Felipe Pena Makes ADCC History | No-Gi Weekly Sep 14–20, 2026

Tauron Arena has been empty for a week, but Krakow is still the only thing anyone in no-gi wants to talk about. The brackets are closed, the medals are handed out, and now come the stories that only surface once everyone’s had time to talk: the standby fighter nobody saw warming up, the upset nobody called, and the 19-year-old who didn’t drop a single exchange on her way to history. Here’s everything worth knowing from the past week in no-gi.

Felipe Pena Becomes ADCC’s First Two-Time Absolute Champion

Felipe “Preguiça” Pena closed out ADCC 2026 the way he opened it — patiently, and on his own terms. He opened his Absolute run with a rear-naked choke over Tommy Langaker, ground through Felipe Costa with a calf slicer in the quarterfinals, and smothered Marlon Tajik into a stoppage in the semis. That set up a final against Roosevelt Sousa, who came in fresh off a brutal run of his own.

Sousa opened with an aggressive leg attack, but Pena calmly escaped, transitioned straight to Sousa’s back, and locked in the same rear-naked choke that made his name nine years ago — the identical finishing sequence he used to edge Gordon Ryan on points in the 2017 Absolute final. The win makes Pena the first grappler in ADCC history to win the Absolute division twice, a record that had stood open since the tournament’s inception.

It’s the kind of result that reshapes the all-time conversation whether people want it to or not. Multiple-time weight-class champions are common enough at this level, but the Absolute bracket is built to punish exactly the kind of long, attritional path Pena took to get there — three finishes against three completely different styles, capped by a scramble read that most black belts don’t even see develop in real time. At 34, with a home no-gi promotion of his own and no signs of slowing down, Pena just made the case that he’s the standard the next generation of Absolute competitors gets measured against.

Felipe Pena after finishing Roosevelt Sousa to become ADCC’s first two-time Absolute champion.

Helena Crevar, 19, Is Already the Youngest Champion in ADCC History

While Pena made history at the top of the card, Helena Crevar quietly put together the cleanest run of the entire tournament. She opened the women’s +65kg bracket with a rear-naked choke over Matilda Reid, forced Elizabeth Mitrovic to tap to an ankle lock in the semifinal, and closed the final by submitting Anabel Lopez with a rear-naked choke in just 6:04.

Three matches, three finishes, zero decisions — Crevar is the first woman in ADCC history to win every match of a tournament by submission, and at 19 she’s now the youngest champion the event has ever crowned. She competes under the ONE Championship banner, which means her ADCC gold arrives with a crossover audience already primed to follow her next move.

Helena Crevar, 19, became ADCC’s youngest-ever champion with an all-submission run at +65kg.

Luke Griffith Stuns Kaynan Duarte for -99kg Gold

On paper, this was Duarte’s bracket to lose. For most of the -99kg final, it looked that way — Duarte controlled position and dictated pace for the majority of the match. Then came the mistake: a scramble opened his back for a split second, and Luke Griffith didn’t need a second invitation. He locked up a rear-naked choke and closed out one of the biggest reversals of the weekend.

The win makes Griffith the first South African to win ADCC gold since 2007 and the first South African man to medal at all since 2001. It’s the kind of finish that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet — Griffith was behind on every meaningful position before the choke landed — but it’s exactly the storyline ADCC needed after a bracket that many felt was already decided.

Kaynan Duarte, who came within one scramble of -99kg gold before Luke Griffith’s late rear-naked choke.

Magomed Dzharbaev Ends Russia’s 27-Year Wait for ADCC Gold

The -77kg final between Magomed Dzharbaev and PJ Barch was the grind of the tournament — scoreless through regulation and two overtime periods before judges finally sent it to Dzharbaev after nearly 40 minutes of hand-fighting, positional battles, and constant wrestling pressure. There was no finish, but there didn’t need to be. Dzharbaev simply refused to give Barch anything to work with.

He got there by beating Alexandre “Robinho” De Jesus, ADCC veteran Vagner Rocha, and hometown favorite Mateusz Szczecinski on his way to the final. The gold makes him the first Russian ADCC champion since 1999 — a 27-year gap that’s now closed, and one more sign that the depth of Dagestani grappling is starting to show up on the biggest no-gi stage in the sport.

