The list of competitors who will be taking part in the biggest show in grappling history at ADCC 2022 just keeps growing. Three more elite athletes have been invited to compete and they will all be fighting their way to the top of different weightclasses. The first of the most recent batch of invites was given to Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira, who earned the honour by putting on a phenomenal show in the first ADCC South American trials where he made it all the way to the 66kg final before falling just inches short of glory against Diogo Reis. Not only that, but FloGrappling currently ranks Oliveira as the top 145lb grappler on the planet thanks to his dominance of the IBJJF circuit in 2021 that saw him win both the pan-ams and world championships in the gi and out of it.
Shortly after Oliveira was announced, Canada got it’s third representative for ADCC 2022 as Dante Leon joined his fellow countryman Oliver Taza at 77kg. The other member of the Canadian contingent is Ethan Crelinsten, who will be plying his trade a little lower at 66kg. Leon is a veteran of the ADCC mats who performed excellently back in 2019 where he managed to beat Jonathan Satava and Lucas Lepri before dropping a close match to Vagner Rocha and losing his bronze medal match against Garry Tonon. With a respectable top-four finish in the rear-view mirror, Leon will be looking to reach the podium this time around in one of the most stacked divisions of ADCC 2022.
The most recent invite for ADCC 2022 was allocated to the 88kg division where Jon ‘Thor’ Blank joined his fellow elite competitors. Similarly to Leon, Blank made his ADCC debut in 2019 and managed to overcome two veterans of the sport in Rustam Chsiev and Murilo Santana before being submitted in the semi-finals against Craig Jones. He too had to settle for fourth-place after losing his last match against Josh Hinger but the Tenth Planet representative proved popular with fans thanks to his fast-paced style and was rewarded with an invite back for a second attempt at glory.
All three of the most recent competitors who were invited to ADCC 2022 were announced in separate posts to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
