I had the immense pleasure and honor to attend ADCC 2022 in Las Vegas. I flew into Las Vegas on Friday 9/16 and had a whirlwind trip at the event and in Las Vegas. I documented my three-day trip in detail. If you’re interested, you can check out each day in detail here:
ADCC 2022 Live Attendance Blog 9/16/2022 Day 1
ADCC 2022 Live Attendance Blog 9/17/2022 Day 2
ADCC 2022 Live Attendance Blog 9/18/2022 Day 3
Overall, the Jiu Jitsu was amazing, and I enjoyed the event, location, and experience. This was the first big Jiu Jitsu event I had the pleasure of attending and would like to attend future ADCCs if they are in the states and remain affordable. Though I enjoyed myself immensely, there were some low points and areas of opportunity from my perspective. I love Jiu Jitsu and think that many can benefit from practicing the martial art. I think if an event like ADCC tightened up its presentation even more people would have more interest in the sport helping it move more mainstream. Below are some of the pieces that made my overall experience at ADCC 2022. Please note that these are my opinions based on my individual experience and I am certain that perspectives can differ from one person to another. I rated each category on a scale of 1 – 10 with one being poor and ten being awesome.
City – Las Vegas 9/10
Las Vegas is one of the best places you could have any event at. There is something for everyone in Vegas from dining to nightlife, gambling, and events you can truly find anything in Vegas. I believe during ADCC there were two music festivals, the Canelo boxing fight, and Aerosmith was having some shows. Flights and transportation to and around Vegas are quick and convenient and many places are walkable when it is not too hot.
My only gripe with Las Vegas is that it is expensive. Be prepared to be fleeced when and wherever it is possible to do so. There are plenty of discount restaurants and shops, but you need to know where to look to find them. Cabs and rideshares are also expensive to and from the strip.
Venue – Thomas Mack Center 8.5/10
The Thomas Mack Center was a great venue for ADCC 2022. The stadium held about 10,000 people and it accommodated them well. It was not too crowded in the hallways except during scheduled intermissions. The views from around the stadium seemed to be good. My seats were in the lower middle of the stadium, and I could see all the action well. It may have been hard to see in the upper-level seats though.
Attached to the Thomas Mack Center is the Cox Pavilion where there was an ADCC expo. It was nice having a separate building for merch, meeting athletes, and taking a break from sitting in the seats.
Venue staff – 6/10
In general, the Thomas Mack Center staff were friendly, however, I found them inconsistent in their work. On the first day, there were two lines to get into the stadium. One line was formed by the first people to arrive at the event and another line that formed at another entrance with people who arrived after the first group. The doors for the second group were opened but it took about 15 minutes for the first group’s doors to be let in, and talk about some upset people. There were staff members checking bracelets and directing people to their seats in each section. I saw many people in sections they were not supposed to be in, and little was done to remove them from their appropriate sections. Another rule was that you were not supposed to bring in outside food. I saw many people bring stuff in while some were told to discard their food before entering.
One frustrating interaction with staff was at the end of the tournament it was announced that the medal ceremony would be held in Cox Pavilion. When I and dozens of other attendees went to walk towards the pavilion there was a line of staff yelling at the crowd to go the other way and out the exits. They did not care or listen to the people explaining the instructions about the medal ceremony. So instead of arguing I had to walk around the entire stadium in the opposite direction to get to the pavilion and the medal ceremony.
Venue Food – 6/10
The food was ok for the venue. I would characterize it as standard stadium food. There were diverse types of concessions including snacks, a Dairy Queen, stadium food, and meal-type food like chicken strips, burgers, and pizza. On one of the days, I had some chicken strips with fries. It took about 15 minutes, but it did taste good. On another day I got a cheese pizza which was a ridiculously cheap bland fake tasting pizza.
Prices were ok considering it was an event at a stadium. I paid eleven dollars for the chicken strips and fries and $10 for the cheese pizza. One frustrating thing was a small bottle of water for $5 which was the same price as soda. One big slip-up was the event running out of beer at 1900 on one of the days. I saw many upset customers with this.
Crowd – 10,000 in attendance 8.5/10
The crowd was great. I could tell I was among Jiu Jitsu fans and practitioners. Most of the people I saw and interacted with were so happy to be there and happily enjoying themselves. The crowd was mostly respectful and booed mostly when warranted (ref issues, stalling, and bad sportsmanship). At one point the crowd started to play mass games across the stadium. It started with the wave, followed by people turning on the lights on their phones and waving them, then chanting USA, and then doing the we will rock you stomp and clap. The crowd raucously applauded and cheered when amazing Jiu Jitsu happened. When the music stopped during the final matches the crowd started yelling funny one-liners. I found it amusing but some may take issue with some of the crude comments.
Live production – 5/10
The overall production of the show had some issues and needs to improve in future shows. It seems to me that a professional event planner either did not exist or dropped the ball on many occasions throughout the event. For Jiu-Jitsu to move more mainstream on the levels of something like UFC, much more polish will be needed. Here are some of the production pros and cons from my perspective.
Pros
– The stage setup was very cool. The screens and choreographed videos looked great.
– The intro and highlights were awesome and seeing graphics played on the white mats was amazing.
– The addition of Lenne Hardt screaming the names al la Pride FC was cool, though many who did not know her were confused as to what was happening.
– It was amazing when Bruce Buffer came out to announce the final matches. It was an experience seeing him announce fighters.
– The music played throughout the matches was nice, and it was appropriate when they cut off the music during the final fight and the super fight. I felt the tracks were appropriate for the fights.
– The pyrotechnics and lights were very cool.
