ADCC Charlotte Finishes 71% by Submission

A two-MVP weekend. Elijah Brinegar earns gold at ADCC Charlotte with a submission and a points win. Rolando Gonzalez controls Newbreed Miami with four straight points wins.

The rating movers tell a louder story this week. Jared Tan of Diego Bispo BJJ gains +10,660 Jits on a 5-1 weekend — the largest single-weekend climb of the entire fall season. Brandon Pelton of Process Over Prize Academy goes 9-1 for +8,160 Jits. Both clear thresholds that typically take multiple tournaments to reach.

Kaiden James Colon of Native Jiu Jitsu runs six wins in a single division at GI DMV, the only six-win bracket run of the weekend. He sits at 7,074 Jits — high enough that any win in a round-robin format adds marginal Jits, meaning the depth of the bracket matters as much as the results.

Jordan Anthony Gallow of Union Team BJJ posts five wins at ADCC Charlotte, and Derrick Noble of Rising Tide Academy matches him with five at GI DMV. Noble also appears on the weekend's risers list at +7,650 Jits on a 10-1 overall record — the second-highest match volume of the weekend behind Brandon Pelton's 10 matches at GI Cleveland.

The ADCC format itself is the bracket story. No points in the first half of each match. Submission-or-nothing for the opening minutes, then overtime scoring if needed. The result: 71% of 607 matches end by finish. At GI Cleveland, that rate is 61%. At Grappling X Temecula, 60%.

ADCC Charlotte owns the upset board. All four top upsets come from the same tournament, and all four end by submission — no decisions, no points wins. The sub-only format creates the conditions: when you can not stall to a close loss, the gap between ratings and results narrows.

Nickole Salem sees her 28-win streak end again — this time at the hands of Samwise Curtis, a higher-rated fighter at 7,802 Jits. Elijah Hu (19-0) falls to Edgar Hernandez at Grappling X Temecula. Nash Herndon (17-0) drops to John Luke Hernandez at ADCC Charlotte — the same Hernandez who appears on the loser's side of the fourth-biggest upset. Win one, lose one: the bracket gives and the bracket takes.

The medal counts tighten on a smaller weekend. Levitate Jiu Jitsu leads with 27 medals from 16 fighters at GI Cleveland, but four academies sit within six medals of each other. Carlson Gracie Temecula posts the highest gold rate at 42% (11 of 26). Full Circle BJJ OH runs the tightest operation: 14 fighters, 21 medals, 1.5 per fighter.

Jared Tan of Diego Bispo BJJ gains +10,660 Jits on a 5-1 weekend — the largest single-weekend climb of the entire fall season. Tan jumps to 6,325 Jits and S-Tier in a single card. That is a rating move that usually takes months to earn.

Brandon Pelton of Process Over Prize Academy goes 9-1 for +8,160 Jits, and ISAIAH Boyer of Substructure Jiu Jitsu posts a perfect 5-0 for +7,700 Jits. On the drops side, Jared Gibson takes the hardest fall: -2,600 Jits on a 3-4 weekend. Eric Ryan Buehlmaier goes 0-4 for -2,170 Jits, falling from a 27-12 career record.

Risers

Drops

The holiday break thins the schedule to its lightest point of the year. A handful of events run through late December and early January before the calendar refills. For the athletes who competed this fall, the numbers are in. Ratings recalculate Monday. The 2025 competition year is nearly done — what remains is the record.