Polaris 27
The main event for Polaris 23 is now set, and former UFC middleweight world champion Chris Weidman will be facing ADCC veteran and Polaris fan-favourite Owen Livesey. Weidman is a decorated wrestler, achieving All-American status in the NCAA Division I championships on two separate occasions. He famously won ADCC trials after around a year of submission grappling training and faced Andre Galvao in the opening round of ADCC 2009. Although he didn't win, Weidman gave a fantastic performance against a veteran BJJ black belt who went on to win a silver medal at the same tournament. Since then Weidman has been promoted to BJJ black belt by Matt Serra and Renzo Gracie, and rose to fame when he dethroned Anderson Silva to claim the UFC middleweight title. Now Weidman will be returning to submission grappling for the first time since ADCC 2009 to take on a familiar face for Polaris fans, Owen Livesey. Livesey is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist Judoka who transitioned to no gi grappling exceptionally well. He has won several matches on the Polaris mats against the likes of Freddie Vosgrone and Josh Hinger, along with being invited up to compete at ADCC 2022. Although he went...

Polaris 27
Another three competitors have been added to the women's under 66kg grand prix at Polaris 23, and two of them are veterans of ADCC 2022. Julia Maele won the European trials to earn her place in the under 60kg division at ADCC 2022 and she had a tough draw in the opening round and lost to the returning champion from 2019, Bianca Basilio. Maele is the reigning IBJJF European champion at middleweight and one of the best grapplers to ever come from Norway. Joining her is top Canadian competitor Brianna Ste-Marie, the silver medallist from that same division at ADCC 2022. Ste-Marie has made waves over the last few years, winning both North American ADCC trials to get the world championships in the first place, before she reached the podium in 2022. The seventh woman to be added to the grand prix at Polaris 23 is one of Tom DeBlass' top students, Jaidyn Mueller. She's ranked in the top ten in her weightclass and is an IBJJF no gi world champion, having already beaten some of the best female grapplers on the planet. The final spot in the grand prix will go to the winner of Polaris Contenders on February...

Polaris 27
The women's under 66kg grand prix takes place at Polaris 23 but before that, there will be a number of preliminary matches featuring some of Europe's top grapplers. Ellis Younger is one of the more popular young grapplers on the UK scene and he became the first English man to reach the podium at the IBJJF no gi worlds at black belt last year. He will be facing Ben Bennet in a tough matchup that is guaranteed to produce some fireworks. Fellow fan-favorite Shane Curtis will also be returning at Polaris 23, and he will face BJJ black belt Kris Leeson. Bellator veteran Cal Ellenor will also be competing on the preliminary card against Alex Thompson, while recently-promoted BJJ black belt Chris White faces Liam Cann of Scramble Academy Leeds. Rounding out the preliminary card are two more matches as Ian Jones takes on Paul Lukowski, and Adam Peart faces Jake Goldthorpe.

Polaris 27
The bracket for the women's under 66kg grand prix is now half-full, as two more elite female grapplers have been added to the lineup for Polaris 23 on March 11th. With the addition of Amy Campo, both of the female champions from ADCC 2022 are now competing in the tournament. Campo has only been a black belt a little over a year, but she's already won practically everything there is to win in the sport. In her debut year she won ADCC trials to earn her spot before becoming an ADCC world champion and an IBJJF no gi world champion, alongside winning silver in the no gi absolute division and in the gi as well. The fourth woman to enter the tournament at Polaris 23 is Giovanna Jara. The Dream Art Project black belt has won the IBJJF world championships multiple times during her journey through the coloured belt divisions, before winning ADCC trials last year. She went out in the opening round of ADCC 2022 to Kendall Reusing but aside from that match, Jara has not been submitted in black belt competition. She's an incredibly tough and skilled competitor who is more than capable of beating any of the...

Polaris 27
Polaris 23 is set to take place on March 11th, 2023 and it will see eight women battle it out for the grand prize in the under 66kg grand prix. The first of these women is none other than Polaris under 55kg champion Ffion Davies, coming in to the tournament fresh off her incredible performance at ADCC 2022. There Davies won gold at under 60kg and became the first UK athlete to even reach the podium at the ADCC world championships. After establishing herself as the best woman in the world in her weightclass, she's returning to Polaris to compete at a heavier weight and test herself even more. Joining her is Elisabeth Clay, who also competed at ADCC 2022 but in the over 60kg division instead. Clay lost in the opening round to the eventual champion Amy Campo, but is one of the best female grapplers of her generation regardless. She has three gold medals from the IBJJF no gi world championships, most recently in 2022 when she won both her weightclass and the absolute division by submitting five out of six of her opponents.

