Helena Crevar is the 2026 ADCC World Championships women’s +65kg gold medalist — and, at 19, the youngest women’s champion in the tournament’s history. The Texas-based New Wave grappler, coached by John Danaher and Gordon Ryan, also finished every match by submission, a first for a woman at the World Championships according to ONE Championship’s report from the event.
The biennial no-gi Worlds ran September 12–13 at Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland. Crevar entered as the No. 1 seed and closed the bracket with three finishes: a rear-naked choke on Matilda Reid at 9:11 in the quarterfinals after building a 10-point lead; a straight ankle lock on Elizabeth Mitrovic at 5:19 in the semifinals; and a short choke on Anabel Lopez at 6:04 in the final after controlling the match and taking the back.
Crevar’s path into Kraków already included a short Estima lock win over Teshya Noelani Alo at ONE Fight Night 39 and a unanimous decision over Paige Ivette Clymer at The Inner Circle 22. Clymer went on to take bronze in the same +65kg division at these Worlds.
On the men’s side, Pawel Jaworski gave the home crowd Poland’s first ADCC gold. The 22-year-old Warsaw native, the ninth seed in -88kg, beat Felipe Costa and Gabriel Brod with inside heel hooks, then edged Sweden’s Marlon Tajik in a scoreless final decided by a single penalty.
Jaworski had lost to Tye Ruotolo at ONE Fight Night 41 earlier in the year, then submitted Rafael Lovato Jr. with a kneebar in under two minutes at ONE Fight Night 47, picking up a US$50,000 performance bonus before the Kraków run.
Together, Crevar’s record-age women’s title and Jaworski’s first Polish gold were two of the clearest headlines from a weekend that also crowned champions across the rest of the ADCC weight classes in Kraków.
Leave a Reply