It’s no secret that we feel Kaynan Duarte is the next big thing out of Andre Galvao’s Atos gym. 

The brown belt is an ADCC veteran and an IBJJF World Gi and No-Gi champion. And he’s only 19 years old. 

The fact Andre Galvao specifically asked him to come from Brazil to San Diego to train with him for his ADCC Superfight with Claudio Calasans should tell you a lot about how much potential the legendary black belt sees in this kid. 

Kaynan’s had a busy year. He won Worlds and Pans, qualified for ADCC and later competed there in Finland (where he tapped out former ADCC champ Pablo Popovitch in the opening round). He rounded out the year strong by winning the heavyweight division and closing out the absolute with his teammate Jonnatas Gracie. 

Photo by Michael Sears

In his opening match Kaynan tapped out Joshua Valles with a kneebar after going up 4-2. In the quarter final the Brazilian faced off with 10-1 UFC welterweight Tom Breese, who trains out of Tristar in Montreal and has links to key members of the Danaher Death Squad. Kaynan defeated him 4-0 via two sweeps. 

In his heavyweight final Duarte took out Marcelo Gomide via a mounted guillotine (the choke is one of his strongest attacks). 

In the absolute division Duarte met with one of the up-and-coming members of the “Danaher Death Squad” in Oliver Taza. The lightweight leg lock specialist went head to head with the Atos heavywight, but Duarte emerged the winner 6-2. 

Duarte’s final match of the day saw him go up against Eric Newton, a middleweight. Despite going down 2-0 to an early takedown, Duarte rebounded 8-2 and finished with a rear naked choke. 

Duarte would close out the absolute with Jonnatas Gracie, a middleweight.