The competitor list for the 2022 ADCC world championships just keeps growing and two more names have been invited now, Victor Hugo and Vagner Rocha. Both of these two men have had solid performances on the ADCC mats in the past, but neither has managed to come away with a gold medal just yet. Rocha stands as the most experienced and he has come the closest to winning his weightclass as well, having managed to earn a bronze medal in 2017 and a silver medal in 2019.
Not just that, but Rocha is a veteran of the trials format and has managed to win his place at the ADCC world championships the hard way on three different occasions. He fell short in his first few attempts at an ADCC title but managed to make an impression on fans for his brutally effective style of grappling. When it came to 2017 Rocha registered an excellent performance in winning three out of four of his matches, only losing to a close decision to Lucas Lepri. 2019 was his best performance yet though; he won several tight matches on his way to the final, only to fall inches short of victory against JT Torres.
2022 will be a whole new challenge for Rocha though, as he moves up from the 77kg weightclass in search of the elusive gold medal at 88kg instead. Victor Hugo is significantly newer to the ADCC scene, having only competed in 2019 and going out in the second round to Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida. Despite his relative inexperience, Hugo has won two IBJJF world championships in just three years as a black belt and will be an incredibly tough match for anyone in the over 99kg division.
Both Victor Hugo and Vagner Rocha had their invites to the 2022 ADCC world championships announced in separate posts to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
