The ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship is an international submission grappling competition, organised by the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC). The inaugural tournament was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 1998. It has been held every two years since 2001, except in 2021 due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Host countries have included Brazil, China, Finland, Spain, the UK, and the US.

Competitors can only participate after winning ADCC trials or by invitation. While most athletes are primarily from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it is open to competitors from any grappling style. ADCC is considered the most prestigious submission grappling tournament in the world, and is commonly referred to as "the Olympics of grappling".

The 2022 edition took place in front of 13,000 fans in attendance at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. In 2024 it will be held 17-18 August at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

History

The competition was created by Sheik Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the former United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, together with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor Nelson Monteiro. Royler Gracie characterised this as the beginning of "the modern era of submission grappling". Thousands of submission grappling tournaments around the world use elements of the ADCC format and rule structure. To date, the great majority of ADCC champions have been black belts in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which has the most similar rules to ADCC. However, there have been notable exceptions to this such as Americans Mark Kerr (collegiate and freestyle wrestling) and Jeff Monson (collegiate and freestyle wrestling), Russian Karimula Barkalaev (judo and MMA), Japanese Sanae Kikuta (judo / shoot wrestling), and South African Mark Robinson (judo, freestyle, Greco-Roman, and sumo wrestling), along with silver and bronze medalists such as Caol Uno (shoot wrestling), Mach Sakurai (shoot wrestling / judo), Aleksandr Savko (freestyle wrestling), Tito Ortiz (collegiate wrestling and MMA), Megumi Fujii (judo / sambo), Seiko Yamamoto (freestyle wrestling) and Nick Rodriguez (collegiate wrestling).

2019 onwards

Mo Jassim took over as head organizer ready for ADCC 2019 and has since made sweeping changes to the organization. He announced that he had plans for adding more women's divisions and allowing reigning absolute champions to compete in weight-classes despite being booked for the main event superfight. It was announced in 2020 that for the first time in the competition's history, there would be more than two years between editions due to the setbacks suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition of the ADCC World Championships would then take place in 2022 instead, and would still be helmed by Jassim. After the success of the 2022 ADCC World Championship, it was announced that Jassim would return for the 2024 ADCC World Championship be the first person to operate as head organizer for three editions.

In January 2023, ADCC announced an exclusive multi-year streaming deal with UFC Fight Pass and left their previous broadcaster FloSports. Just three months later on April 27, 2023, ADCC announced that they would be returning to FloSports for the foreseeable future.

On June 25, 2023, it was announced that the following edition of the ADCC World Championship would include three women's weight classes, marking the first time since 2007 that there was more than two available. It was also later announced that this the 2024 ADCC World Championship would also be the first edition to include a women's absolute division since 2007. On July 17, 2023, head organizer Mo Jassim announced that there would be a children's version of the ADCC World Championship held for the first time during the 2024 edition of the tournament.

ADCC world championships

List of ADCC Champions in Men's Submission Fighting by Year and Weight

List of ADCC Champions in Women's Submission Fighting by Year and Weight

2005

2007

2009–2022

List of ADCC Superfight Champions

List of winners by total titles

Grand Slam Winners (trials, weight, absolute and superfight)

• Roger Gracie (2004, 2005, 2005, 2007)
• Dean Lister (2002, 2011, 2003, 2005)
• André Galvão (2007/2009, 2011, 2011, 2013/2015/2017/2019)

Triple Crown Winners (weight, absolute and superfight)

• Mario Sperry
• Mark Kerr
• Ricardo Arona
• Roger Gracie
• Braulio Estima
• Dean Lister
• André Galvão
• Gordon Ryan

ADCC Hall of Fame

• Roger Gracie
• Andre Galvao
• Marcelo Garcia
• Ricardo Arona
• Kyra Gracie
• Braulio Estima
• Royler Gracie
• Dean Lister
• Mario Sperry
• Rubens Charles
• Saulo Ribeiro
• Mark Kerr
• Baret Yoshida
• Renzo Gracie
• Rafael Mendes
• Xande Ribeiro
• Jean Jacques Machado
• Ronaldo Souza
• Fabrício Werdum
• Vinny Magalhães
• Orlando Sanchez

Most submissions

By nationality

ADCC events

ADCC 2024

ADCC 2022

ADCC 2019

Absolute

ADCC 2017

Absolute

ADCC 2015

Absolute

ADCC 2013

ADCC 2011

Absolute

Superfight

• Superfight 1: Braulio Estima vs. Ronaldo Souza

Estima defeated Souza via points (3-0).

• Superfight 2: Renzo Gracie vs. Mario Sperry

Sperry defeated Gracie via points (5-0).

ADCC 2009

Absolute

Superfight

• Superfight: Robert Drysdale vs. Ronaldo Souza

Souza defeated Drysdale via points (2-0).

ADCC 2007

ADCC 2005

ADCC 2003

ADCC 2001

ADCC 2000

ADCC 1999

ADCC 1998

ADCC Trials

ADCC Asian and Oceanic Championship

ADCC European Championship

ADCC North American Championship

ADCC South American Championship

Awards

At the end of 2021, ADCC was awarded with 'Promotion of the year' by media outlet Jitsmagazine at the 2021 BJJ Awards as a result of the trials events held that year and the introduction of the ADCC Hall of Fame.

In 2022, ADCC was awarded with 'Promotion of the Year' by Jitsmagazine at the 2022 BJJ Awards for the second year in a row, and the 2022 ADCC World Championships was awarded with 'Fight Card of the Year'.

See also

• ADCC weight classes
• List of ADCC Hall of Fame inductees

References

Further reading

External links

• ADCC Homepage

Articles connexes

1. 2024 ADCC World Championship
2. 2022 ADCC World Championship
3. Gilbert Burns
4. Submission wrestling
5. Craig Jones (grappler)
6. Marcelo Garcia (grappler)
7. Mark Kerr (fighter)
8. Roger Gracie
9. Kaynan Duarte
10. Ffion Davies
11. Orlando Sanchez (fighter)
12. Lucas Barbosa (martial artist)
13. Leonardo Santos (fighter)
14. Ricardo Arona
15. Karimula Barkalaev
16. Tye Ruotolo
17. Micael Galvão
18. Gordon Ryan
19. Dante Leon (martial artist)
20. Penny Thomas