Kaynan Duarte

In 2022 Kaynan Duarte pulled off the double that sums up a modern heavyweight’s career: in June he won Worlds in the gi, in September he won ADCC without it. In Long Beach he took Fellipe Trovo’s back for a submission in the heavyweight quarterfinals, beat Rider Zuchi on advantages in the semifinal and did it again against Dimitrius Souza in the final, after two 0-0 scores. It was his second straight world title, after the December 2021 gold, when he also took open class bronze.

He was born on January 24, 1998, in Pederneiras, in the interior of São Paulo state. He did judo before following a cousin into Jiu-Jitsu, with José Luis, known as Zé Cavalo, as his first coach. As a juvenile blue belt he travelled to São Paulo to train at Cicero Costha’s PSLPB. He later trained in Bauru with Paulo Ledesma of Atos and, in 2016, went to the team’s headquarters in San Diego. André Galvão gave him his brown belt at the 2017 Worlds and his black belt at the 2018 Worlds.

In 2019 he won Pans and the heavyweight division at Worlds, but lost the title: in February 2020 USADA announced a positive test for ostarine in a sample taken at the event, and he was banned from IBJJF events for one year. That same year he won ADCC over 99 kg, with wins over Marcus Buchecha and, in the final, Nick Rodriguez.

After his two world titles he won the IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix in 2022 and, in 2023, took double gold at the Europeans, at super-heavyweight and in the open class, finishing every match by submission. At that year’s Worlds he took silver at super-heavyweight, beaten by Erich Munis on a referee decision, and bronze in the open class, stopped by Victor Hugo on advantages. In 2024 he won the No-Gi Absolute Grand Prix and took double gold at ADCC, choking Rafael Lovato Jr. in the 99 kg final and submitting Roberto Cyborg with a guillotine in the absolute final.

At ADCC 2026 in Kraków he reached the 99 kg final and lost to Luke Griffith, who took his back and finished the rear naked choke. In his superfight with Yuri Simões he hurt his shoulder in the first exchange of overtime and tapped. He has four ADCC titles: two at 99 kg, one over 99 kg and one in the absolute.