Cons
– The press conference scheduled before the event was canceled without notice.
– At the bracket reveal the day before the event with all the fighters the person calling out the fighters made many mistakes. Many names are pronounced incorrectly including the super fight fighter Andre Galvao. I was embarrassed for the announcer, and I was just watching.
– Some of the screens were wrong throughout the event when showing certain things like fighter names and country flags.
– On day one they introduced every single fighter having them stand on the mats. This took forever and seemed unnecessary after they did the same thing during the bracket reveal. I saw many of the fighters falling out by sitting down and going into warmup stretches.
– Day 1 took forever and not all the mats/refs were used most of the time.
Schedule adherence – 1/10
This was the biggest failure of the entire event. Nothing started on time and the adherence to the schedule posted on the website was laughable. Everything was a late start and the show ended extremely late on each day. Pulling apart the process from beginning to end, delays were rampant throughout. From the door opening on time to sub-optimal mat usage, redundancy in fighter intros, a surprise super long hall of fame induction and everything in between nothing ran on schedule.
One of the most egregious issues was trying to start the event early on day two without proper notification. I was going off the posted schedule thinking I was going to arrive early but ended up being late and potentially getting a worse seat because organizers decided to start early. Even when starting early the event still started late. As long as the event took, I can only imagine what the broadcast was like from the point of the customer.
Hall of Fame Induction – 4/10
The hall of fame induction was unfortunately a cluster. It was a bit unexpected and came in the middle of the day before the finals. It took them awhile to set up the stage for the ceremony, and exceptionally long time to induct each member, and even more time to take down the stage. There were fourteen fighters inducted into the hall of fame and though they were each absolute legends, it was too many to go in at one time. Each had a video played and an interview. Outside of the time it took to do the ceremony there were mistakes made throughout. After the highlight video was shown and the fighter introduced, they were interviewed by Kenny Florian asking them random questions. It seemed like they just wanted to give a speech and talk from the heart, but the questions did not fit, and they were being rushed through their induction. It was a shame to see this, and I would have enjoyed just hearing them reflect on Jiu Jitsu and ADCC in their own words. Another mess up was having Roger Gracie’s name on the video for Renzo Gracie. One of the biggest mess ups was with Andre Galvao. I am not sure why he was inducted when he is an active fighter and in the super fight. Kenny actual said that Andre could not make it due to preparing for the super fight. After he said that, Andre came out from the back of the stage and made the comment that this is important to him, and he did not want to miss it before giving his speech.
The fighters inducted are absolute legends and I did enjoy seeing them, but in the middle of an active tournament it did not seem like the right place to do it. ADCC might take a page out of the NFL playbook and do the ceremony giving the proper amount of time and respect to each fighter then doing something like the ADCC open tournament in honor of the inductees. I would gladly attend a separate event like that.
ADCC expo – 8/10
I thoroughly enjoyed the expo and visited it many times. There were a few vendors including the official ADCC merch from Braus. The official merch was of excellent quality and included the official event shirts, ADCC history book, trading cards, rash guards, spats, hoodies, and other goodies. There were other Jiu Jitsu and combat sports companies staffing booths at the expo. Some of the standouts included Future Kimonos, Fuji, Origin, and Gordon Ryan had his own table.
I saw many of the athletes and celebrities at the expo including Jocko Willink, Xande Ribeiro, Gordon Ryan, Andre Galvao, Travis Stephens, and Bernardo Faria. I came away with a few pieces of souvenirs, autographs, and training gear.
Meet and greet – 9/10
It was quite amazing seeing all the celebrities and famous Jiu Jitsu fighters just roaming about the venue. It was the who-is-who of the Jiu Jitsu world in attendance. Here are a few of the people that I saw at the event.
- Nick “Chew Jitsu” Albin
- Bernardo Faria
- Royler Gracie
- Xande Ribeiro
- Hasim Rida
- Gabi Garcia
- Gordon Ryan
- Lex Fridman
- Echo Charles
- Jocko Willink
- Travis Stephens
- Joe Rogan
- Nick Rodriguez
- Jacob Rodriguez
- Matheus Diniz
- Jon Thomas BJJ
The few fighters and celebrities that I meet were accommodating and open to fans. About every competitor was around at one point or another hanging out with fans and enjoying the event themselves.
Fights – 10/10
For all the scheduling and production mishaps the fights were what everyone was there to see and boy they did not disappoint. From the opening rounds to the super fight the fights were simply amazing. Most of the fights were incredible, and I could not believe my eyes on many occasions at the level of heart, grit, and Jiu Jitsu skill on display. Seeing the level of Jiu Jitsu on display was both a humbling and inspiring experience. I came away with the cemented thought that there are levels to the game and the amount of dedication required to attain a comparable level is out of this world for a hobbyist like myself with a full-time job and family. It also renewed my inspiration to train and train harder. I do believe watching the high-level performances of the fighters improved my game. It was like intently watching experts in the art doing battle. I saw Craig Jones hit a Choi bar and went and studied the move on YouTube the same night in the hotel. Upon returning to my gym and training, I was able to hit the sub a few times. It also was a stark reminder to me that wrestling is incredibly important skill in no-gi grappling.
If I had one knock on the fighters, it is that it appeared that 90% of them were on peds. Most of the fighters looked absolutely yoked and I often felt like I was at a male figure/bodybuilding event. I do not believe the athletes are subject to any testing for ADCC, but there was a stark difference between the body types of fighters that were probably on PEDs versus those who weren’t. It was fine, being a level playing field, but I imagine the sport will need to eventually go through a growing pain similar. to PED bans in other sports like baseball, football, and the UFC.
