We are less than a week out from the 2019 ADCC World Championships. The ‘Olympics of Grappling” is almost upon us and fans, athletes, and most certainly the FloGrappling team are speculating what the brackets might end up looking like. As we will not know until the day before the event, much time has been spent at the FloSports HQ drawing up seeds and potential brackets.

Buchecha is a two-time champ in this division and a clear favorite to win gold again in 2019. This division is more competitive than in recent years though and has a number of athletes that can challenge Buchecha, including three other ADCC champs. Yuri Simoes is looking to three-peat at ADCC after winning at 88KG and 99KG in 2015 and 2017.

I will go through here how I would seed the 99+kg division. Keep in mind that this has nothing at all to do with how they will really be seeded, it is just speculation.

The criteria I am looking at is as follows - 

1 Recent ADCC success

2 Recent success at other major No-Gi events

3 ADCC success pre-2017 

4 gi world champions

5 trials results and older No-Gi success

Using head to head, method of victory and just personal opinion for tie-breakers and weighing certain accomplishments against others. Let’s get started -

1- Marcus Almeida

2- Yuri Simoes

3- Orlando Sanchez

4- Roberto Abreu

5- Mahamed Aly

6- Kaynan Duarte

7- Jared Dopp

8- Max Gimenis

9- Victor Hugo

10- Nick Rodriguez

11- Antonio Braga Neto

12- Eldar Rafigaev

13- Hudson Taylor

14- John Hansen

15- Mateusz Juskowiak

16- Eliot Marshall

6 - Kaynan Duarte

This will be Kaynan’s second appearance at ADCC, he submitted ADCC champ Pablo Popovitch at ADCC 2017 while still a purple belt. Since then he did the Grand Slam at brown belt and racked up a 78-11 record as a black belt at just 21 years old. 

I’m seeding Kaynan over Dopp based on his incredible success outside of ADCC. Dopp has finished second at ADCC in 2015 and fourth, but has been inconsistent throughout his career and went 0-2 at his last competition the 2018 No-Gi Worlds.

Watch: Kaynan submits Popovitch at the 2017 ADCC

5 - Mahamed Aly

Aly went 3-3 in his only appearance at ADCC, but the losses came to Buchecha, Gordon Ryan and Rafael Lovato. A gi world champion and no doubt one of the best athletes in the sport, Aly has put on a ton of weight for this tournament and did his camp at Fight Sports in Miami. I think Aly and Kaynan’s accolades outside of ADCC are comparable, I’m giving Aly the five seed based on him making the absolute semifinals in 2017.

Aly went down twice by heelhook in 2017, hopefully he has worked extensively on that aspect of his game. He needs to keep the pace high and try to wear out his much heavier opponents.

Watch: Aly's training camp in Miami

4 - Roberto Abreu

Cyborg finished third in this division in 2017 and was the 2013 absolute champ. Recently Cyborg looked impressive at the IBJJF Heavyweight Grand Prix, beating Joao Gabriel in the final. Cyborg’s resume would be enough to get the top seed in some other brackets, but with three more recent ADCC champs in 99+ I think he gets seeded number four.

Cyborg is a tough veteran, a smart competitor and built like a rock. He looked great in Vegas and rides some momentum into ADCC. Still competing at the highest level at 38 years old is incredible for Cyborg, a complete legend of the sport.

Watch: "Cyborg - Age Is Just A Number"

3 - Orlando Sanchez

This was a tough one. Orlando was a 2015 ADCC champ and 2017 runner-up, how does that stack up against Yuri’s back-to-back titles in a lower weight class? I could see either Yuri or Orlando getting the two seed, either way they are on the same side so it does not matter much. 

One of the hardest matchups to solve in the entire tournament, Orlando is definitely one of the favorites for the title at his weight and the absolute. Nobody can move this 320-lb monster, he can’t be tapped, if he gets on top of you good luck.

Watch: Orlando Sanchez vs Hideki Sekine from ADCC 2017

2 - Yuri Simoes

Gonna go with Yuri over the returning silver medalist Orlando because he is attempting to three-peat at ADCC. The big question for Yuri is whether he will be able to handle the size increase going up to over 99kg, with guys as big as Orlando at 320 lbs. But Yuri has proven he can be successful in this ruleset, is also a four-time No-Gi Worlds champ, I think Yuri gets the two seed.

Like Aly, Yuri needs to capitalize on his speed and cardio against his bigger opponents. He has always had solid wrestling at this tournament, that was against smaller opponents though. Yuri likes to scrap, he’s not going to back down to bigger opponents, but wrestling bigger opponents for four fights might wear him out.

Watch: Yuri Simoes ADCC 2017 Supercut

1 - Marcus Almeida

Two-time ADCC champ and the reigning king in this division. This is Buchecha’s division to lose. I’m thinking he could possibly be looking past his weight to that elusive absolute title and a 2021 superfight with the winner of Galvao/Pena, which would be a mistake. There are some big boys in this division and it’s not going to be easy to move monsters like Cyborg or Orlando or keep up with the pace of Aly or Yuri. 

It will be a huge upset if Buchecha doesn’t come out on top here. He is the greatest ultra-heavy of all time, a third ADCC title in the weight and a possible fourth in the absolute is very realistic here.

Watch: Buchecha's ADCC 2017 Supercut

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