UFC BJJ: Road To The Title Season 1 will take place from June 16th to 23rd, 2025 and the results of the show will determine the promotion’s inaugural champions in three weight classes. Mikey Musumeci and Rerisson Gabriel are the two coaches who will be battling it out for the flyweight title at the end of the show, and they started out the first episode by picking their respective teams. The lineup of 8 lightweights and 8 welterweights are all elite competitors and the promotion actually seeded them all first, so that each coach selected someone and the other was given their opposite number.
The first episode ended with the top welterweight seed Andrew Tackett facing off against Aaron Wilson and Tackett represented Team Gabriel very well. The match ended early in the first round when he took Wilson down and took his back, sinking in the rear-naked choke immediately. The second episode opened up with the first lightweight matchup, where the division’s top seed Keith Krikorian took on Team Musumeci’s Isaac Doederlein. Doederlein spent almost the entirety of the first round in guard and was able to attempt a few leg attacks that likely won him the round, getting off to a solid start.
Krikorian rallied in the second round and passed Doederlein’s guard, even locking up a D’arce choke at the end of round that may have been enough to win the round. The third and final one was much more even, with both men attacking the legs relentlessly. Neither one could find the finish but in the end, Doederlein was declared the winner by decision. It was back to the welterweights for the third episode of the show and it was another very quick finish too. Davis Asare caught Austin Oranday with an ankle-lock in a little over a minute, causing a loud pop in the process.
Gianni Grippo was facing Carlos Henrique in the fourth episode and the first round was fairly close, as both men had their share of success. Henrique passed early in the second round and set up an anaconda choke in the process, causing Grippo to tap. The fifth episode started out with Jason Nolf and Elijah Carlton, a battle between an elite wrestler and an elite guard-player. The first round played out exactly as expected with Nolf trying to pass while Carlton attacked off his back, and Carlton clearly won the round with a deep armbar attempt and a late back-take.
The second round was much the same, but Nolf was able to shut down Carlton’s attacks a little earlier this time and an Estima lock attempt likely sealed it for him. Nolf had another Estima lock attempt in the third round but it wasn’t anywhere near as deep, whereas Carlton had him in a lot of trouble with an armbar as the round ended and it was enough to win him the round and the match. Josh Cisneros was supposed to compete at the end of the episode but his weight-cut went badly and the promotion brought in Cobey Fehr to replace him against Kyvann Gonzalez.
Gonzalez got an entry into donkey guard at around the halfway mark of the first round, where he worked patiently to secure an Abe lock for the finish. Episode 6 also featured two matchups, with Andy Varela taking on Nathan Haddad first. Their first round took place almost entirely on the feet but a late takedown from Varela most likely won it for him. A lovely duck-under from Varela in the second round allowed him to bring Haddad to the ground and take his back immediately. It wasn’t long at all from there, as he quickly locked up a rear-naked choke for the finish.
Mauricio Rios and Danilo Moreira were the final opening round match in the lightweight division, and both men came out aggressively from the start. They each had their fair share of attacks in the first round but Moreira played top position for most of it and also passed Rios’ guard. The second round had a similar story and although Rios had a very deep heel hook attempt just before the time ran out, it wasn’t enough to win the round. The third round started with Moreira passing straight to mount and although Rios was able to have some decent attacks again, Moreira kept up a high pace that sealed the unanimous decision for him.
The semi-finals started in episode 7 and it was immediately revealed that Elijah Carlton was injured during his match with Jason Nolf and Nolf took his place against Andrew Tackett instead. They spent half the first round wrestling on the feet but a fireman’s carry attempt by Nolf gave Tackett the opportunity to take his back, and he submitted him with a rear-naked choke almost immediately. The first lightweight semi-final was up next and Kyvann Gonzalez gave a great account of himself against Danilo Moreira in their first round. He did well on the feet and playing guard but Moreira cleanly won the round thanks to his offense from the top.
Gonzalez did even better in the second round and neither man had a significant submission attempt to sway the judges, but Moreira won this round too. The third round started out the same and Moreira even snatched up a great d’arce choke during a scramble. Although Gonzalez survived, he was stuck there until the buzzer sounded and Moreira won the decision. Isaac Doederlein was up against Carlos Henrique in the first match of episode eight and both men had enough success at different points of round one to make it very tough for the judges to pick a winner.
Henrique caught Doederlein in an armbar early in the second round and although he tried to escape at first, there was an audible pop and Doederlein was clearly injured as he tapped. Andy Varela vs Davis Asare was the last semi-final and pretty much all of the first round was Asare attacking from guard while Varela worked patiently to pass. Asare likely did enough to win it with an early armbar attempt but Varela had more success in round two, meaning that they were probably tied. Varela came out even faster in the final round and locked up an anaconda choke around halfway through, forcing Asare to tap. The final of both brackets then took place at UFC BJJ 1.
UFC BJJ: Road To The Title Season 1 Full Results
Lightweight Tournament
Isaac Doederlein defeats Keith Krikorian via Decision – Split
Carlos Henrique defeats Gianni Grippo via Submission – Anaconda Choke
Kyvann Gonzalez defeats Cobey Fehr via Submission – Abe Lock
Danilo Moreira defeats Mauricio Rios via Decision – Unanimous
Semi-Finals
Carlos Henrique defeats Isaac Doederlein via Submission – Armbar
Danilo Moreira defeats Kyvann Gonzalez via Decision – Unanimous
Final
Carlos Henrique defeats Danilo Moreira via Submission – Armbar
Welterweight Tournament
Andrew Tackett defeats Aaron Wilson via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Elijah Carlton defeats Jason Nolf via Decision – Split
Andy Varela defeats Nathan Haddad via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Davis Asare defeats Austin Oranday via Submission – Ankle-lock
Semi-Finals
Jason Nolf defeats Andrew Tackett via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Andy Varela defeats Davis Asare via Submission – Anaconda Choke
Final
Andrew Tackett defeats Andy Varela via Submission – Arm-in Rear-naked Choke
Each episode of UFC BJJ: Road To The Title Season 1, including all of the above results, has been uploaded live to the official YouTube channel of the UFC:
