Year after year, ADCC West Coast Trials has showcased some of the most dynamic talent in modern submission grappling, and 2026 is no exception. We’ve witnessed storylines from young up-and-comers, as well as longtime veterans of the sport, often within the same division — and many of them from within our very own fox team family. Here are just a few of those stories.
Standout Performances and Reflections From the Fox Team
Gaidama’s athletes saw no shortage of action over the weekend. Fourteen-year-old Joslyn Molina, who previously made history as the youngest Trials podium finisher in history at East Coast Trials, claimed her second bronze medal at West Coast Trials. Molina was defeated only by Lyzz Mitrovic, one of Gaidama’s first ever sponsored athletes to punch her ticket to an ADCC Worlds.
In the same division, reigning East Coast Trials champ Maia Matalon took home a submission victory against the formidable Emmaline Reusing, before a defeat by eventual division champ Paige Ivette Clymer. Among the lighter weight women’s divisions, Madison Porcelli delivered a powerful performance that earned her a third-place podium finish in a stacked division, where she conquered major names in the sport, including former ONE Championship star Danielle Kelly.
Meanwhile, over on the men’s side, young PGF alumni JJ Bowers and Jett Thompson both had strong Trials runs, showcasing much of their PGF experience in their styles on the ADCC mats.
ADCC East Coast Trials Champion Maia Matalon Talks West Coast Trials Prep and Performance
Reigning ADCC East Coast Trials women’s heavyweight champion Maia Matalon, 37, entered a division on the West Coast filled with heavy hitters, from fellow Gaidama athlete Joslyn Molina and ADCC vet Lyzz Mitrovic, to eventual division champion and multiple time IBJJF Worlds medalist Paige Ivette Clymer.
Diving into the fray as the current East Coast Trials champion of her division placed Matalon in a unique position. “If you are a returning champion, or you enter a tournament with a high seed, there is definitely more pressure to perform,” she muses. “There is also pressure on your opponents; they might have a little extra motivation to take you out, but it is also intimidating going up against a highly seeded opponent.
“When I look at East Coast Trials, I definitely believed I could win, but I didn't feel the added pressure of anyone else expecting me to win. This time with West Coast, I felt more eyes on me leading up to and during the event, and I didn't feel like I performed my best. But I can't say outside pressure was the big issue. I think I really cared about the results for West Coast, and that can simultaneously be a focus multiplier and a bandwidth [detractor].”
As a toddler mom in her late thirties who earned East Coast Trials gold after returning from a major knee injury, Matalon may not fit everyone’s typical idea of an elite combat sports athlete. Yet that’s exactly what Matalon is, in large part because she’s put so much work into keeping herself in smart fighting shape.
“I thought my physical prep was as good as it could be, considering all the responsibilities I have: gym ownership, teaching classes, preschool co-ops, and three-year-old germs, to name a few!” Matalon shares.
She credits her strength and conditioning coach Asim Fayyaz, out of NOVA Barbell Club, and her partner and coach Tim Dawson, out of High Noon BJJ, with pushing her limits and keeping her well-challeged, yet injury-free.
“I thought being able to hang physically with Emma Reusing, who is a lifelong grappler and much younger competitor, was a great testament to my physical prep,” says Matalon. “In my last match against eventual champion Paige, a very physical athlete, I held my own physically; I just made a technical error that cost me the match.
“I think it's a superpower for us women,” she adds. “If we can stay uninjured, we can be competitive at a high level for a long time!”
Madison Porcelli Defeats ONE Championship Star Danielle Kelly, Earns Podium Spot
Madison Porcelli had a statement-making weekend at Trials, opening with a sub-ten-second submission right out the gate in her first match. “I wanted a fast submission to set the tone,” she explains. “My plan was to pull [guard], go shin to shin, and come into regular or single leg X. From there, just off-balance and try to go as close to belly down as possible on that foot.
“Fun fact: my previous foot lock record was thirteen seconds,” she adds cheekily. “It felt good to beat!”
