Renzo Gracie‘s ADCC superfight replacement has been announced.
Gracie — a 6th degree BJJ black belt — will now be taking on another MMA fighter and 2001 ADCC Champion Sanae Kikuta.
Kikuta has fought in MMA promotions such as Pancrase, Pride, and the UFC. He is a judo and shoot wrestling specialist who has racked up half of his MMA victories via submission.
Gracie is, of course, also a mixed martial artist who has gotten most of his wins via submission. Besides being a star grappler in his own right — he won ADCC gold in 2000 and 1998 — Renzo is also the coach of John Danaher, who leads one of the most notorious competitive BJJ teams in the history of jiu-jitsu, the Danaher Death Squad.
Gracie was originally supposed to face Matt Hughes at ADCC, but Hughes’ recent car accident — which he was lucky to survive and will thankfully recover from — forced him off of the card.
The ADCC Championships are set to go down on September 23 and 24. Besides Renzo’s fight against Sanae Kikuta, the event will also feature superfight between Andre Galvao and Claudio Calasans, as well as Chael Sonnen and Frank Mir.
The ADCC Championships will be going down in Espoo, Finland, but those who can’t make the trek over the Atlantic can watch all of the action live on Flograppling.
