ADCC West Coast Trials 2026 Results: 8 Winners Punch Tickets
The 2026 ADCC West Coast Trials wrapped at the Fairplex in Pomona on April 19 with eight new names punching their tickets to ADCC Worlds. Over 700 grapplers chased just eight invitations across the men’s and women’s brackets, and by Sunday night the short list was set: Gianni Grippo, Michael Sainz, Nathan Haddad, Elder Cruz, Nick Hartman, Sheliah Lindsey, Sarah Galvao, and Paige Borras are in. Several of those wins reshape the divisional picture for ADCC 2026, and one 88 kg result counts as the biggest trials upset of the year so far.
Below is the full 2026 ADCC West Coast Trials results breakdown, the submissions that actually mattered, and what each new qualifier brings into the Worlds field.
2026 ADCC West Coast Trials Results: Every Weight Class Decided
Gianni Grippo locked down the 66 kg bracket and finally claimed a West Coast Trials invite.
Eight divisions, two days, one qualifying spot per bracket. The rule is simple and cruel: win or go home. Here is who came through in Pomona.
Men’s Divisions — West Coast Trials Winners
- 66 kg — Gianni Grippo def. Dominic Mejia via referee decision (12:00). Grippo also submitted Elias Anderson in the semifinal (5:05).
- 77 kg — Michael Sainz def. Maximilian Hanson via referee decision (12:00). Sainz logged three submissions on Day One, the most of anyone in his bracket.
- 88 kg — Nathan Haddad def. Ryan Aitken 0–0 via referee decision (12:00). Haddad submitted PGF champion Jayden Groner in the semifinal (5:59).
- 99 kg — Elder Cruz def. Steffen Banta 0–0 via referee decision (12:00).
- +99 kg — Nick Hartman def. Francis Pignoti Pana via submission (4:11) in a heavyweight final decided inside regulation.
Women’s Divisions — West Coast Trials Winners
- 55 kg — Sheliah Lindsey def. Valerie Hamilton 3–0 (8:00).
- 65 kg — Sarah Galvao def. Jadeya Reber via submission (2:41).
- +65 kg — Paige Borras def. Elizabeth Mitrovic 2–2 via referee decision (12:00).
Three of the eight finals were settled inside regulation by submission. The remaining five were either score-based or referee decision after deadlocked 0–0 matches — a reminder that ADCC Trials grappling still rewards positional warfare at least as much as hunt-and-finish styles.
Nathan Haddad Submits Jayden Groner: The Biggest Upset of the Weekend
Ryan Aitken pushed Nathan Haddad the full 12 minutes in the 88 kg final.
The 88 kg bracket looked like a three-way fight on paper: 2024 Trials winner Jacob Couch, PGF Season 9 submission king Jayden Groner, and UFC BJJ staple Andy Varela. Nathan Haddad was not on most bracket breakdowns. By Sunday night he had submitted Groner in 5:59 and held EBI 21 absolute champion Ryan Aitken to a 0–0 score across the 12-minute final.
Groner’s tap is the headline. He walked into the trials off a three-submission night at PGF Season 9 Week 4 and was the betting favorite to sub anyone he faced. Haddad, a Louisville-based Helio "Soneca" Moreira black belt better known as a teacher than a podium-chaser, short-circuited that narrative before the final even started. It is the type of trials story that only happens when the qualifier format flattens reputation and makes everyone bleed the same.
66 kg: Gianni Grippo Finally Breaks Through
Gianni Grippo has been chasing ADCC for more than a decade. The Alliance/Marcelo Garcia black belt owns six IBJJF world titles, two No-Gi Worlds crowns, and a reputation as the berimbolo generation’s most cerebral lightweight — but until this weekend, he had never earned an ADCC invitation through the trials. That changed with a clean run through the 66 kg bracket, including a 5:05 semifinal submission of Elias Anderson and a 12-minute referee decision win over Dominic Mejia in the final.
Grippo has spoken openly this year about switching to ecological-style training — a constraints-led approach that has also reshaped how younger grapplers at Marcelo Garcia’s gym prepare for no-gi. The win validates that shift at the highest level the trials format offers.
99 kg and +99 kg: Cruz Holds, Hartman Smashes
Elder Cruz controlled a scoreless final to take 99 kg in Pomona.
Elder Cruz took the 99 kg slot after a 0–0 decision over Steffen Banta. Cruz has been on this trajectory since winning gold at the 2025 IBJJF No-Gi Pans, and Pomona is the logical next step in a breakout year. He did not need a submission to win — he needed to keep Banta off the mat and out of dangerous positions for the full 12 minutes, and he did that.
Nick Hartman’s +99 kg run was the opposite. The Zenith BJJ ultra-heavyweight — fresh off a Brown Belt No-Gi World title and a silver at the 2026 IBJJF Absolute GP — finished Francis Pignoti Pana in 4:11 to close out the heavyweight bracket. Hartman is the rare trials qualifier arriving at ADCC with brown-belt momentum, which should make him one of the most interesting first-round matchups in the +99 kg field at Worlds.
Sarah Galvao Taps Jadeya Reber: The 65 kg Women’s Division Has a New Contender
Sarah Galvao submitted her way to the women’s 65 kg ADCC invite.
Sarah Galvao — Andre Galvao’s teenage daughter — came in as a favorite after her run at CJI 2’s $100,000 four-woman bracket in 2025. She delivered. The 65 kg final against Jadeya Reber ended in 2:41, and Galvao enters ADCC Worlds 2026 as the youngest women’s qualifier from the West Coast and one of the most anticipated debuts on the card.
