ADCC Kuwait Set for October 2026 Event, With Date and Registration Still to Come
ADCC Kuwait is scheduled to return in October 2026, with organisers yet to confirm the event date, venue, registration process, divisions or brackets. The competition will be streamed live through RRR Arena, a platform that reaches more than 195 countries.
ADCC Kuwait 2026
The announcement points toward another major weekend for Kuwait’s growing submission-grappling scene. ADCC Kuwait previously staged its Gulf Open on January 31, 2025 at the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Sport Hall Complex in Kuwait City, drawing competitors from Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom and beyond.
The 2025 event covered a wide range of competition levels and ages. Adult divisions ran across beginner, intermediate and professional brackets, with masters classes, women’s categories, boys’ and girls’ divisions, open-weight tournaments and multiple superfights also included. That format gives an indication of the scale athletes could expect when full details for the October event arrive, though the 2026 ruleset and class structure have not been confirmed.
Kuwaiti athletes made several statements on home soil in 2025. Ahmed Albsairy took the men’s professional -70kg title, while Ali Ashkanani won at -76kg. Abdullah Alnajdi claimed the professional masters -83kg division and later won his superfight against Guillaume Huni. Russia’s Magomed Abdulkadirov won the professional -91kg category, Vinicius Lessa topped the -100kg field, and Ruslan Abdulaev won the heavyweight class and the professional absolute.
The tournament also offered a clear look at the depth of local academies. Kuwait Jiu-Jitsu Academy finished as the leading team, followed by Kuwait Shidokan Jiu-Jitsu Team and Absoluto Kuwait. Those teams appeared throughout the adult and youth podiums, alongside clubs including GFTeam Kuwait, Tornado Academy, Gracie Barra Al-Ahmadi, 50 Fifty Kuwait, Alpha Grappling Team Kuwait and Art of Fight Academy.
Regional ADCC opens have continued to attract deep international fields. The ADCC Middle East Open in 2024 sold out within one week and welcomed 516 athletes from 50 countries, a 47% increase from the prior year. More recently, the ADCC Qatar Open in January 2026 featured beginner, intermediate and professional divisions across youth, adult, masters and women’s classes, with entrants representing countries across the Gulf, North Africa, Europe, Central Asia and the Americas.
For Kuwait, that regional traffic could be important in October. The 2025 Gulf Open had professional winners and podium finishers from Brazil, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Bahrain, Greece, Albania and the United States, alongside a large Kuwaiti contingent. The ADCC Qatar Open also saw Kuwait-based athletes secure results in several divisions, including Ahmed Albsairy’s third-place finish in the men’s professional -76kg class and Dhari Al Fouzan’s professional teenage open-class win.
Kuwait is on the calendar for October, and the full picture is coming together.
