The Under-66kg bracket is stacked heading into ADCC 2026 (September 12-13, Tauron Arena, Krakow), mixing continental Trials winners with direct invites. Sixteen names, six regions, and one of the deepest lightweight fields ADCC has assembled in years.
So we handed the official roster graphic to Claud AI and asked the obvious question: who’s actually winning this thing? Instead of just guessing off name recognition, it dug into each competitor’s recent match history including trials results, Polaris and ONE Championship bouts, past ADCC runs and came back with a breakdown of the field.
The Storyline Everyone’s Talking About: Owen Jones
If you’re looking for the athlete with the most compelling case right now, it’s Owen Jones. The Welsh grappler already made the final four of this exact division at ADCC 2024, so he’s proven he can navigate this bracket deep into the weekend. What’s pushed him to the front of the conversation since is a run of results that reads like a highlight reel of the rest of the field:
- He beat Gianni Grippo by unanimous decision to win the Polaris featherweight title in March 2026.
- He then beat Fabricio Andrey — one of the most decorated 66kg competitors on the planet — at ONE Fight Night 44 in June 2026.
Two wins over two of his own bracket-mates in the space of three months is about as strong a signal as you’ll find heading into a tournament like this.
The Veteran Case: Gianni Grippo
Gianni Grippo earned his spot the hard way, going 7-0 without conceding a point to win the stacked ADCC West Coast Trials, his first ADCC invite in eleven years. He’s a three-time IBJJF no-gi world champion with well over 300 professional matches and a reputation for suffocating top control (his most common finish is a choke from the back). The knock on him coming in: his most recent high-level test was the loss to Owen Jones at Polaris 36. If he’s fixed what went wrong there, he’s a real threat to go the distance; if not, he could see the same problem again if the bracket lines them up.
The Invite Everyone Respects: Fabricio Andrey
Fabricio Andrey (“Hokage”) is one of the “Manaus Boys,” a trio of Melqui Galvão black belts who’ve won world titles before turning 25. He’s an ADCC veteran (2022, where he lost close matches to Diogo Reis and Victor Hugo) with genuine finishing ability. His invite is fully earned on résumé, but he arrives off back-to-back losses to Owen Jones most recently, so he has something to answer for in Krakow.
The Dangerous Trials Winners
- Bekzat Kapashov (Kazakhstan) — Won the Asia & Oceania Trials with five wins in a single day, part of a rapidly rising Kazakh grappling scene that’s starting to produce real ADCC-level talent.
- Kennedy Maciel (Brazil) — An ADCC silver medalist already, which makes his “Invitation” slot on this poster look more like a formality than a favor. Anyone who’s medaled at this level before knows how to win rounds that matter.
- Diego Pato (Brazil) — Regularly mentioned among the top-ranked 66kg/155lb grapplers on the scene; a live threat to anyone in the bracket.
- Ryoma Anraku (Japan) and Yigit Hanay (Türkiye) — Trials winners from continents that have been closing the gap on the traditional Brazilian/American power base every cycle; expect them to be live underdogs rather than easy outs.
- Nikodem Mikuliszyn (Poland) — Competing in front of a home crowd in Krakow, which is no small factor in a tournament format where crowd energy can matter in close, momentum-driven scrambles.
The Round-One Landmines
David Santos, Josh Cisneros, Dorian Olivarez, Kaua Gabriel, Jakub Wiklacz, Felipe Machado, and Dominic Mejia all punched their tickets through legitimate Trials runs against fields of hundreds. Josh Cisneros has ADCC experience already (2022), and Dominic Mejia beat quality opposition en route to his invite. None of them should be treated as an easy first-round match. Trials brackets are brutal, and simply winning one says a competitor is live.
The AI’s Pick
Weighing recent, verifiable results over name recognition alone, the AI landed on Owen Jones as the strongest favorite on paper, he’s already proven he can reach the semifinals of this exact tournament, and he’s beaten two of the field’s biggest names in the last few months. Gianni Grippo and Fabricio Andrey remain the most credentialed competitors in the bracket and can’t be ruled out, especially if they’ve made adjustments since their recent losses. Kennedy Maciel and Bekzat Kapashov were flagged as the sleeper picks most likely to crash the semifinals from the “Trials winner” tier.
A freelance journalist with more than seven years of experience covering a wide range of topics, with a focus on delivering accurate, engaging, and well-researched reporting. He studied at the University of Birmingham, where he developed a strong foundation in journalism and communications. Martin is a 10th Planet BJJ brown belt and has been training for approximately 10 years and a keen follower of submission grappling.
