ADCC 2026 Preview: Where It Is, Who Is In, and Which Trials Winners Have Qualified So Far
ADCC 2026 is starting to come into focus, and if you follow no-gi grappling, this is the tournament everyone will be measuring the year against. As of May 15, 2026, the next ADCC World Championship is set for September 12 and 13 at Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland. The official lineup is not complete yet, but enough names are already confirmed to give us a very clear sense of which divisions could end up stealing the show.
That matters because ADCC is not just another tournament on the calendar. It is still the event that most clearly answers the question of who the best no-gi grapplers in the world are under this ruleset. If you want a reminder of how much this event shapes the sport, it is worth looking back at our ADCC 2024 preview and comparing how quickly the field has changed.
Where Is ADCC 2026?
ADCC 2026 will take place in Krakow, Poland, at Tauron Arena. That alone makes this championship feel a little different. ADCC has often felt centered around major North American weekends, but this time one of grappling’s biggest events is heading to Europe. For European fans, that is a big deal. For athletes, it also changes travel, crowd energy, and which names may feel they have momentum on their side.
Who Is Already Confirmed for ADCC 2026?
The official competitor page already shows a strong group of confirmed names, even though several slots are still listed as TBD. At -66 kg, Fabricio Andrey, Dorian Olivarez, Ryoma Anraku, and Yigit Hanay are already in. At -77 kg, Mateusz Gamrot, Mateusz Szczecinski, Jacob Bornemann, Nikolay Vetrov, and Alexandre de Jesus stand out immediately. At -88 kg, the early list includes Pawel Jaworski, Jonathan Blank, Jozef Chen, Marlon Tajik, Franco Diaz, and Gustavo Batista.
The heavier men’s brackets look just as serious. At -99 kg, Kaynan Duarte, Adam Wardzinski, Declan Moody, Achilles Rocha, Eoghan O’Flanagan, Elioenai Souza Braz, and Vinicius Lessa are already listed. At +99 kg, Felipe Pena, Mark Macqueen, Brandon Reed, Tito John Carle, Haisam Rida, Roosevelt Sousa, and Pedro Lucas are confirmed so far.
The women’s side already has real star power too. At -55 kg, Adele Fornarino, Janette Gloger, and Mayssa Bastos are confirmed. At -65 kg, Ana Carolina Vieira, Livia Corrêa, and Injana Goodman are already listed. At +65 kg, Anabel Lopez and Yara Soares are in. Even before the remaining spots are filled, that gives the event enough top-end talent to feel like a proper ADCC year rather than just a trials-and-invites waiting game.
The Big Names to Watch
If you are looking at the biggest names already on the board, a few jump out immediately. Kaynan Duarte is the kind of name that can change the feeling of an entire division by himself. Felipe Pena is always relevant any time he is entered in a major no-gi event. Jozef Chen remains one of the most interesting names in modern grappling because of how quickly he has become a threat against elite opposition. Adam Wardzinski and Mateusz Gamrot also give the Poland event extra local and regional interest.
On the women’s side, Mayssa Bastos and Adele Fornarino are obvious attention magnets, while Ana Carolina Vieira and Yara Soares add even more depth. If the rest of the invitations land well, the women’s divisions could end up being one of the strongest parts of the entire championship.
Who Is Winning the Trials So Far?
This is where the picture gets interesting. The 2026 trials season is well underway, but it is not fully finished yet. Europe, South America, and North America have already produced qualifiers, while the second Asia & Oceania Trials are still scheduled for June 21. So if you are trying to track who is “winning the trials” right now, the best way to say it is that most of the major regions have already sent a big wave of qualifiers to Krakow, and one important region is still left to decide.
In Europe’s second trials, the winners were Yigit Hanay, Nikolay Vetrov, Marlon Tajik, Eoghan O’Flanagan, Haisam Rida, Janette Gloger, Injana Goodman, and Anabel Lopez. That is a meaningful group because several of those names are not just filling out brackets. They are the kind of athletes who could make life difficult for seeded or invited competitors straight away.
South America’s second trials were loaded in a different way, with Kauã Gabriel, Alexandre de Jesus, Gustavo Batista, Vinicius Lessa, Pedro Lucas, Mayssa Bastos, Livia Corrêa, and Yara Soares earning qualification. South America always matters at ADCC, and that set of qualifiers only reinforces how dangerous the region remains across both the men’s and women’s divisions.
North America’s second trials added Gianni Grippo, Michael Sainz, Nathan Haddad, Elder Cruz, Nick Hartman, Sheliah Lindsey, Sarah Galvao, and Paige Ivette Borras. There is a nice mix there of established names and newer contenders. Some of them will arrive in Krakow as underdogs on paper, but ADCC has always been a place where a strong trials winner can completely disrupt the bracket.
Why the Trials Still Matter
One of the reasons ADCC still feels important is that the road into the event is harsher than most major invitationals. You do not just need reputation. You often need a hard regional run or a very strong case for selection. That gives the brackets a different texture. You get stars, but you also get athletes arriving with real momentum because they just fought through a deep qualifier.
That also means wrestling, scrambles, and match management matter even more than usual. If you want to understand why that part of no-gi grappling keeps deciding elite events, our review of Gordon Ryan’s lower body takedown system is a useful reminder of how important the standing phase has become in modern ADCC-style matches.
What Still Needs to Happen Before September?
The biggest remaining competitive step is the second Asia & Oceania Trials on June 21 in Gold Coast, Australia. That event will finish off another batch of qualifiers and fill more of the open slots on the official lineup. Beyond that, the main questions are about invitations, final seeding, and whether the confirmed list keeps trending toward proven ADCC performers, rising no-gi specialists, or a mix of both.
There is also the bigger backdrop of how crowded professional grappling has become. ADCC is still the landmark event, but it is no longer the only show pulling elite talent and fan attention. That wider context is part of what makes this year’s championship especially interesting, and it ties into the broader changes we covered in our UFC BJJ breakdown.
Final Thoughts
ADCC 2026 already looks strong on paper. The location is set, a large chunk of the field is already confirmed, and the trials season has already produced a long list of qualifiers who could shake up the brackets. As of now, the clearest story is not just where ADCC is taking place, but how many proven names and live trials winners are converging on Krakow at the same time.
The lineup is still incomplete, so this preview will keep changing as more names are added. But even at this stage, the shape of the event is easy to see: major names, dangerous qualifiers, and a very real chance that some of the biggest matches in no-gi grappling this year will happen in Poland in September.
