Belal Etiabari vs Felipe Pena: Kiwi Takes on ADCC Champion at Worlds

New Zealand Jiu-Jitsu had already made history before Belal Etiabari ADCC 2026 even began.

After a meteoric rise through the sport, Belal won the +99 kg division at the 2026 ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials and earned his ticket to the biggest stage in submission grappling.

No invitation.

He won his way there.

We covered that journey in our Historic 2026 ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials Recap, where Belal Etiabari and fellow Kiwi Kaya Rudolph became the two New Zealand men to qualify for the 2026 ADCC World Championships.

But winning Trials was only the beginning.

On September 12 in Kraków, Poland, Belal walked onto the ADCC mats for his first World Championships match.

Waiting for him in the opening round?

Felipe Pena.

The No. 1 seed. The defending +99 kg ADCC champion. One of the most experienced competitors in the tournament.

Welcome to ADCC Worlds.

Belal Etiabari vs Felipe Pena – ADCC 2026 +99kg

I knew the result before sitting down to properly rewatch this match.

What I wanted to know was something different.

Did Belal actually look like he belonged at this level?

Because there’s a big difference between qualifying for ADCC and being competitive once you get there.

It didn’t take long to get an answer.

Belal pulled guard almost immediately.

And I loved it.

There was no wasting several minutes trying to prove he could wrestle with Felipe Pena. There was no ego about having to stay standing.

Belal sat down and immediately started playing his Jiu-Jitsu.

Felipe began working from the top with heavy collar ties and pressure, posting on Belal’s legs and moving from side to side while looking for an opportunity to pass.

But Belal’s guard was quick.

Really quick for a +99 kg athlete.

He was inverting, changing angles and constantly looking underneath Felipe for access to the legs.

And early on, something became pretty obvious to me.

Felipe respected the guard.

Felipe Pena Wasn’t Rushing Into Belal’s Guard

At around 7:40 remaining, we were still seeing essentially the same battle.

Belal seated underneath.

Felipe standing above him.

But being underneath doesn’t necessarily mean you’re losing the exchanges.

From where I was sitting, Belal actually looked like the athlete trying to initiate more of the meaningful offence.

Felipe was using heavy collar ties and pushing on Belal’s head and face, but he wasn’t recklessly committing himself to the pass.

My interpretation watching it was almost:

“I’m the veteran. You’re the newcomer. You need to respect me.”

But Belal didn’t look scared.

He respected Felipe.

There’s a difference.

Felipe appeared to be trying to work around the dangerous parts of Belal’s guard rather than charging directly through them.

And then we got our first really interesting leg-lock exchange.

Belal Attacks Felipe Pena With the False Reap

With roughly 6:38 remaining, Belal started getting underneath Felipe’s right leg.

It looked like the beginning of a false-reap entry.

Belal secured the leg and began creating the angle, then switched his attack toward the opposite side and threatened the ankle before using that movement to continue entering on Felipe’s right leg.

Beautiful sequence.

And remember who we’re talking about here.

This isn’t Belal attacking another newcomer at ADCC.

This is a New Zealand ADCC debutant entering underneath the legs of Felipe Pena and actually forcing him to respond.

Felipe countered the leg exchange with an attack of his own. From the camera angle I was watching, I couldn’t confidently identify exactly what he had, so I’m not going to pretend I could.

Eventually they disengaged.

There was then a pause in the action following what appeared to be some accidental contact around Felipe’s eye.

Both competitors acknowledged each other, slapped hands and got straight back to work.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of these kinds of interruptions in ADCC matches.

That’s especially true when they happen immediately after an exciting exchange. Grappling has a rhythm, and Belal had just produced one of his most interesting attacking sequences of the match.

But that’s competition.

At roughly 5:50 remaining, we were back underway.

Five Minutes: Now the ADCC Points Matter

This is where the match becomes particularly interesting tactically.

ADCC matches aren’t simply conventional points matches from the opening second.

For these opening-round matches, the first half is a no-points period before the scoring period begins halfway through.

That changes how athletes approach the match.

And Belal had already made his intentions pretty clear.

He wasn’t sitting there waiting to win a positional battle.

He was hunting submissions.

At around 4:56 remaining, Belal attacked Felipe’s left leg this time.

This looked more like a K-guard-style entry.

Belal got underneath, connected his hands behind Felipe’s knee and started trying to establish control.

Felipe recognised the danger and ripped his leg free.

Another attack stopped.

But another attack Felipe actually had to deal with.

The Lachlan Giles Influence Is Hard to Miss

If you’ve followed modern leg-lock Jiu-Jitsu, Belal’s approach shouldn’t be particularly surprising.

Belal is a black belt under Lachlan Giles at Absolute MMA, and the influence is pretty easy to see.

Giles produced one of the most memorable ADCC absolute runs ever in 2019, using his leg-lock game to submit much larger opponents including Kaynan Duarte, Patrick Gaudio and Mahamed Aly on his way to an absolute bronze medal.

Belal is obviously his own grappler.

But watching a +99 kg athlete willingly pull guard, invert underneath an opponent, attack through K-guard-style positions and hunt the legs?

There’s some Absolute MMA DNA there.

And here’s what makes Belal’s story even crazier.

He’d only been training Jiu-Jitsu for around five years before reaching this stage.

Five years.

Black belt under Lachlan Giles.

ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials champion.

And now attacking the legs of Felipe Pena at the ADCC World Championships.

That’s a meteoric rise.

What This Match Says About New Zealand BJJ

This was probably the point in the match where I started thinking beyond Belal himself.

Because Belal wasn’t undefeated on the New Zealand circuit on his way up.

He has trained and competed against people from our part of the world.

