The Tough Road Ahead At ADCC For Kaynan Duarte

Kaynan Duarte is one of the new wave of black belts, and he has always done no-gi. He's not just an IBJJF guy, he won ADCC Trials in 2017 (where he beat Patrick Gaudio in the final) and tapped Pablo Popovitch in the opening round of Worlds later that year. 

He had a close match with Gordon Ryan in the absolute final at the 2018 IBJJF Pan No-Gi and was winning on points until he got submitted. Had he fought more tactically he could have pulled off a points victory. 

Back in the day Kaynan didn't have a leglock game– his former teammate Keenan Cornelius used a heel hook to submit him in 2017, but since then Duarte's leglcok game has gotten very good. We even saw him use the heel hook defense / back-take against both Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones, so it goes to show you're not going to leglock him easily. 

Kaynan has the ability to win any division he enters– but is he capable of winning +99kg gold at ADCC?