Arriving at the Thomas Mack Center
According to the ADCC official schedule, the Thomas Mack Center doors were supposed to be open at 8:00 am. I woke up at 6:30 am and made the most of my free hotel breakfast and headed to the event at 07:45 am. Upon arriving at the event, it was confusing as to where you were supposed to go. Attached to the Thomas Mack Center is Cox Pavilion where there was an ADCC/Jui Jitsu expo set up. There are also doors to enter the Thomas Mack Center where the first people that showed up were asked to stand. I wasn’t sure where to go as it wasn’t very clear. Eventually, I saw some tents between the two lines. I inquired with the people at the tents, and they confirmed that they would scan my digital ticket and give me an ADCC wristband that would become my entry ticket for the event. I got my bracelet and chose to stand in the line next to the Cox Pavilion.
Next came standing and waiting. Around 845am the doors at the main entrance were opened, while the Cox Pavilion doors remained shut. The people at the Cox Pavilion were the first people there and to say they were pissed was an understatement. After about 5 minutes I bailed the Cox line and made my way to the main entrance while many stayed in the Cox line. About 10 minutes later and when I was just about to enter the main Thomas Mack Center entrance the Cox doors were opened, and a roar of approval came from those still waiting in the Cox Pavilion line. They did get screwed for showing up early.
Seating at ADCC
Tickets were sold in color-coded sections. The ticket I purchased was in the red middle section of the event. You could sit on either side of the stadium. At the entrance to each seating section, there was a venue staff member who would check wristbands and direct you to your section where it was then open seating. I was able to snag an amazing seat dead center of the three mats. Most of my dojo mates stayed out super late on the strip and didn’t get to the event until right before the matches started. Their seats were in the same section, but a bit higher and off to the side of one of the mats.
The event started very late, about 1 -1.5 hours late. The lights went down and an ADCC kickoff video played on the mats and the stage screen, it was very cool. Then something unexpected happened the legendary Pride FC announcer Lenne Hardt came out to announce the fighters. For those who don’t know who Lenne is, she is something else. When she announces she screams/sings the names of the fighters.
I thought this was awesome as I knew her from back in the day with Pride FC, but I think some if not most of the crowd was perplexed and wondering if she was stroking out. Yesterday during the bracket release each fighter was announced and came out and now each fighter was being announced, walking down the stage, and standing on the mat. There were almost 100 fighters . . . this took forever and was a bit ridiculous.
You could visibly see the fighters getting tired, taking seats on the mat, and stretching out. After announcing every single fighter, they announced another delay to allow the fighters to warm up before the event started, which I’m sure they needed.
After about another 30 minutes the matches finally began and amazingly enough, it started with the big boys Gordon Ryan and Heikki Jussila. This was my first time seeing Gordon compete live and it was quite the spectacle seeing his mastery of Jui Jitsu on display as he completely controlled Heikki and finished with a rear naked choke. To start the event, they had three mats going at once. It was a bit hard to focus on all three and there were so many good matchups it was hard to choose one to focus on. One of the most electric moments on day 1 was Haisam Rida arm barring Roberto Cyborg Abreu out of nowhere. The crowd went electric. I was very surprised when Haisam dropped his round matchup with Roosevelt Sousa. Here are some of the highlights I had from the matches on day one:
- Gordon Ryan was amazing to watch. These were a collection of some of the greatest grapplers on the planet and Gordon made it look easy for the most part, it was almost shocking to see in person.
- The venue was electric anytime one of the Ruotolo brothers took the mat. I was surprised to see Tye have to face teammate Josh Hinger.
- Kade’s armbar on Lachlan Giles was sick and the crowd erupted in jubilation.
- Craig Jones hit a sick Choi bar on Jaoa Costa.
- Rafael Lovato Jr. had his full timeless Jui Jitsu on display winning both his day 1 matches.
- Nicholas Meregali looked like a beast for his limited no-gi experience.
- Xande Ribeiro lost his first match against Eoghan O’Flanagan by points. Xande retired on the mat and that was sad to see, but what a legend.
- It was surprising to see Matheus Diniz have a down performance and lose to Giancarlo Bodini in the 2nd round. It looked like Matheus was not healthy and appeared to be injured or something. I saw later that he posted on Instagram that he got very ill the week before ADCC.
- Both Ffion Davies and Brianna Ste-Marie looked sharp in their opening matches. Ffion was super hyped before her matches slapping her legs and face very hard before taking the mat.
- Amy Campo put on a gutsy performance taking down Gabi Garcia in the second round. At one point in the match, they were grappling off the mats and nearly onto the ramp leading up to the stage.
- It was terrible seeing some gruesome injuries during the event and the fighters truly left it all on the mat. Kendall Reusing’s looked awful, and I later saw that she posted that her ACL, MCL, and PCL were torn along with a tibial fracture.
The fights were amazing and carried day one. It was amazing seeing such high levels of Jui Jitsu clash live.
Food at the Venue
You were not allowed to bring outside food and drink to the event, so unless you wanted to leave and miss the action, you were forced to eat at the venue. The food prices were inflated, but not as bad as I thought they would be. You could get a plate of chicken strips and fries or a burger and fries for $11.
There were also hotdogs, candied nuts, candy, popcorn, personal pizzas, beer, soda, bottled water, nachos, and a couple of open bars. The one part that I felt ripped off was $5 for a small bottle of water which was the same price as soda. I showed them by refilling my bottle in the water fountain.
Cox Center ADCC Expo
Attached to the Thomas Mack Center is the Cox Center Pavilion and within it, there was an ADCC Expo. This is where you could get official ADCC merchandise. There were many booths and some of the standouts included Future Kimonos, Origin, and Fuji. There were also many competitors roaming about the Expo, and I got a few handshakes and autographs. Gordon Ryan had a booth with his merch and books, and he was there quite often meeting fans. He also had a large throne to sit on while signing autographs and taking pictures. I ended up buying two ADCC event shirts, a pack of ADCC trading cards, and a couple of stickers, and I also got a free shirt from Fuji.
A Late End to Day Two
With a very late start, the announcing of 100 fighters, and various delays the event ended very late. The schedule said the end was 4:00 pm but I think the last match finished at like 10:00 pm. My group from the dojo decided to have dinner together after the event and we went to a place called Fogo de Chao a Brazilian Steakhouse. Yet another place that was only a mile from my hotel, so I just rucked it. This place was amazing. You fix a plate at a swanky salad bar and then have a seat at your table. There are constantly people coming by with different types of meats freshly cutting them for you at the table.
There are cards on the table that you flip over when you want more meat or not. One of my favorite things was a maple black peppered candied bacon in a giant bowl at the salad bar. The bacon warped chicken was also amazing. To top it off Renzo Gracie was there and somebody at the table knew him, and it was another legend I got to meet. After dinner, the entire group was spent so we all went to our respective hotels, Airbnbs, and timeshares. Overall, it was a very long, but great day and was looking forward to the next.