When Alonzo Hernandez asked Jozef Chen about the upcoming ADCC and whether he had ever been to Poland, the rising grappler offered a take on the criticism surrounding the tournament’s move to Europe.
During the podcast, Chen explained that he is already familiar with both the country and the host city.
“I’ve been to Kraków. I’ve been to Kraków multiple times, the city that is hosting ADCC,” Chen said. “I’ve been to Poland. I did my trials in Poland, all this type of stuff.”
With that established, he shifted his attention to the complaints he has seen online regarding the event’s location.
“I’ve seen the Simple Man. They’re just complaining that it’s in Europe,” he said. “I don’t know. Part of me is like, ah, Americans, you know. I’m like, bro, you can go to other parts of the world.”
While Chen acknowledged that some concerns about attendance may be valid, he was not entirely convinced by the argument.
“Maybe there’s some truth to like, oh, a bunch of people are going to be in Vegas,” he said. “I don’t know.”
Chen also pushed back against the notion that ADCC hosting an event outside the United States is some dramatic departure from tradition. In his view, the organization is simply returning to its roots.
“ADCC before, they weren’t always in one place,” Chen explained. “There was I believe 2017 was in Helsinki. Before that they had an ADCC in Beijing. They had ADCCs before, it was everywhere.”
Because of that history, he sees the move as less of a change and more of a return to form.
“So I don’t necessarily view it as a change,” he said. “I view it as a return to what they were doing before.”
The conversation then turned to the 2017 event in Helsinki, which was famously won by Gordon Ryan. Chen admitted he was not there personally but shared what he has heard about the atmosphere.
“The one in Helsinki in 2017, apparently it was d**d,” he said. “Like, there was very few people.”
At the same time, he was careful not to present secondhand information as fact.
“Obviously, I wasn’t there, so I can’t vouch for what it was like and so on,” Chen added. “But apparently the Vegas ones were pretty crazy.”
Even so, Chen believes the grappling landscape has changed significantly since then and that Europe, particularly Poland, is now in a stronger position to support a major event.
“It’s been like 10 years since the 2017 ADCC almost,” he said. “So you can think that maybe grappling has evolved elsewhere.”
He went on to highlight Poland’s accomplishments on the international stage.
“Poland is probably one of the biggest grappling countries in Europe,” Chen said. “They have an IBJJF world champion. This is pretty big.”
He then pointed out that the country now boasts multiple world champions.
“So they have two now,” he said. “They have Paweł Jaworski and they have Adam Wardziński.”
As for the venue itself, Chen revealed that he had heard impressive things about its size, though he stopped short of making any firm predictions.
“The arena they got there is pretty huge,” he said. “I think, I don’t know, one of the people told me that’s like some crazy number. We’ll see how it turns out.”
Despite the debate surrounding the location, Chen made it clear that he is looking forward to competing there.
“I’m excited,” he said. “I like Poland, so it’s cool.”
