Shai Gerena just took his first step to becoming a Polaris champion by winning their contenders tournament and earning a lightweight title-shot against Ethan Crelinsten at Polaris 36 on March 7th, 2026. Gerena is a Belgian brown belt who has been steadily building up his resume over the last few years and even made it all the way to the quarter-finals at the ADCC European, Middle-Eastern, and African Trials 2025. He signed up to compete in the Polaris lightweight contenders tournament on February 22nd, 2026 and he was coming in as one of the favorites to win it. Not many people would have predicted just how impressive he’d look doing it though.
Gerena maintained a perfect run throughout the bracket, even though it attracted some of the best grapplers from all around Europe. His first opponent was top Hungarian prospect Matyas Jonas, and he submitted him with an ankle-lock after just 1 minute and 44 seconds. His next match was against veteran competitor and two-time ADCC UK champion Sam Gibbs, but he found the finish even quicker and caught Gibbs with an ankle-lock in 40 seconds. He kept up that crazy pace with a 20-second finish over Jakub Bonkowski before taking just 8 seconds to hit a brutal Estima lock against Jay Herridge in the final.
In total, Gerena submitted 4 top European competitors in less than 3 minutes of action and it booked him his lightweight title-shot. Now he will face the toughest test of his career to date, as reigning champion and ADCC veteran Ethan Crelinsten will be standing opposite him. Crelinsten has competed on the biggest stages in the world for years and won his title all the way back at Polaris 24 almost 3 years ago. This isn’t going to be the only title on the line at the next Polaris event though, as Owen Jones and Gianni Grippo are set to compete for the vacant featherweight belt.
The full Polaris 36 event, including the lightweight title-fight between Shai Gerena and Ethan Crelinsten, will be available to watch live on March 7th, 2026 on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.
