The Secret Shaka #16

ADCC Preview part 2, let's get juicy

Let’s take a look at some heavier divisions shall we? There’s so many potentially absurd matches, I almost might pay for Flograppling.

-88KG

Pedro Marinho replaces Jon ‘Thor’ Blank who had to pull out, but other than that no other changes to the image below.

With notables such as returning champ Diniz, Xande Ribiero, Barbosa, Mason Fowler, Rocha & Tye Ruotolo - 88KG can’t help but be exhilarating, throw in some new blood from the likes of Eoghan O’Flanagan & Jacob Rodriguez and you have some real ringers in this division.

I’m really excited to see what UK talent Eoghan can bring to the table, he has some fantastic leg lock entries and a great guard, but will it be enough against the likes of Hulk & Tye? Let’s hope so! Can Jacob Rodriguez hang with some all time legends? We shall see.

Dark Horse: Eoghan

Dream match ups? Oh so many, but here’s a few:

Tye Ruotolo Vs Jacob Rodriguez

Vagner Rocha Vs Santeri Lilius

Mason Fowler Vs Eoghan

Podium Predictions

Tye Ruotolo 🥇

Matheus Diniz 🥈

Mason Fowler 🥉

-99KG

Poster change: Hulls very own Owen Livesey is in for Lucas Lirra, who was in for Pedro Marinho. Got it?

There are some big fellas in this division. My biggest curiosity is whether or not Craig (Kreg) Jones can handle the strength of the bigger fellas here. He for sure has the technique, but the likes of Meregali, Duarte & Boehm are monsters. I wonder if they’ll have any ACL left by the end of it.

I’m really excited to see Duarte & Meregali go head to head. After seeing Meregali take out Rafael Lovato by decision recently its fair to say his wrestling has come on leaps and bounds under the tutelage of John Danaher and Gordon Ryan. Has he had enough Nogi experience to hang with the lifers? We’ll find out. As well as UK Judo stand out & Carlson Gracie Blackbelt Owen Livesey thrown in the mix, I think we’ll see some very explosive matches.

Dark Horse: Devonte Johnson

Dream Match ups:

Craig Jones Vs Everybody

Owen Livesey Vs Meregali

Kaynan Duarte Vs Rafael Lovato

Podium Predictions:

Craig Jones 🥇

Kaynan Duarte 🥈

Owen Livesey 🥉

Ladies +60KG

Gone are the days of Gabi Garcia simply picking up girls and throwing them out of her way to grab a gold medal. At least for some of the competitors anyway. She is still a force to be reckoned with, however, so it will be interesting to see how some of the smaller competitors deal with her. It’ll be great to see Kendall Reusing go full pelt against some world class competition, and what Nikki Lloyd-Griffiths guard can do with her guard, after it led her to gold in the Oceania & Asia trials.

Currently ranked #1 Nogi female grappler in the world Rafaela Guedes probably thinks the gold is hers to lose, but there’s plenty of obstacles in her way.

Dark Horse: Carina Santi

Dream Match up:

Rafaela Guedes Vs Kendall Reusing

Podium:

Rafaela Guedes 🥇

Kendall Reusing 🥈

Gabi Garcia 🥉

Final Thoughts

Well, I feel like I could talk about all of the potential match ups all day, it’s going to be amazing seeing all of this play out.

Make sure you subscribe to see our final piece on the 99KG+ division and our take on Gordon Vs Andre in the super fight to end all super fights. In the mean time, go train!