The build-up to ADCC 2026 feels different for many athletes and spectators from past years, and veteran competitor Dante Leon has a theory about why.

Speaking on The FloGrappling Show while preparing for the World Championships in Krakow, Poland, Leon addressed the shift in pre-event energy:

The hype behind the event seems to be a little bit different. It seems to be a little bit quieter this year, just because I feel like Mo (Jassim) is not involved and some of the people aren’t involved like that.

Leon acknowledged the Tauron Super Arena “looks sick,” but said it doesn’t carry the same weight as past venues like T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas or the 2019 event at the Anaheim Convention Center:

It wasn’t Thomas and Mack. And at the time in 2019 when it was in the convention center in Anaheim with like, you know what was 4500 to 5,000 people like that was crazy for ADCC times.
That was a huge revolution.

The four-time ADCC competitor pointed to three consecutive U.S.-based events as a major driver of that earlier momentum:

It was in the US, so it didn’t really feel like you were traveling necessarily to like the Olympics because even though it is the Olympics.

Even with the reduced hype, Leon was clear that the level of competition hasn’t dropped off:

As far as like the hype around the event, the cinematics, the kind of like wow factor of it, it doesn’t seem to be where it was at one time.

But I think if you focus on that, it could be like some false hope because there’s obviously a very very well-versed, deep skilled bracket kind of in every single division.

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