By the time the ADCC Open circuit reached Texas, the major Trials race for the 2026 World Championship was finished.
The athletes headed to Kraków knew they were going. The athletes preparing for Youth Worlds in Austin knew what was ahead. The athletes who missed this World Championship cycle had already been pushed into the long road toward the next one.
That is what made Dallas interesting.
It was not simply another Open on the calendar. It was one of the first major pressure tests of the post-Trials landscape, and it came at a critical point in the American schedule, with Miami still ahead and Austin waiting as the final American stop before the World Championship in Poland.
For some, Dallas was preparation.
For others, it was proof.
And for Texas, it was another reminder of something the grappling world already knows.
Texas is not becoming the capital of American no-gi grappling.
It already is.
Smoothcomp showed the Dallas-Fort Worth event with more than 1,100 athletes tied to the tournament, and the results reflected that scale: 203 gold medals, 201 silvers, and 153 bronzes across kids, teens, adults, masters, skill levels, and absolutes.
That kind of size gives an event room to become more than a list of podiums.
Dallas had World-level athletes. It had youth contenders. It had adult advanced winners. It had viral moments. It had teams building momentum, masters athletes making statements, and teenagers already looking like the next wave.
Atlanta helped show what the post-Trials calendar would look like.
Dallas gave it weight.
Adult Advanced Brackets Bring the Weight
The adult advanced divisions gave Dallas much of its competitive credibility, but the story was not just who won each bracket.
It was the combination of names, styles, moments, and matchups that made the adult field feel relevant.
At -70kg, Riley Golden came away with gold in one of the most watched men’s divisions of the tournament. Ramiro Lopez took silver, and Ben Eddy, one of the most recognizable athletes to come out of the 10th Planet system, placed third.
For most competitors, that bronze would have been the headline.
For Eddy, it became only part of the weekend.
He produced one of the event’s most talked-about technical highlights with a standing truck-to-twister sequence that felt exactly like the kind of moment people expect from him: unusual, dangerous, and unmistakably 10th Planet.
Then came the clip that traveled even farther.
After entering the absolute division, Eddy was illegally slammed during overtime by a much larger opponent. The moment spread quickly, partly because of the violence of the impact and partly because of the contrast between Eddy’s veteran status, the size difference, and the suddenness of the sequence.
It was uncomfortable, dramatic, and impossible to ignore.
It also captured something essential about ADCC Opens. These are not controlled exhibitions. They are chaotic, high-pressure events where elite veterans, rising prospects, regional competitors, and ambitious athletes from every background can end up sharing the same competitive space.
That is part of what makes them compelling.
It is also what makes them dangerous.
The rest of the men’s advanced field added to the weight of the event without needing to be reduced to a roll call. Vinny Saenz won -65kg. Killian Perrigon took -76kg. Francisco Lo won -83kg. Anthony Robinson won -91kg. Gabriel Barbosa captured -100kg. Joel Holloway won +100kg. Nate Hernandez rounded out the men’s advanced champions with gold at -60kg.
Brandon George then made one of the strongest statements of the day by winning the Men’s Adult Advanced Absolute, with Kingsway teammate Raajus Dewan taking silver after Dewan had already placed third at -83kg.
Dallas did not need a single adult storyline to carry the event.
It had several.
Troy Mercer Makes Masters Impossible to Ignore
One of the easiest mistakes people make when reading tournament results is treating masters divisions as secondary.
At ADCC, that assumption does not hold up.
Masters Advanced divisions can be brutally difficult. The athletes are old enough to have years of mat experience, positional discipline, and competitive intelligence, but still young enough to carry real athleticism, pressure, and physicality. In some cases, that combination can make the division harder to navigate than a younger adult bracket.
Troy Mercer’s gold medal in Men’s Master 1 Advanced -91kg deserves to be viewed through that lens.
Representing Pedigo Submission Fighting, Mercer won a division that included Ruben Alaniz of Wolf Den MMA / 1776 and Christopher Bravo of KSJJ - Flux MMA on the podium. More than the medal itself, Mercer’s performance carried the tone people expect from Pedigo and Daisy Fresh: wrestling, pressure, physicality, and the willingness to make a match uncomfortable from the first exchange.
His suplex at heavyweight gave the result even more weight.
That is not something you see often in jiu-jitsu, especially between athletes of that size. It was not flashy for the sake of being flashy. It showed Mercer’s wrestling roots and the confidence it takes to attack big-body takedowns in a no-gi match where one mistake can turn into a scramble, a counter, or a submission threat.
Mercer did not simply survive a masters bracket.
He imposed himself in one.
Kingsway and Molina Separate From the Field
Few athletes entered Dallas with more attention than Joslyn “Babyshark” Molina.
At this point, Molina’s success is no longer surprising.
That may be the most impressive thing about it.
Representing Kingsway Jiu Jitsu, Molina won Girls 15–17 Advanced +65kg, won Women’s Adult Advanced -75kg, and added silver in the Women’s Adult Advanced Absolute.
