Women's +60 ADCC 2022 Preview

The 2022 ADCC is coming soon, so let's start doing some previews of the various divisions. Let's take a look at the women's +60kg division. The women's division only has 8 competitors, so this will be a bit short, but interestingly enough many of these women are new to ADCC. This year we will get to see the younger generation mix it up with some of the seasoned veterans. 

Divisional breakdowns

If you haven't read them already, check out the breakdowns for the other divisions below. Just click on the links below for each division.

Women

+60 kg division

-60 kg division

Men

+99 kg division

-99 kg division

-88kg division

-77kg division

-66kg division

Competitors

Now let's take a look at who is in this division. Keep in mind things might change before the tournament.

Gabi Garcia

Gabi is the current champ and in fact she is a 4 time ADCC champion. She is one of the most successful grappling competitors of all time and will have a significant weight and strength advantage over all of her opponents. 

Gabi is mostly a top player who uses her pressure to break her opponents with her base and pressure. She is patient and takes her time, which causes her opponents to tire and then she is able to force the submission. Her base and size make it almost impossible for her opponents to get offense started against her and she punishes anyone who goes directly at her. 

At this weight class she has a massive advantage because of the way most of the other women in this division play. In the women's +60kg division most people are trying to wrestle and then pressure from the top position. There are few girls in this division who are guard specialist and this will play right into Gabi's game. It will be hard for anyone to outwrestle Gabi and from the bottom position even a skilled guard player will have trouble. Those with lesser guards will most likely be dominated and submitted. 

On paper everything should be on her side, experience, size, strength, etc. However, Gabi might be slowing down a bit. Gabi has only been submitted twice in her whole career. Unfortunately both occurred in her last 2 fights. Last year she was 1-4 which might indicate a slow down or perhaps time catching up to her. 

Gabi is definitely the favorite for this division, but she isn't looking as unstoppable as she once was. 

Giovanna Jara 

Giovanna is the ADCC South American trials winner, who I wasn't too familiar with. I'm not sure if she is a black belt yet, but she is very impressive. She trains out of Dream art and has a very fun crowd pleasing game. 

From what I've seen she is very good at taking, maintaining and finishing from the back. 3 of her 4 trials wins came from this. She is aggressive on the feet and has relentless passing. She moves well and isn't afraid to transition to different positions to open up opportunities for herself. She also has good instinct when it comes to looking for finish.

I haven't seen any of her no-gi guard game and although she is very game from the standing position, I don't know how much experience she has there. If she runs into someone with wrestling experience will she be able to hang with them or will her aggressive style get her in trouble. If she is forced into the bottom position will her guard be able to defender her against the other women in this division. 

Amy Campo 

Amy Campo is a new Zenith black belt. She won the 2nd ADCC North American trails and made a name for herself by submitting 3 out of 4 of her opponents. She's very fun to watch as she is aggressive and always goes for the kill. Also she seems to favor the mount which is rare these days and makes for an interesting blend of new school and old school.

Amy is very aggressive and has very good wrestling. She's shown she can no only do singles and doubles, but also interesting judo style throws as well. She seems to favor the knee slice pass on the ground and often launches it to the left side which throws off her opponents. Instead of going to the back, she prefers the mount and uses it to catch armbars. On top of all that, from what I've seen she is proficient in leg locks and their defense.  

She isn't as seasoned as some of the other competitors and this could end up costing her. Although she has great wrestling, when she went against Kendall Reusing she was reversed when going for a takedown and this lead to her losing the match. She is very good off of her back, but will she be able to use her guard to beat the other women in this division who favor a strong top heavy game. 

Rafaela Guedes 

Rafaela Gedes is a newer black belt that has recently made a splash in a short amount of time. The ATOS black belt has shown she can get it done against top competition and is one of the toughest competitors in this division. 

Gedes has a rough physical style that will most likely throw off some of the other women and either cause them to make mistakes of wear them down. Gedes has very good passing and pressure as well as the ability to finish with a variety of submissions. Her killer instinct will help her get some quick wins in ADCC, and that might give her the cardio advantage. 

Gedes usually has a strength advantage and uses this to bully her opponents, but in this division that may not be possible. Some of the other women might be bigger and stronger, so they might be able to take her out of her game and impose theirs on her. Although she has demonstrated a good guard I'm not sure it can withstand the pressure some of these women will bring. 

Carina Santi (Replaced by Elisabeth Clay)

Carina Santi a 2019 ADCC Silver medalist. She is not only a BJJ black belt, but also has a wrestling back ground. 

Carina is mostly a top pressure passing style player from what I've seen. She uses slow grinding pressure as a way to force a back take. She is persistent and seems to have quite a bit of experience although it is mostly in the gi.

On the other hand she isn't the most submission focused person in this division and she seems to be less confident from the bottom position. She might have trouble with some of the more physical competitors if she can't get the top position. 

Kendall Reusing

Kendall has a wealth of grappling experience and has competed in Judo and Wrestling as well as BJJ. She is a Gracie Barra black belt, but has recently been training with a few other teams such as 6 blades and Pedigo submission fighting. 

Like most of the other girls she is mostly a top player that wins by using pressure and control. She is very dangerous if you let her pin you down and can easily wear out many of the other women from side control or the mount. She should have a technical advantage on the feet over all of the other women. 

In the past Kendall has shown that she can make mistakes and her escapes many not be enough to help her is she gets put in a bad spot. Also her game seems to be reliant on her physicality, which she will be at a disadvantage against when it comes to Gabi Garcia. 

Eleftheria Christodolou

Eleftheria is the winner of the European trials winner. I'm not extremely familiar with her and there doesn't seem to be much footage of her available either. This could work to her advantage as people won't be able to research her game and they might under estimate her. This worked well for Craig Jones in ADCC 2017. From what I've seen she isn't afraid to wrestle or pull guard and has a grinding style similar to other girls in this division. Here biggest asset might be her heart as she showed an ability to dig deep and continue during her run through the ADCC trials.

She might be at a technical and physical disadvantage compared to the other girls. She is well rounded, but many of the other girls have better, wrestling, submission, positional skills, etc. She might need to play strategically to pull out wins and if she uses her physical style against some of the other women she might come out on the losing end of the exchanges. 

Breakdown

The favorite of this division has to be Gabi Garcia. If you look at her experience and results in ADCC she has to be favored over the other competitors right now. The other girls are all fairly new and don't have the same experience or size. Most of the girls in this division play from the top position as getting Gabi onto her back will be quite the challenge. However Gabi was went 1 - 4 last year with her only win coming from a penalty. This year one of these women might be able to shake things up. For the most part these women play very similar games, so it might not come down the person with the best "A game", but the person with the best "plan B", or just heart. 

As you can see from the stats the majority of finishes come from chokes, which is the same as most other divisions, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more arm attacks in this division just because of the way many of these women play. Realistically however, the majority of these matches will  be decided by points or decisions. The better wrestlers and tacticians will have an advantage in this division. There aren't really any slick submission artists or flexible inverting guards, so whoever is able to win the wrestling exchanges will most likely win in my opinion. 

Overall

This division historically hasn't been the most exciting, but hopefully this is now changing. Last years heavy weight WNO tournament was very exciting and I hope these women keep that same energy at ADCC. The title is really up for grabs this year, so any of these ladies that come prepared can become the champion. There will be more names added, so I guess we will see how they shake this division up. There are 2 spots left, but I'm not sure who will be added. I'd like to see Liz Clay invited, but that still leaves one more spot which I assume will be taken by the Asian trials winner. Overall I think this division has the ingredients to be fun and interesting. 

Who do you think will win?