And now we’re watching him on the biggest submission-grappling stage in the world, looking physically comfortable in the +99 kg division and creating legitimate offence against one of ADCC’s most accomplished competitors.

That should tell us something about the level developing down here.

For a long time, athletes from smaller grappling countries could almost feel like they needed somebody overseas to validate whether they were genuinely world class.

I think those days are disappearing.

The gap is getting smaller.

Give athletes from places like New Zealand the coaching, competition, opportunities and pathways to actually reach these stages, and we’re increasingly seeing that they can tango with the world’s best.

Belal was showing exactly that.

But then Felipe Pena showed us the other side of elite competition.

Felipe Pena Changes Gear

At roughly 3:50 remaining, the match changed.

Felipe finally broke through.

He hit a top-spin-style passing sequence over Belal’s guard and landed into side control.

And crucially, this happened during the points-scoring period.

Belal immediately tried to prevent Felipe from settling the position, but Felipe secured the pass and put the first points on the board.

Then things escalated quickly.

As Belal attempted to escape, Felipe began working toward his back.

Felipe used a chair-sit-style back take, inserted his hook and eventually locked a body triangle around Belal.

Now Belal wasn’t attacking anymore.

He was surviving.

And against somebody with Felipe Pena’s experience, that’s a very different problem.

Felipe attacked the neck.

Belal defended.

Felipe kept working.

Then the rear-naked choke came through.

Tap.

Felipe Pena defeated Belal Etiabari by rear-naked choke at approximately 6:53 elapsed.

Belal’s first ADCC World Championships run was over.

But Don’t Just Look at the Result

If you open the bracket years from now, you’ll see something pretty simple.

Felipe Pena def. Belal Etiabari – Rear-Naked Choke.

That’s technically what happened.

But it doesn’t tell you much about the match.

It doesn’t tell you that Belal immediately backed his own game and pulled guard.

It doesn’t tell you that Felipe spent much of the opening portion of the match working cautiously around that guard.

It doesn’t tell you about Belal’s false-reap entry.

It doesn’t tell you about the attack on the opposite leg.

It doesn’t tell you that a Kiwi making his ADCC Worlds debut was willing to attack one of the most experienced athletes in the entire bracket.

That’s why I wanted to actually rewatch this match rather than simply read the result.

Belal lost.

But Belal looked like he belonged there.

Experience Was the Difference – At Least From Where I Was Sitting

Watching the match back, I didn’t think Belal looked undersized.

I didn’t think he looked technically overwhelmed from the opening exchange.

And I certainly didn’t think he looked afraid of Felipe Pena.

What separated them, to me, was experience.

Felipe knew how to manage an ADCC match.

He didn’t panic when Belal started attacking his legs.

He didn’t unnecessarily throw himself into dangerous positions during the opening no-points period.

He remained patient.

Then when the scoring period arrived, Felipe changed gears.

Pass.

Back.

Body triangle.

Rear-naked choke.

That’s veteran match management.

Belal’s strategy appeared much more submission-focused.

Pull guard.

Get underneath.

Attack a leg.

Create another entry.

Try to finish.

And honestly?

I like it.

I’d rather watch someone arrive at their first ADCC World Championships and actually try to impose their Jiu-Jitsu than spend ten minutes being terrified of making a mistake.

Belal went for it.

Felipe weathered it.

Then the veteran took over.

From Winning ADCC Trials to Facing the No. 1 Seed

The matchup also puts Belal’s entire 2026 run into perspective.

Only months earlier, he had won the +99 kg division at the second ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials, earning his place at Worlds the hard way.

If you haven’t followed that part of the story yet, check out our Historic 2026 ADCC Asia Oceania Trials Recap to see how Belal and Kaya Rudolph punched their tickets to Kraków.

Then came Worlds.

Belal’s reward for qualifying?

The defending champion and No. 1 seed in round one.

That’s ADCC.

Felipe would eventually progress through the +99 kg bracket before Josh Saunders stopped him in the semifinal, while Victor Hugo ultimately captured the +99 kg World Championship.

We followed that entire division to the end in our ADCC 2026 World Championships: Dzharbaev & Victor Hugo Take Gold breakdown, including our play-by-play of Victor Hugo vs Josh Saunders in the final.

So now we’ve seen how the story began.

We’ve seen how Belal’s division ended.

And we’re starting to fill in everything that happened between.

What’s Next? Kaya Rudolph vs PJ Barch

Belal wasn’t New Zealand’s only men’s Trials winner in Kraków.

Kaya Rudolph earned his place at -77 kg.

And just like Belal, Kaya drew an established international name at the World Championships:

PJ Barch.

That’s the next match we’re going back to watch.

We’ll break down Kaya Rudolph vs PJ Barch the same way — exchange by exchange, looking beyond the final result and asking what another Kiwi qualifier actually showed when given the opportunity to compete on the ADCC World Championship stage.

Once that article is live, we’ll link the two Kiwi World Championship stories together.

Because regardless of the results in Kraków, something significant has already happened.

New Zealand grapplers aren’t just watching ADCC anymore.

They’re competing there.

Okay, That’s Enough No-Gi Talk…

We’ve talked ADCC.

We’ve talked false reaps.

We’ve talked K-guard.

We’ve talked leg locks.

We’ve talked about two sweaty heavyweights trying to strangle each other in Poland.

Maybe it’s time to Go Get a Gi.

Get it?

If all this no-gi talk has somehow made you want to tie a belt around your waist again, check out our BJJ Gi Buying Guide NZ — our complete guide to choosing a gi, including sizing, fabrics, GSM, weaves, competition rules, care and what actually matters when buying a BJJ gi in New Zealand.

Then you can come back for Kaya vs PJ.

We’ll probably be talking about no-gi again.

Wear Your Journey.

— Go-Getter Gi