That is a serious weekend for any athlete.
For a youth athlete, it is something else entirely.
Molina has reached the point where simply winning her youth division is not the full story. The conversation has moved into adult brackets, absolute divisions, and how far she can continue pushing herself against older and physically mature opposition.
Dallas did not create that conversation.
It reinforced it.
Kingsway’s weekend was bigger than Molina, too. Brandon George won the Men’s Adult Advanced Absolute. Raajus Dewan took silver in that same absolute and placed third at -83kg. Helena Crevar won Women’s Adult Advanced +80kg. Madison Morales took silver in Women’s Adult Advanced -55kg. James Sarnecki placed third in Men’s Adult Advanced -100kg.
That is not a scattered collection of results.
That is depth.
The women’s advanced field had its own weight. Jordan Stefanides won -55kg. Janette Gloger won -60kg. Rana Willink won -65kg. Molina won -75kg. Crevar won +80kg. Willink then added the Women’s Adult Advanced Absolute title, with Molina taking silver and Ryleigh Pirraglia earning bronze.
Between Molina’s multi-division run, Crevar’s title, Willink’s absolute win, and Kingsway’s broader podium presence, Dallas gave the women’s divisions and team race plenty of substance.
Youth Worlds Comes Into Focus
If the adult divisions showed where the sport is now, the youth divisions showed where it is going.
The Girls 15–17 Advanced brackets were one of the strongest parts of the event. Vada McCubbin won -50kg. Kylie Keach won -55kg. Maya Padilla won -60kg. Annalise Gale won -65kg. Joslyn Molina won +65kg.
That list deserves attention.
It included Youth Worlds-level athletes, athletes competing up, athletes crossing into adult divisions, and several competitors who already have résumés that extend far beyond ordinary youth competition.
Padilla’s -60kg title was one of the key youth results of the weekend. She entered Dallas as one of the more important names in her age group and left with another strong advanced title against a podium that included Gale and Charlotte Washack.
Gale’s silver at -60kg and gold at -65kg gave her one of the stronger multi-division performances of the tournament. Winning one advanced bracket is difficult enough. Reaching one final, then coming back to win another division, is a different kind of statement.
Molina’s +65kg gold became part of a much larger tournament run that included adult gold and absolute silver.
Keach’s -55kg title added another layer to the story. Representing Pedigo Submission Fighting, Kylie Keach won her third straight ADCC Dallas Open title, defeating Natalia Saint Thomas of Renzo Gracie San Antonio in the finals. Saint Thomas is an ADCC Youth Worlds competitor, which made the result more meaningful than a simple repeat. For Keach, it was not just another Dallas gold. It was a threepeat against serious opposition in one of the most important girls’ age groups in the tournament.
Keach was also promoted to green belt on the podium, giving the moment additional significance beyond the medal itself.
The boys’ advanced divisions had their own statement performances.
Moises Marra won Boys 13–14 Advanced +75kg and then also won Boys 15–17 Advanced +80kg. That kind of double result matters because size and age are not small variables in youth grappling. Moving through older and heavier brackets requires more than technical ability. It requires composure, physicality, and the confidence to deal with opponents who may be stronger, more mature, or simply harder to move.
Micah Caliboso won Boys 15–17 Advanced -60kg. Connor Stallmer won -65kg. Aryan Budri won -70kg. Kolby Gonzales won -75kg. Giammaria Giordano won -80kg. Marra won +80kg.
Those divisions are not just youth brackets.
They are the early map of the next adult field.
Texas Remains the Center
The Dallas Open reinforced something that has become increasingly obvious.
Texas is the capital of American no-gi grappling.
That statement is no longer a reach.
The state has elite wrestling, deep jiu-jitsu rooms, year-round competition, major academies, serious youth development, and a culture that rewards pressure, pace, and competition. Dallas did not create that identity. It simply put it on display.
That is the difference between a region having talent and a region becoming a center of gravity.
Talent produces isolated results.
Infrastructure produces waves.
Texas has the rooms, the coaches, the wrestling base, the families, the events, and the year-round competition culture to keep sending athletes into these brackets prepared. Dallas was another example of what that looks like when the scale gets large and the stakes get close.
Some athletes were chasing momentum before Austin. Some were testing themselves before Poland. Some were already building toward the next cycle.
Texas gave all of them the kind of room where those questions could be answered.
The Road to Poland
Now the American circuit turns toward its final stretch.
Miami gives athletes one more major U.S. Open before the season shifts back to Texas. Austin follows as the last American checkpoint before Worlds: an Open, a Youth Worlds stage, and a final domestic measuring stick before the adult World Championship in Poland.
That gives Dallas more meaning in hindsight.
It was not just a tournament.
It was a pressure test.
For youth athletes, it showed who is ready for Austin.
For adult contenders, it showed who is still building toward Poland.
For Texas, it showed something the sport already knows but keeps having to reckon with.
The road to Worlds runs through here.
And now, after Miami and Austin, it runs to Poland.