Polaris 27
After the roaring success of the men's Middleweight grand prix at Polaris 22, the next event on March 11th will feature another tournament under the same conditions. The main attraction at Polaris 23 will be a tournament in the women's 66kg division, where the winner will walk away with the grand prize of $20,000. Neither the venue or the exact athletes competing can be announced as yet, but the event will see eight of the UK and Europe's top grapplers gathering together. There will also be at least one Contenders event, in order to allow up-and-coming female grapplers to battle it out for a place in the grand prix. Alongside the women's 66kg grand prix, there will also be a headline superfight and a stacked preliminary card to support it.

Polaris 27
The Middleweight grand prix at Polaris 22 has been struck by a change of lineup at the last minute, with both Izaak Michell and Nick Ronan being forced to withdraw from the event. Replacing them is two equally impressive veterans of the sport in Alan Sanchez and Mateusz Szczecinski. Sanchez is the current EBI Welterweight champion, and he owns several impressive victories over top competitors like Oliver Taza and Jacob Couch. Sanchez made two attempts at qualifying for ADCC 2022 and on both occasions he managed to make it all the way to the quarterfinals, losing out to PJ Barch and Andy Varela, two men who would go on to compete at ADCC 2022 themselves. As for Szczecinski, he did actually manage to qualify for ADCC 2022 and he went on to shock fans around the world by taking out William Tackett in the opening round of the tournament. Szczecinski is also a Polaris veteran and he already owns a victory on the mats in the UK, travelling all the way from Poland to submit Ellis Younger with a heelhook at Polaris 17. Both of these men will be giving it their all to walk away with the Polaris Middleweight...

Polaris 27
Polaris 22 will take place on November 5th and the Middleweight grand prix will see eight elite grapplers battle it out to take home the vacant Middleweight title. The final competitor is now here, as Matt Serra black belt Nick Ronan will be making the trip to the UK in order to challenge for the belt. He joins an incredibly tough field of top-tier competitive grapplers like ADCC veterans Oliver Taza, Roberto Jimenez, Izaak Michell, and Owen Livesey. The rest of the field is made up of two old rivals from Polaris Squads, Jed Hue and Hunter Colvin, and Polaris Contenders winner Shane Fishman. Alongside Colvin and Jimenez, Nick Ronan has also represented Team USA on Polaris Squads. He has been practicing both BJJ and wrestling since he was just 13 years old and is a veteran of both the EBI and Combat Jiu-Jitsu competitive formats. He stands poised to present a tough challenge to anyone he stands in his way in the Middleweight grand prix and will no doubt be eager to get revenge on Oliver Taza for a loss he suffered earlier this year.

Polaris 27
The main event of Polaris 22 will of course be the Middleweight grand prix but shortly before the final takes place, there will also be a phenomenal superfight on the card. Polaris triple-weight champion Ashley Williams will be moving up in weight once again to take on an athlete outside of the three divisions he currently rules over: Bantamweight, Featherweight, and Lightweight. Williams is hot off his very first appearance at the ADCC world championships earlier this year where he put in an impressive performance against the eventual winner at 66kg, Diogo Reis. Williams will be eager to get back into action at Polaris 22 and take on an incredibly tough challenge from legendary MMA fighter Carlos Condit. Condit was the final WEC Welterweight world champion and at one point, he held an interim UFC world championship in the division as well. Condit spent well over a decade at the very top of the professional MMA world and had nineteen UFC fights before he retired from the sport in 2021. Condit fought some of the best MMA fighters on the planet like Georges St-Pierre, Demian Maia, and Robbie Lawler throughout his career and now he's about to take on one...

Polaris 27
The lineup for the Middleweight Grand Prix at Polaris 22 is almost complete as two competitors who are already acquainted with the Polaris mats have joined in. Roberto Jimenez first appeared on the Polaris mats when he represented Team USA at Polaris Squads 3, submitting Bradley Hill and earning draws against three other UK grapplers. He also returned to take on Magid Hage at Polaris 19 where he won by rear-naked choke. Jimenez won pretty much everything there was to win under IBJJF rules during his journey through the coloured belts and he has quickly become a force to be reckoned with since becoming a black belt. In fact, he actually owns a submission victory over the other person who has been added to Polaris 22, Hunter Colvin. Colvin actually fought alongside Jimenez back at Polaris Squads 3 where he earned three draws against Team UK, with two of them coming in exciting matches against another Middleweight grand prix competitor: Jed Hue. Colvin returned at Polaris Squads 4 to help defend Team USA's title against Team Brazil and registered another three draws in the process, reminding fans just how action-packed his matches are. Colvin will have the opportunity to get...

Polaris 27
Polaris Contenders took place on October 15th with a spot in the upcoming Polaris 22: Middleweight Grand Prix available for the winner of the tournament. It featured several exciting young prospects who would all be more than capable of causing an upset against one of the more experienced competitors in the Middleweight Grand Prix. The athletes came from all across the world in order to earn their spot in the tournament, including B-Team's Kaya Rudolph making the trip from Austin, Texas and Bartek Lukaszewicz coming from Gdynia, Poland. In the end it was a Canadian living in Ireland who battled his way through the field of tough competitors in order to emerge victorious. Shane Fishman was an incredibly successful IBJJF competitor at brown belt who actually made his Polaris debut back at Polaris 12, where he defeated Stefan Georgiev Petrov. Fishman was eventually promoted to black belt at the beginning of 2021 by Darragh O'Connail and has continued to put in impressive performances at both IBJJF events and ADCC trials. While he may not be as much of a known name as the other competitors in the Middleweight Grand Prix, he will represent an incredibly tough challenge for anyone who...

