ADCC veteran Paul Ardila has gotten back into action early in 2023, competing at the New Breed Atlanta New Year Open and winning the absolute title by submitting all four of his opponents in the division. Ardila is a BJJ black belt under Roan Carneiro and an experienced wrestler who has made regular appearances at the ADCC world championships, most recently at ADCC 2022. Ardila usually wins his places at the world’s most prestigious grappling tournament by battling his way through a field of competitors at one of the ADCC Trials events.
Ardila won the ADCC North American West Coast Trials in 2022, a feat which is made even more impressive by the fact that Ardila isn’t even a full-time grappler. He manages to compete at the very highest levels of the sport despite also holding down a full-time job as a lawyer, a field that is notorious for demanding a lot of time. Somehow Ardila has flown under the radar during his first three attempts at ADCC glory in 2015, 2017, and 2019; for that reason he was one of our dark horse picks to reach the podium on his fourth attempt at ADCC 2022.
Unfortunately, Ardila drew Vinicius ‘Trator’ Ferreira in the opening round and went on to lose that match by two penalty points. It remains to be seen whether Ardila will return for a fifth consecutive attempt at ADCC 2024, although he’s getting back to competition early which could be a good sign. After winning the North American trials on three separate occasions, Ardila is always going to be a favorite to win again if he chooses to enter. That being said, with four ADCC appearances under his belt he may even get an invite to the competition like he did back in 2019.
The highlight reel of all four finishes that Paul Ardila managed to register at the New Breed Atlanta New Year Open 2023 was uploaded to his official Instagram account:
