FloGrappling x ONE Championship Partnership Reshapes No-Gi World | No-Gi Weekly July 20–26, 2026
The week of July 20–26 delivered a landmark shift for the no-gi grappling world. Two major industry moves — a watershed media partnership and a fully locked-in ADCC field — dominated headlines, while Magomed Ankalaev put on a masterclass in grappling-based control at UFC Abu Dhabi. Here is everything that mattered this week.
1. FloGrappling and ONE Championship Announce Groundbreaking Strategic Partnership
The biggest story in no-gi grappling this week had nothing to do with a submission finish. On July 20, FloGrappling and ONE Championship announced a sweeping strategic partnership that promises to reshape how the sport’s elite athletes compete — and where fans can watch them.
The deal links the world’s largest grappling streaming platform with Asia’s biggest combat sports promotion. The stated goal: ensure the best grapplers in the world are active and available at the biggest events in the world. Athletes on ONE Championship’s roster — including names like Kade Ruotolo, Danielle Kelly, and Mikey Musumeci — should now appear more frequently at WNO, ADCC-aligned events, and major IBJJF competitions, and vice versa.
The implications are significant. ONE Championship has some of the most talented submission grapplers on the planet locked to exclusive contracts. FloGrappling controls access to the ADCC ecosystem and the WNO series. A coordinated scheduling arrangement means fewer conflicts, more crossover superfights, and expanded coverage of Asian grappling talent that has historically been underexposed to Western no-gi audiences.
For fans in Asia — where no-gi submission wrestling is growing rapidly — this partnership also signals that FloGrappling content will be more aggressively promoted through ONE Championship’s enormous regional reach. This is a legitimate rising-tide moment for the global no-gi community.
2. ADCC 2026 Full 128-Athlete Field Confirmed — Kaynan Duarte vs. Yuri Simoes Headlines Krakow
The ADCC 2026 World Championship now has every one of its 128 competitor slots confirmed. The event runs September 12–13 at Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland, and the headlining super-fight — for the first time since Gordon Ryan’s retirement — features two legitimate grappling legends: Kaynan Duarte vs. Yuri Simoes.
Duarte captured double ADCC gold in 2024, the rightful heir to Ryan’s absolute throne. Simoes, a three-time ADCC world champion, won the open-weight division in 2022 before losing a close super-fight to Ryan in 2024. Their 2019 semi-final — won by Duarte on points — remains one of the most tactically intense no-gi grappling exchanges in recent memory. A rematch seven years later, with both men sharper and at their peaks, is exactly the storyline the sport needed.
Each of the six men’s divisions is at capacity with 16 grapplers. The three women’s brackets hold eight competitors each. The full confirmed field is on ADCC News.
Three reigning champions are notably absent. Mica Galvao (77kg, 2024 champion) and Diogo Reis (66kg, two-time defending champion) are both out — their absence linked to the fallout from allegations against longtime coach Melqui Galvao. Giancarlo Bodoni (88kg champion) underwent two separate surgeries in early 2026 and is not medically cleared. The 66kg and 77kg brackets are now wide open, prime opportunities for hungry challengers to emerge. On the women’s side, Adele Fornarino declined to defend her ADCC title in order to compete in UFC BJJ; her spot passes to Valerie Hamilton.
3. UFC Abu Dhabi: Ankalaev’s Grappling-Driven TKO of Guskov
At UFC Fight Night 282 on July 25 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, Magomed Ankalaev dismantled Bogdan Guskov via fifth-round TKO — and grappling was the story throughout.
Ankalaev shot for single and double legs repeatedly, often triggering anaconda attempts from Guskov on the way in. Guskov briefly secured an anaconda choke on one takedown, but Ankalaev shed it quickly and settled into side control. Once on the mat, Guskov looked lost — unable to recover guard or create any offensive threat from bottom position. Ankalaev punished him with heavy short elbows and follow-up punches, a textbook display of his Sambo-rooted grappling game. In the fifth, Ankalaev took the back, survived a hand-fight on the RNC, reestablished the grip, and the ground-and-pound stoppage came at 2:41.
