AT the BJJ capital in the Middle East , Abu dhabi gathers over 150 black belts training for the ADCC event.
The ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) Submission Wrestling World Championship is a competition involving professional athletes who have been successful at the highest levels of jiu-jitsu, wrestling, judo, sambo, shooto and mixed martial arts. The rules of the event disallow strikes while promoting grappling and submissions.
The competition was created by Sheik Tahnoon 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.
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 had experience studying the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, whose rules are the most similar to. However, there have been notable exceptions to this, such as Japanese Sanae Kikuta (Judo/Catch Wrestling), South African Mark Robinson (who was a champion in judo, Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling, Sumo, and power lifting), and American Mark Kerr (Collegiate/Freestyle Wrestling).