 Champion! He’s defending his title and might just be a rocket scientist. Brown belt Jett Thompson is the most dangerous 17- year-old you could run across and he has wins over competitors featured above. Samson Phommabout recently won the ADCC Long Beach Open and was a post-season qualifier in PGF World Season 4. Cam Hurd was a D1 wrestler at Virginia Tech and had a great run at the recent ADCC West Coast Trials. He’s a PGF Season 5 veteran as well so he has insight into this unique rule set.
Nathan Haddad is a Helio ‘Soneca’ Moreira black belt, coming out of Combat Core Sports in Lousville, Kentucky. His slide-bys will set him up to sink in RNCs on his opponents and rack up kill points. Jamie Carnall came out of nowhere to be the runner-up in the PGF World 6 Qualifier. He scored three RNCs and a pop triangle armbar – showing he has the skills to get those submissions. Handsome Kevin Sherrill is the PGF Season 3 runner-up and another D1 wrestler in the mix (University of Norther Iowa). Matt Elkins rounds out the group. Elkins is the only person to participate in every season of the PGF. He’s competed in three seasons, making the post-season each time, and served as a coach for two seasons. Arguably, he rivals or exceeds Elijah Carlton’s experience with the PGF Ruleset.
Prediction: Underdogs
While this preview has only provided a brief rundown of the competitors, one of the beautiful things about PGF World is that it’s a season. Each competitor has 12 matches. If a competitor a fan has started cheering suffers a loss, it’s not the end for that competitor like so many other competitions. Fans will really get to know these competitors. Some competitors nowhere near the top of the rankings will become fan favorites. Moreover, PGF World has more ways for fans to get invested in the competitors – fantasy Jiu-Jitsu. Fans can register and play PGF World Fantasy Jiu Jitsu for here. Just like the PGF World Coaches, fantasy managers will have a set budget to assemble their lineup for each night of the PGF World regular season. While not announced yet, the fantasy managers will be able to win nightly prizes and prizes for winning the entire fantasy league.
PGF World owners Brandon McCaghren, Keelan Lawyer, Zoltan Bathory, and Heather Grace Gracie have set out to change the nature of professional grappling. With PGF World Season 6, they are set to make a new reality for Jiu-Jitsu competitors, one where they will be paid like the professional athletes they are. With PGF World 6, they are making Jiu-Jitsu a sport not only for practitioners but also for all sports fans. Once again, as the Commissioner says “PGF World is everything you love about sports, plus Jiu-Jitsu.”
If you would like to learn more about the competitors in this preview PGF World Season 6, you can read the author’s power rankings here. If you would like to learn more about the PGF World rule set, you can review the rules here.
