What’s the Difference Between ADCC and World Professional Jiu-Jitsu?
ADCC
What is commonly referred to as the ADCC Championship is a submission
grappling event that happens every two years and began in 1998,
probably way before you ever stepped on the mats. A Gracie Barra
instructor here in San Diego named Nelson Monteiro had a student who
turned out to be a member of the royal family in the United Arab
Emirates, a country with a total population of just under 5 million
people. That student’s name is Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nayan, and
these days he probably does not spend too much time dealing directly
with learning new submissions as he has some pretty important
responsibilities back in the UAE. In any case he is still a patron of
submission grappling and the events continue to run every two years.
The name ADCC represents “Abu Dhabi Combat Club” which is a physical
training center in – you guessed it – Abu Dhabi, one of two major cities
in the UAE. (The other is Dubai).
In the earliest years of the ADCC, you had to receive an invitation
to compete. Nowadays you can still receive an invite which usually
includes an offer of travel and accommodation but the ADCC holds
qualifiers around the world so anyone should have the opportunity to
compete in the event. There is even one such qualifier scheduled to take
place here in San Diego next weekend.
The prizes for winning the ADCC are the largest I am aware of in the
world of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling. For example, the
winner of the male absolute division (no weight restrictions there)
earns $40,000! While the women’s divisions are not equally rewarded,
it’s safe to say that in this respect the ADCC has done much to motivate
and compensate submission grapplers around the world.
The last edition of the ADCC World Championships were held in Barcelona, Spain in 2009 and the finals of the 2011 edition is said to be in Nottingham, England. This is, perhaps not coincidentally, virtually home territory for the 2009 ADCC absolute champion Braulio Estima and his brother Victor.
You can learn more about the beginnings of the ADCC here in our audio interview with Nelson Monteiro.
World Professional Jiu-Jitsu
World Professional Jiu-Jitsu is a separate organization than the one
responsible for ADCC. World Professional Jiu-Jitsu’s benefactor is a
different member of the Emirate royal family Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed al
Nahyan.
World Professional Jiu-Jitsu has only been around two or three years.
Originally it began as a competition where you had to wear the gi, but
this year it has begun offering no-gi divisions as well.
One term you may have heard in the last couple of years is Abu Dhabi
Pro. What’s that you ask? Abu Dhabi Pro is a company ran by Fernando
Paradeda that is responsible for carrying out some of the World
Professional Jiu-Jitsu trials around the world. You can hear him discuss
the effort in an earlier conversation with us here on The FightWorks
Podcast earlier this year.
In Closing…
| ADCC | World Professional Jiu-Jitsu | |
| Geographic Origin | Abu Dhabi, UAE | Abu Dhabi, UAE |
| Patron | Sheik Tahnoon | Sheik Mohammed |
| Gi? No-gi? | Just No-gi | Gi and no-gi |
| Frequency | Every two years | Annually |
| Big Prize Money? | Yes | Yes |
| Rules Used | Special ADCC rules | IBJJF rules |
| Equal Prize Money / Opportunity for Women? | Significant room for improvement | Significant room for improvement |
| How Lucky Are We to Have the Sheik’s Patronage? |
Extremely | Extremely |
| Representative Audio Interview | #182 with Braulio Estima from October 2009 | #208 with Hillary Williams from April 2010 |
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