The ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship is an international submission grappling competition, organised by the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC). ADCC is considered one of the most prestigious No-Gi submission grappling tournaments in the world, and is commonly referred to as The Olympics of Grappling.
The inaugural tournament was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 1998. Held every two years, host countries have included Brazil, China, Finland, Spain, the UK, and the US. Competitors can earn a spot by winning ADCC trials or by invitation.
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. As a young man, the future Sheikh was studying in the United States when he watched UFC 1 and saw Royce Gracie win the tournament using Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Inspired by him, Al Nahyan learned the martial art.
In 1997, Sheik Al Nahyan together with Nelson Monteiro promoted the Pentagon Combat, a Vale Tudo event in Rio de Janeiro. The event was intended to serve as the innaugural event to a Brazilian counterpart to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters would test their skills against practitioners of other martial arts in full-contact combat. The main event featured Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Renzo Gracie against Luta Livre fighter Eugênio Tadeu, and was seen as another chapter in the longstanding rivalry between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Luta Livre. The bout ended in a no contest after an altercation between the fighters' supporters escalated into a full riot, bringing the event to an abrupt end. The incident contributed to the banning of Vale Tudo events in Rio de Janeiro and led Sheik Al Nahyan to reconsider the format of his planned combat sports competition. Rather than continuing with Vale Tudo, he and Monteiro developed the idea of what was essentially a "UFC without punches": a competition in which practitioners of different grappling and submission arts could face one another under a common set of rules, but without strikes. In keeping with the original concept of the UFC, which had pitted practitioners of different martial arts against one another, the new competition would bring together athletes from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Luta Livre, wrestling, judo, sambo, catch-as-catch-can, and other grappling disciplines to determine which styles were most effective in submission fighting.
This concept became the Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Fighting World Championship, with the inaugural event held in Abu Dhabi in March 1998.
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 (sambo, judo and MMA), Japanese Sanae Kikuta (judo/catch wrestling), and South African Mark Robinson (judo, freestyle, Greco-Roman, and sumo wrestling), along with silver and bronze medalists such as Caol Uno (Shooto/catch wrestling), Mach Sakurai (catch 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. The 2022 edition took place in front of 13,000 fans in attendance at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
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. In 2024 it was held 17-18 August at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
ADCC world championships