Porcelli entered a talent-stacked division that included the likes of Danielle Kelly, who previously made her fame on the ONE Championship stage, reigning as a submission grappling world champion. However, Porcelli didn’t feel especially intimidated or star-struck — which paid off when she knocked Kelly out of the running during their match.
“When it came to facing the ‘big names,’ I can safely say [that] I felt ready, I knew I could hang with these high level girls,” says Porcelli. “During the fight, honestly I just remember narrating my game plan in my head. Afterward, I felt pretty awesome. It felt good to be a little nobody beating some big names in a dominant way.”
Though she’d suffer a defeat in the semifinals, Porcelli remains perhaps proudest of all of her bronze medal match. “[My] most memorable moment was winning the bronze medal match, and not [letting] losing the semi-finals change the way I fought,” she confides. “I came in like a bat out of hell — can't disappoint coach twice in one day! I was super happy I was able to do so while representing Gaidama.”
PGF Alumni JJ Bowers and Jett Thompson Shine at Trials
Young up-and-coming Gaidama athletes JJ Bowers and Jett Thompson recently turned heads on the Professional Grappling Federation stage ("PGF"), where both men produced crowd pleasing performances as key players in the increasingly popular jiu-jitsu league-based format. Bowers would earn a return invite as a team alternate on the latest PGF season, while Thompson would take home the season 8 lightweight crown.
Both made a point of carrying lessons from the explosive, aggression-focused format of PGF into their Trials runs.
Thompson, who hit three submissions off his aggressive signature back takes, describes his strategy at Trials as the most direct implementation of his PGF fighting style. “I would just say the three back take finishes I hit were just the most applicable part of my game coming from PGF into an ADCC ruleset,” explains Thompson. “So it just worked out pretty good.”
Meanwhile, Bowers, a reigning ADCC Youth World Champion as well as a PGF veteran, already felt fully at home in the ADCC ruleset. “I’d like to start by saying how grateful I am to have been part of the first ADCC Youth World Championships,” he emphasizes. “At the time, it was one of the biggest tournaments I had competed in, so that experience meant a lot to me.”
“Competing in multiple ADCC events really helped me prepare,” adds Bowers. “The ruleset is very specific and unique, and I felt comfortable using it to my advantage. In my first match, I used turtle to hit two reversals and transitioned to a back take in overtime, which secured a 6–0 victory.”
How did he handle the pressure cooker of Trials on a mental level?
In response, Bowers quotes age old wisdom from his PGF season 9 coach Ricky Lundell: “We take things one match at a time.”
That’s precisely the attitude Bowers brought to the Trials mats. “I try to take things one match at a time and put my full focus into the battle in front of me,” he elaborates. “This was a lesson I learned this past season at PGF that has really helped ground me in the midst of high pressure situations like Trials.”
Of course, having the famous Mikey “Darth Rigatoni” Musumeci in his corner paid dividends for Bowers as well. Musumeci, a multiple-time IBJJF world champion, former ONE Championship star, and current UFC BJJ bantamweight champion, helped run much of Bowers’ training camp.
“Having Mikey in my corner at Trials was really exciting,” says Bowers. “I’ve been training with him almost daily for the past few months, and it’s been a huge help to my development. He runs sessions with a group of experienced training partners where we focus on situational topics, followed by open mat, which has sharpened my skills a lot in a short time [...] My leg locks and my defense have both improved a ton since I started working with him.”
What’s Next?
As the dust from the second and final North American Trials settles, we await the hotly anticipated official rosters for the upcoming ADCC Worlds divisions. While several Trials champions have already punched their tickets to the big show, quite a few invites remain up in the air. No doubt, podium-earning finishes at Trials will be taken into account, alongside generally strong performances both within and outside of the ADCC circuit.
However, as longtime veterans of competitive submission grappling are well aware, Trials victors aside, no invitation is necessarily guaranteed. In the meantime, Gaidama’s team of 2026 Trials veterans will continue doing what they do best: training, competing, and honing truly excellent jiu-jitsu skills.
Ultimately, Maia Matalon put it perhaps best of all, when describing the ideal post-Trials mindset, regardless of wins and losses: “Growth is always the answer.”