Women’s ADCC competition has deepened dramatically since 2022. Galvao, Borras, and Lindsey are three very different stylistic profiles — submission hunter, pressure passer, and defensive tactician — and all three now have to prepare for a Worlds field that includes the invited elite from every continental trial.
What the 2026 West Coast Trials Tell Us About ADCC Worlds
Over 700 competitors entered the 2026 ADCC West Coast Trials in Pomona.
Three quick reads from the weekend that will matter when the ADCC 2026 Worlds bracket is released:
1. Decisions, not finishes, are deciding the modern trials. Five of eight finals went to score or referee decision. When the floor is this deep, the gap between finish rate and win rate widens — you can out-grapple the room without tapping anyone once you hit the semifinals. That is worth watching at Worlds, where overtime rules and the absence of referee decisions change the math entirely.
2. The UFC BJJ pipeline did not own this weekend. Andy Varela entered 88 kg as one of the faces of the UFC BJJ era and did not make the final. UFC BJJ 7 results showed how deep that roster is getting, but the trials format still rewards independent grapplers with specific problem sets over promotion-polished names.
3. Two weeks until the East Coast Trials finalizes the North American invites. The North American picture is half-drawn. Expect the East Coast bracket to tell us whether the 88 kg division gets even deeper or if Haddad has, accidentally, become the class of the continent.
How the ADCC Trials Qualification Format Actually Works
ADCC trials are not double-elimination. One loss ends your weekend. To earn a qualifying spot you need to win every match in your bracket, which at the West Coast Trials meant between four and six matches depending on seeding and bracket size. That structure is why trials grapplers often prefer to stall the final to a score-based decision if they have a lead — an overtime loss after five wins is the cruelest outcome in the sport.
ADCC Worlds, by contrast, uses overtime rules that force action after regulation and do not allow referee decisions. That means the skill set that wins trials — guard retention, stall discipline, takedown defense — is not the same skill set that wins Worlds. Watch how many of these eight qualifiers adjust their game between now and the fall.
Who Else Showed Up to Pomona
Andy Varela was one of several UFC BJJ names who entered the 88 kg bracket.
Eight athletes walked away with ADCC invites. Dozens more walked away with the wins that will define their season. The names to track from Pomona even without qualifying include:
- Jacob Couch — 2024 88 kg trials winner, still submitting opponents but stopped before the final. IBJJF Pans 2026 showed his ground game is still there; the trials format just punishes the smallest stall-to-score mistakes.
- Ryan Aitken — Pushed Haddad 12 scoreless minutes in the 88 kg final. His EBI 21 absolute run set expectations higher than the final performance delivered, but he is still a threat in the North American ranking system.
- Jayden Groner — The most decorated PGF lightweight in recent memory, tapped by Haddad in the 88 kg semis. That match is already the trials clip of the year.
- Dominic Mejia — Forced Grippo to 12 minutes in the 66 kg final. He did not qualify but he lost to one of the most experienced grapplers in the bracket.
2026 ADCC West Coast Trials Highlight Video
FloGrappling posted a highlights reel of every submission from Day One in Pomona. Fifty submissions in one day — an insane compilation for anyone studying finishing positions at the trials level:
Men’s vs Women’s Trials: The Real Depth Comparison
The 2026 West Coast Trials are the deepest women’s ADCC qualifier in history. Sheliah Lindsey’s 55 kg final was a textbook pressure-pass clinic. Sarah Galvao’s 2:41 submission win reshuffled the women’s 65 kg power ranking. And Paige Borras’s 12-minute scoreless final at +65 kg was arguably the most technical heavyweight match of the weekend on either side.
The men’s bracket is deeper raw, but more predictable. The women’s bracket is narrower raw, but every final this weekend produced a genuine upset story. If you are picking brackets for ADCC Worlds 2026, the women’s side is where the real betting edge still exists.
What Happens Next on the ADCC 2026 Road
Eight North American invites are now confirmed. The ADCC East Coast Trials in early May fills out the final continental piece of the qualifying puzzle. From there, the only path to Worlds is an invitation from the ADCC committee — a short, closely guarded list reserved for past medalists, crossover stars, and invited champions.
For the eight fighters who just qualified in Pomona, the work starts now. Trials winners historically have less than six months to retool their game for Worlds rules, adjust conditioning for overtime instead of 12-minute regulation, and solve whatever specific problem set their bracket is going to throw at them. Some, like Grippo, have been preparing for this exact window for ten years. Others, like Hartman, are doing it at brown belt with almost no recovery time before the biggest match of their career.
Track every finalist through the next three months, compare their match frequency on FloGrappling and Flo events against their trials performance, and you will have a usable tier list by the time Worlds arrives. For the rest of the ADCC 2026 picture, keep up with our MMA & BJJ Weekly roundup — every major result, every title shift, all in one place.
The 2026 ADCC West Coast Trials results closed one chapter and opened a much bigger one: eight names, six months, one World Championship left to decide.
Sources
- MMA Mania — 2026 ADCC West Coast Trials live results and highlights — full bracket results, submission times, and Day One recap.
- Yahoo Sports — 2026 ADCC West Coast Trials live video stream, results, highlights — final weight-class outcomes.
- Jits Magazine — 2026 ADCC North American West Coast Trials Full Preview — pre-event division favorites and dark horses.
- BJJ Heroes — Gianni Grippo fighter profile — career record, lineage, and IBJJF accomplishments.
- IBJJF — Nicklas Hartman athlete page — brown belt record and 2026 No-Gi Worlds title context.
- ADCC Official — 2026 Trials schedule and rules — qualification format and Worlds invitation pathway.
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