There wasn’t a whole lot of professional grappling events going on in July 2024, as a dozens of elite competitors were right in the middle of their training camps for the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational and ADCC 2024. There were still a few promotions who put on no gi events though, including Subversion, Finishers Sub-Only, and even the submission grappling division of ONE Championship put together an excellent match at the beginning of the month. There was a fair amount of action in the gi too, as the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Tour kicked off their latest season with the first tournament in Rio de Janeiro. These events led to some big changes in the Jits Magazine BJJ Rankings, which REVGEAR is the proud sponsor of.
Storylines from the mats in July 2024
The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam season 2024-2025 begins in Rio de Janeiro
The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam is one of the most popular events in gi competition and the promotion travels around the world every year, starting in the spiritual home of BJJ; Rio de Janeiro. This latest season is no exception and the first event went off without a hitch, featuring some of the top gi grapplers in every weight class. Diego Sodre and Jefferon Goteu both returned to the ADGS mats and won gold medals in their respective divisions at lightweight and welterweight, while the heaviest weight classes were equally entertaining. Victor Honorio emerged as the champion at super-heavyweight and Vinicius Liberati won the light-heavyweight division, while Yara Soares continued her return to top form by winning the women’s heavyweight gold.
The biggest storylines came from the one division in particular though, thanks to the fact that ADGS events have the practice of mixing female brown and black belts together. This decision has historically allowed for younger competitors to make a name for themselves and score some huge upset wins, with one notable name taking advantage of the opportunity in Rio. BJJ legend Andre Galvao’s daughter Sarah beat several elite black belts on the way to winning the lightweight division, despite only recently being promoted to brown belt herself.
Full results for the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Tour – Rio de Janeiro 2024 can be found here.
ONE Championship Grappling, Finishers: Summer Bash 3, and Subversion: Origin 2
ONE Championship booked a pair of grappling matches in July 2024 and the first one was one of the most high-profile they’ve ever put together. Tye Ruotolo and Jozef Chen met in a catchweight match at ONE Fight Night 23 and both men gave everything they had, delivering fireworks in a pretty close battle. Neither man could get the finish but Ruotolo was declared the winner by decision in the end, maintaining his unbeaten record for the promotion. The second ONE Championship grappling match happened at ONE Friday Fights 72 at the end of the month and Craig Hutchison hit one of the slickest finishes in the promotion’s history, submitting Banpot Lertthaisong with a flying armbar.
Full results for ONE Fight Night 23 can be found here.
Full results for ONE Friday Fights 72 can be found here.
Finishers: Summer Bash 3 was another fun event taking place last month and they managed to attract some fantastic competitors thanks to the huge opportunity on offer. There were some superfights with big names like Steve Joachim and Anton Minenko getting submission wins, but most of the attention was on the under 155lbs tournament. An opportunity to compete at an upcoming Who’s Number One event was on the line for the winner, with Julian Espinosa and Isaac Cordova both winning three matches in a row in order to make it to the final. That was a match worthy of any major grappling event and Cordova was able to get the submission win to book his place at the next WNO event.
Full results for Finishers: Summer Bash 3 can be found here.
Subversion have quickly made a name for themselves as Australia’s top professional grappling event and they decided to make a change for their latest event. Instead of a slate of superfights, the promotion actually put together a team event with grapplers representing either Australia or Brazil in the final five matches of the night. Australia made a thrilling comeback after dropping the first two matches, winning the final three in order to take it to 3-2. The Australian team was led by two-time ADCC Trials winner Josh Saunders, and he got the chance as captain to bring the win home in the main event.
Full results for Subversion: Origin 2 can be found here.
And off the mats…
BJJ legends have been pretty busy; particular Leo Castello Branco, who joined an elite club by being promoted to coral belt in BJJ. Branco had his time as a top competitor several decades ago and has long since transitioned to being a well-respected coach, but another active competitor has also been hard at work. Kron Gracie announced that he was releasing his first ever instructional, sharing his knowledge on guard-passing with the world for the very first time. Although many of the best competitors in the world haven’t been competing, it’s because they’ve been busy in their own academies preparing for one of the biggest events of their careers. ADCC 2024 and the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational are just two weeks away and with the days quickly passing by, everyone is busy looking for any tiny improvement that might be enough to enhance their chances.
Check out the full competitor list for the Craig Jones Invitational here, and for ADCC 2024 here.