Magomed Dzharbaev after a nearly 40-minute battle with PJ Barch ended Russia’s 27-year ADCC title drought.

Brawl Fallout: Gordon Ryan Was One Match Away From Fighting for Absolute Gold

We covered the matside brawl that broke out after Dorian Olivarez submitted Bekzat Kapashov, and the disqualifications and year-long bans that followed for Olivarez, Kapashov, and Olivarez’s father. This week brought a detail nobody had reported yet: FloGrappling GM Ben Kovacs revealed that Gordon Ryan was warming up ringside as a contingency option in case either Absolute finalist was unable to continue after their grueling semifinal matches. “Gordon was warming up right in front of me and even had a post-match speech planned in case he entered and won,” Kovacs said.

ADCC ultimately let Pena and Sousa fight it out as earned, a call Kovacs described as “the classy decision.” On the brawl itself, Kovacs argued intentional biting should carry an automatic disqualification and that retaliation should be penalized the same way the original infraction is — pointing to the NBA and NFL as leagues that already handle escalation that way. It’s a rules conversation ADCC will need to have before Krakow’s replay becomes a pattern.

Kovacs also said he felt for Olivarez specifically, calling his run a legitimate title threat before the disqualification ended it. That’s the part that lingers: an 18-year-old with a genuine case for gold lost his tournament over a call officials had every chance to make correctly the first time, in the moment, before it ever got to a scrum matside.

Gordon Ryan was reportedly warming up as a standby Absolute finalist minutes after this scene played out.

PGF Season 10 Doubles the League to Eight Teams

Away from Krakow, the Professional Grappling Federation made its own headlines this week. PGF Season 10 expands the league from four founding franchises to eight, adding the St. Louis Outlaws, Carolina Copperheads, Houston Wranglers, and Dallas Mustangs. Four new seven-figure ownership groups are backing the expansion, which creates 80 professional roster spots across five weight classes and moves the league to two live broadcast nights a week starting with the Season 10 draft on January 17, 2027.

It’s a quieter story than an ADCC final, but for a league model built on team-based no-gi grappling, doubling the footprint in one offseason is a real bet that the format has found an audience.

PGF’s team format is expanding to eight franchises for Season 10.

Gear Watch: What No-Gi Grapplers Are Wearing This Fall

A few releases worth knowing about if you’re due for a rashguard rotation. Scramble’s Duotone range has been one of the most-anticipated drops of the year since fans first spotted it on Ethan Crelinsten during his Polaris title run — a streetwear-inspired, muted colorway with a matching rashguard and shorts set that’s since shown up on Jean Luca Maltese as well. Scramble sells it as a rashguard-and-shorts combo built for daily training, not just competition photos.

Moya Brand’s 2026 Flagship No-Gi collection takes a simpler approach — breathable, compression-fit basics in purple, black, blue, and white aimed at grapplers who just want a reliable daily rotation. And on the crossover side, the UFC-Hayabusa collaboration born out of the UFC BJJ series is expanding into retail, starting with rashguards, shorts, and spats — worth watching if you’re into gear tied to the promotion’s growing grappling arm.

Fresh no-gi rashguard and shorts sets hitting rotations this fall.

Looking Ahead

The calendar doesn’t slow down. UFC BJJ 11 lands September 24 at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, headlined by bantamweight champion Mikey Musumeci against UFC’s Bryce Mitchell — contested at featherweight, so Musumeci’s title won’t be on the line, but the crossover appeal makes it the most-watched grappling card of the month regardless. Fight to Win 324 also just wrapped in Italy on September 19, with results still trickling in as of this writing — expect a fuller picture by next week.

Between the UFC’s growing grappling series, PGF’s expansion, and ADCC’s Absolute final still generating headlines a week later, no-gi’s off-season doesn’t look much like an off-season at all. We’ll have it all again next week.

Mikey Musumeci headlines UFC BJJ 11 on September 24 against Bryce Mitchell.