Polaris 27
The preliminary card for Polaris 22 has just expanded, with three more matches added to the previous four lined up to take place before the Middleweight grand prix. Two of the finest MMA stars to ever come out of England will be clashing in what will no doubt be an exciting no gi match, with Tom 'Kong' Watson taking on John Hathaway. Watson is a seven-fight UFC veteran who also held several regional UK MMA titles before he reached the highest levels of the sport, while Hathaway had nine fights in the UFC and amassed an incredible 17-2 professional MMA record before stepping away from the sport back in 2014. Elsewhere on the preliminary card there will also be a women's match between two of the top female grapplers in the UK, Violet Bennett and Emily Eyles, while the young Polaris veteran Jack Sear will be eager to bounce back from his recent loss to triple champion Ashley Williams at Polaris 19. Standing in his way is one of the best-kept secrets of the UK grappling scene, Dani Khalid, who will be making his debut on the Polaris mats.

Polaris 27
The Middleweight grand prix at Polaris 22 is already set to be an exciting tournament after Oliver Taza and Owen Livesey were confirmed, but now two more stars have joined them. Jed Hue is a Polaris fan-favorite who racked up several wins on his own before he was tapped to represent Team UK & Ireland at the first Squads event. There he ended up with a pair of draws against tough European opposition, but the nature of his performance necessitated his return at the third Squads event against Team USA. With another four draws to his name, his matches against Hunter Colvin were highlighted as some of the most exciting moments of the night. Since then, Hue has racked up another three wins on the Polaris mats, including an incredible twenty-one second submission win against UFC veteran Paul Craig. One of the B-Team's latest stars will also be competing for the Polaris middleweight title, Izaak Michell. Michell has been a talented grappler for quite some time, just waiting for his opportunity to break through to the top tier of the sport. That opportunity has come this past year as Michell put on a dominating performance at ADCC trials to make...

Polaris 27
Polaris 22 is set to feature a middleweight grand prix with the title on the line but there's plenty of action set to take place shortly before on the preliminary card. Two gi matches are set for the event with the first seeing Claudio Brudny put his perfect Polaris record on the line against yet another Welsh grappler as he faces off against the ever-exciting Ben Robson. The other gi match will see Polaris veteran Dominic Dillon take on an incredibly tough challenge in the form of the young English prodigy Nathan Johnstone. The preliminary card will also feature a number of no gi matches, with MMA veteran Justin Moore faces Finlay Nixon and Carlson Gracie's Mo Coles comes up against 10th Planet representative Gavin Stewart.

Polaris 27
The Polaris Middleweight Grand Prix is fast approaching and the first two competitors have just joined the battle for the Middleweight world title at Polaris 22. The first man to join the Middleweight grand prix is Owen Livesey, fresh off making his ADCC debut at the 2022 edition of the ADCC world championships. Livesey was one of the official alternates for the 99kg division thanks to his fantastic performances at the ADCC trials, and he also holds an undefeated record on the Polaris mats. He was called up to compete on short notice and although he lost to the eventual gold medallist, the decorated Judoka will be an incredibly tough opponent for anyone who stands across him in the Grand Prix. Alongside Livesey, another ADCC veteran will be competing at the Polaris Middleweight Grand Prix. Oliver Taza has competed at the ADCC world championships on three separate occasions since 2017, having won the European trials twice and being invited once. Like Livesey, Taza is also undefeated on the Polaris mats and holds a 2-0 record with wins over Ross Nicholls and Lachlan Giles. As they race to the top of the mountain to claim the Middleweight title, at least one...

Polaris 27
Polaris will be returning to Southampton in the UK on November 5th and Polaris 22 will feature the second Grand Prix tournament. This time however, the Grand Prix will take place in the Middleweight division with both $20,000 and the Polaris world title on the line. Craig Jones originally won the Middleweight title all the way back at Polaris 6 when he submitted Jake Shields and he has since defended the title on two occasions. Jones defeated both Matheus Lutes and Davi Ramos by decision at Polaris 10 and Polaris 17 respectively, along with winning the Light-Heavyweight title against Keenan Cornelius at Polaris 8. Since Jones bulked up to the 99kg division for ADCC 2022 he has decided to vacate his Middleweight title and it will now be on the line for the Polaris 22 Grand Prix. Alongside the elite grapplers who will be invited to compete, one spot in the tournament will be available to the winner of the latest edition of Polaris Contenders.