UFC BJJ 13 Card Breakdown: Tackett and Rodriguez Fight for the Vacant Middleweight Title
William Tackett gets his second shot at the middleweight title against Jay Rodriguez, Jalen Fonacier chases bantamweight gold against Kleber Barboza, and ADCC champions Ffion Davies and Jasmine Rocha fill out a nine match card.
Thursday night in the Bowl has two title matches and no champion in either one. UFC BJJ 13 starts at 5:00 PM PT (8:00 PM ET) at Meta Apex in Las Vegas, live on UFC Fight Pass.
Ronaldo Junior vacated the middleweight belt and Mikey Musumeci gave up the bantamweight belt, which leaves two submission hunters, a pair of brothers and a lot of first timers to sort out the rest. Here is how it breaks down.
William Tackett's first crack at the middleweight belt, 15 full minutes with Ronaldo Junior at UFC BJJ 4 last December:
The full card
| Match | Division |
|---|---|
| William Tackett vs. Jay Rodriguez | Middleweight title (vacant), main event |
| Jalen Fonacier vs. Kleber Barboza | Bantamweight title (vacant) |
| Nick Rodriguez vs. Natã Tenca | Light heavyweight |
| Ffion Davies vs. Jaine Fragoso | Women's bantamweight |
| Jasmine Rocha vs. Karen Antunes | Women's flyweight |
| Pat Downey vs. Ian Daube | Heavyweight |
| Liam Crelinsten vs. Seilkhan Bolatbek | Welterweight |
| Martin Gonzalez vs. João Nicolite | Middleweight |
| Tristan Sainz vs. David Weintraub | Lightweight, opening match |
Three things to know
- The fastest finish in UFC BJJ: Jalen Fonacier needed 19 seconds to heel hook Carlos Oliveira at UFC BJJ 5, and that night it gave him three of the four fastest finishes in UFC BJJ history.
- Brothers on both sides of the main event: William Tackett's younger brother Andrew is the UFC BJJ welterweight champion, and Jay Rodriguez's older brother Nick fights two matches earlier on this card.
- Seven years to a world title: Natã Tenca started grappling in 2019 and won the 2026 world title at brown belt, finishing all three of his matches with straight ankle locks.
Main event: Tackett's second shot at the middleweight title
William Tackett vs. Jay Rodriguez · UFC BJJ middleweight title (vacant)
William Tackett does his best work from on top, and lately that work has ended with a heel hook. He is 3-1 in UFC BJJ, and all three wins are submissions.
At UFC BJJ 8 he took Manuel Ribamar down and caught the heel hook with 12 seconds left in the first round. At UFC BJJ 10 he slipped a flying triangle from Fedor Nikolov, mounted him and switched to the legs for the finish.
His debut showed the other half of his game. At UFC BJJ 2 he passed Kyle Chambers' long legs, threatened an arm triangle and took the rear naked choke when Chambers defended it.
The one loss was the first middleweight title match, a unanimous decision to Ronaldo Junior at UFC BJJ 4. Tackett trains in Las Vegas at the UFC Performance Institute, which he credited after UFC BJJ 10 with getting him back from injury.
He won the 2024 ADCC West Coast Trials, and his younger brother Andrew holds the UFC BJJ welterweight title.
Jay Rodriguez called his shot on his UFC BJJ debut in September. He said before the match that he would win with an inverted D'Arce, then finished Kevin Beuhring with exactly that in the second round at UFC BJJ 11.
The 2024 ADCC silver medalist at 88kg got the title shot once Junior vacated the belt, and his older brother, Nick, is two matches down the card.
Co-main event: UFC BJJ's fastest finisher goes for the bantamweight title
Jalen Fonacier vs. Kleber Barboza · UFC BJJ bantamweight title (vacant)
Jalen "The Future" Fonacier does not waste time. He is 4-0 in UFC BJJ, three of those wins are first round heel hooks, and he tends to go straight to the mat and straight to the legs.
His inside heel hook of Carlos Oliveira at UFC BJJ 5 took 19 seconds, the fastest submission in UFC BJJ history. He heel hooked Pedro Nakano in 1:13 at UFC BJJ 3 and Everton Teixeira in the first round at UFC BJJ 2.
At UFC BJJ 10 in August he went the distance for the first time and beat Mourece Ramirez by unanimous decision.
The Los Angeles native is just as dangerous in the gi. He won rooster at the IBJJF World Championship in 2025 and 2026, plus the 2025 Pans and the 2026 Europeans.
Kleber Barboza gets what the UFC calls the biggest opportunity of his career. The Brazilian earned it by winning four matches at the UFC BJJ Opens in Las Vegas, and he took silver at light feather at the 2025 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship.