Ankalaev is now the UFC’s undisputed number-one light heavyweight contender. His ability to combine entry-level leg attacks with scramble transitions and back-take pressure puts him in rare company among elite MMA grapplers. If you train no-gi and want to understand why his back-take game is so effective, start with the mount escape fundamentals — the same hip and posture principles that make mount escapes work apply directly to back defense and back-attack entries.
Full fight highlights:
4. FloSports Launches Free Channel on Amazon Prime Video
On July 21, FloSports officially launched a free, ad-supported channel on Amazon Prime Video — and it includes FloGrappling content alongside wrestling, combat sports, and other action programming. The channel features more than 300 premium live events and over 1,000 hours of on-demand content.
While a paid FloGrappling subscription remains the gateway to full no-gi event coverage, the Amazon Prime placement puts grappling content in front of a dramatically larger casual audience. With ADCC 2026 just weeks away, this kind of mainstream distribution reach is precisely what the sport needs to pull in the next generation of fans. It mirrors the growth lever boxing used when fight cards migrated from premium PPV to streaming platforms — accessibility drives interest, interest drives participation.
5. Gear Drop: Hyperfly Copa Collection — Soccer-Inspired No-Gi Rashguards
Hyperfly closed preorders this week on their 2026 Copa rashguard collection — a line of country-themed no-gi rashguards inspired by 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer kits. Countries include USA, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Germany, Australia, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, and South Korea.
The design feature is a soccer-style collar that works surprisingly well as a no-gi aesthetic. Specs: 80% polyester / 20% spandex, four-way stretch, flatlock seams for reduced skin abrasion. Preorders are closed; estimated ship date is September 2026 — timed to arrive just as ADCC Krakow training camps wind down and athletes return to competition mode.
This kind of sports-culture crossover — linking submission grappling gear to the most-watched sporting event in the world — is smart positioning for Hyperfly. If you want to compare how the Copa line stacks up against the current field, check our best rashguards for no-gi in 2026 guide for a full breakdown.
Looking Ahead
The next eight weeks are the pre-ADCC grind. Athletes confirmed for Krakow are in deep camp now — expect fewer regional event appearances and more training-camp content from the sport’s biggest names. Watch for the ADCC 2026 bracket draw in August, which will reveal how the newly open 66kg and 77kg divisions shake out without their defending champions. The Kaynan vs. Simoes super-fight alone is worth a FloGrappling subscription — and with FloSports now on Amazon Prime, the barrier to access has never been lower.
On the gear side: follow @hyperfly on Instagram for Copa restock alerts and September drop details. And keep an eye on Fight to Win events through the summer — F2W remains the primary proving ground for the next generation of WNO and ADCC hopefuls.
Stay tight, stay dangerous. See you next Sunday.
Technique Focus: Why the Anaconda Choke Keeps Showing Up in MMA
Ankalaev’s fight was a reminder that the anaconda choke remains one of the most dangerous counters to a reckless double-leg entry. Guskov went for the choke twice — and nearly had it on the first attempt. In no-gi grappling, the anaconda is a high-percentage weapon precisely because most wrestlers prioritize head position over neck defense on their shot. If you want to understand the setup mechanics, we have broken down the key positions and finishing details in our shoulder attack fundamentals guide — the same upper-body control concepts that connect the Americana, kimura, and anaconda choke into one positional system.
The broader point: as more UFC fighters cross-train in submission grappling and compete at events like UFC BJJ, the tactical overlap between no-gi competition and MMA is growing. The Ankalaev vs. Guskov fight was not a pure grappling match, but the submission wrestling exchanges — the anaconda threats, the back takes, the neck wrestling — could have appeared on a WNO card. That convergence is what makes this a great time to be a no-gi practitioner and fan.