Light heavyweight: Nick Rodriguez is back five weeks after his title draw
Nick Rodriguez vs. Natã Tenca · light heavyweight
The UFC bills Nick Rodriguez as the Black Belt Slayer. He took ADCC silver at +99kg in 2019 and 2022, and he is 1-0-2 in UFC BJJ.
At UFC BJJ 9 he charged across the Bowl, double legged João Nicolite and took the back for a first round rear naked choke. "I'm confident I can beat every single grappler in the world," he said afterward.
On September 24 at UFC BJJ 11, he and champion Mason Fowler fought to a split draw for the light heavyweight title, so Fowler kept the belt.
Rodriguez had already beaten Fowler on points at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 7 in 2024. His other UFC BJJ match, against Elder Cruz at UFC BJJ 6, was a majority draw.
Rodriguez and Fowler at UFC BJJ 11:
Natã Tenca has climbed fast. The Brazilian only started grappling in 2019, and this year he won ultra heavy at brown belt at the IBJJF World Championship, finishing all three matches with straight ankle locks. Then André Galvão promoted him to black belt.
The IBJJF has called him one of the most formidable leglockers in the heavy weight classes, and he already has a major at black belt: super heavy at the 2026 IBJJF Pan No-Gi Championship earlier this month. Thursday is his UFC BJJ debut.
Two ADCC champions in the women's matches
Ffion Davies vs. Jaine Fragoso · women's bantamweight
The UFC calls Ffion Davies a Welsh grappling pioneer, and her titles back it up: ADCC gold at 60kg in 2022 after silver in 2019, light at the 2022 and 2023 IBJJF World Championships, and double gold at the 2023 No-Gi World Championship.
Her one UFC BJJ loss was a split decision to Cassia Moura for the first women's bantamweight title at UFC BJJ 6.
She bounced back at UFC BJJ 9, switching from a rear naked choke to an armbar to finish Amanda Bruse with 11 seconds left in the first round.
The UFC has laid out the stakes: a Davies win sets up a rematch with Moura for the bantamweight title, and a Fragoso win puts her straight into contention at 135 pounds.
Jaine Fragoso, whom the UFC calls a leglock specialist, makes her UFC BJJ debut. She won light at the 2023 IBJJF Pan No-Gi Championship and took bronze at the 2024 World Championship, the 2024 No-Gi World Championship and the 2025 Pans.
Jasmine Rocha vs. Karen Antunes · women's flyweight
Jasmine Rocha arrives on a roll. She won the ADCC Miami Open in July, then took ADCC gold at 55kg at the 2026 ADCC World Championship in September, and she took silver at feather at the 2022 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship.
That ADCC final was a rematch from the Bowl. Rocha's one UFC BJJ match was a split decision loss to Anna Rodrigues at bantamweight at UFC BJJ 6 in March, and six months later she beat Rodrigues for the ADCC title.
Karen Antunes has been winning world medals at black belt since 2014. She won light at the 2015 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship and feather at the 2018 World Championship, the same year she won the Pans, and Thursday is her UFC BJJ debut.
She has crossed paths with this card before: Antunes and Davies met in the feather final at the 2019 Pans, and Davies won it.
The rest of the card
Most of the undercard is new to the Bowl, and a few of the debuts come with serious credentials.
- Pat Downey vs. Ian Daube, heavyweight. Two wrestlers make their UFC BJJ debuts. Downey is a former NCAA Division I All-American who has also competed in grappling and MMA, and Daube, a former California state wrestling champion, won the open class at purple belt at the 2024 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship.
- Liam Crelinsten vs. Seilkhan Bolatbek, welterweight. Crelinsten, from Canada, locked up a body triangle and finished Max Livingston with a second round rear naked choke on his debut at UFC BJJ 8. Bolatbek, from Kazakhstan, won light at brown belt at the 2026 IBJJF World Championship and finished the final with a triangle.
- Martin Gonzalez vs. João Nicolite, middleweight. Gonzalez, from Mexico, debuts after a long road back from ACL surgery in the summer of 2025. Nicolite, a Davi Ramos black belt, took bronze in the open class at the 2024 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship and returns to the Bowl after facing Nick Rodriguez at UFC BJJ 9.
- Tristan Sainz vs. David Weintraub, lightweight, the opening match. Both debut. Sainz is a product of Alpha Miami Grappling, the gym his father Carlos founded, and Weintraub fought as an amateur in MMA before turning to grappling and has competed at the Combat Jiu-Jitsu Worlds.
How to watch
UFC BJJ 13 streams on UFC Fight Pass from 5:00 PM PT (8:00 PM ET) on Thursday. Our UFC BJJ 13 event page has the full card and, after the event, the results. The UFC's card announcement has any late changes.
Everything else coming up this weekend is on the calendar.
All results, records and videos in this story come from official channels.