List of ADCC Champions in Men's Submission Fighting by Year and Weight Year Host 66 kg 77 kg 88 kg 99 kg +99 kg Absolute 1998 Abu Dhabi Alexander Freitas (1/1) Renzo Gracie (1/2) Rodrigo Gracie (1/1) Mario Sperry (1/2) Ricco Rodriguez (1/1) Mario Sperry (2/2) 1999 Abu Dhabi Royler Gracie (1/3) Jean Jacques Machado (1/1) Karimula Barkalaev (1/1) Jeff Monson (1/2) Mark Kerr (1/3) Roberto Traven (1/1) 2000 Abu Dhabi Royler Gracie (2/3) Renzo Gracie (2/2) Saulo Ribeiro (1/2) Ricardo Arona (1/3) Mark Kerr (2/3) Mark Kerr (3/3) 2001 Abu Dhabi Royler Gracie (3/3) Marcio Feitosa (1/1) Sanae Kikuta (1/1) Ricardo Arona (2/3) Mark Robinson (1/1) Ricardo Arona (3/3) 2003 São Paulo Leo Vieira (1/2) Marcelo Garcia (1/4) Saulo Ribeiro (2/2) Jon Olav Einemo (1/1) Márcio Cruz (1/1) Dean Lister (1/2) 2005 Long Beach Leo Vieira (2/2) Marcelo Garcia (2/4) Ronaldo Souza (1/1) Roger Gracie (1/2) Jeff Monson (2/2) Roger Gracie (2/2) 2007 Trenton Rani Yahya (1/1) Marcelo Garcia (3/4) Demian Maia (1/1) Alexandre Ribeiro (1/2) Fabrício Werdum (1/2) Robert Drysdale (1/1) 2009 Barcelona Rafael Mendes (1/2) Pablo Popovitch (1/1) Braulio Estima (1/2) Alexandre Ribeiro (2/2) Fabrício Werdum (2/2) Braulio Estima (2/2) 2011 Nottingham Rafael Mendes (2/2) Marcelo Garcia (4/4) André Galvão (1/2) Dean Lister (2/2) Vinny Magalhães (1/1) André Galvão (2/2) 2013 Beijing Rubens Charles (1/3) Kron Gracie (1/1) Romulo Barral (1/1) João Assis (1/1) Marcus Almeida (1/2) Roberto Abreu (1/1) 2015 São Paulo Rubens Charles (2/3) Davi Ramos (1/1) Yuri Simões (1/3) Rodolfo Vieira (1/1) Orlando Sanchez (1/1) Claudio Calasans (1/1) 2017 Espoo Rubens Charles (3/3) Jonathan Torres (1/2) Gordon Ryan (1/4) Yuri Simões (2/3) Marcus Almeida (2/2) Felipe Pena (1/3) 2019 Anaheim Augusto Mendes (1/1) Jonathan Torres (2/2) Matheus Diniz (1/1) Gordon Ryan (2/4) Kaynan Duarte (1/2) Gordon Ryan (3/4) 2022 Las Vegas Diogo Reis (1/2) Kade Ruotolo (1/1) Giancarlo Bodoni (1/2) Kaynan Duarte (2/2) Gordon Ryan (4/4) Yuri Simões (3/3) 2024 Las Vegas Diogo Reis (2/2) Micael Galvão (1/1) Giancarlo Bodoni (2/2) Kaynan Duarte (3/4) Felipe Pena (2/3) Kaynan Duarte (4/4) 2026 Krakow Kennedy Maciel (1/1) Magomed Dzharbaev (1/1) Pawel Jaworski (1/1) Luke Griffith (1/1) Victor Hugo (1/1) Felipe Pena (3/3)
List of ADCC Champions in Women's Submission Fighting by Year and Weight 2005 Year Host –60 kg +60 kg Absolute 2005 Kyra Gracie (1/3) Juliana Borges (1/2) Juliana Borges (2/2)
2007 Year Host –55 kg –60 kg –67 kg +67 kg Absolute 2007 Sayaka Shioda (1/1) Kyra Gracie (2/3) Hannette Staack (1/3) Penny Thomas (1/1) Hannette Staack (2/3)
2009–2022 Year Host –60 kg +60 kg 2009 Luanna Alzuguir (1/1) Hannette Staack (3/3) 2011 Kyra Gracie (3/3) Gabi Garcia (1/4) 2013 Michelle Nicolini (1/1) Gabi Garcia (2/4) 2015 Mackenzie Dern (1/1) Ana Laura Cordeiro (1/1) 2017 Beatriz Mesquita (1/1) Gabi Garcia (3/4) 2019 Bianca Basílio (1/1) Gabi Garcia (4/4) 2022 Ffion Davies (1/1) Amy Campo (1/1)
2024 Year Host –55 kg –65 kg +65 kg Absolute 2024 Adele Fornarino (1/2) Ana Carolina Vieira (1/2) Rafaela Guedes (1/1) Adele Fornarino (2/2)
2026 Year Host –55 kg -65 kg +65 kg 2026 Jasmine Rocha (1/1) Ana Carolina Vieira (2/2) Helena Crevar (1/1)
List of ADCC Superfight Champions Year Host Winner Loser 1999 Mario Sperry (1/2) Enson Inoue 2000 Mario Sperry (2/2) Roberto Traven 2001 Mark Kerr (1/1) Mario Sperry 2003 Ricardo Arona (1/1) Mark Kerr 2005 Dean Lister (1/1) Jean Jacques Machado 2007 Roger Gracie (1/1) Jon Olav Einemo 2009 Ronaldo Souza (1/1) Robert Drysdale 2011 Braulio Estima (1/1) Ronaldo Souza 2013 André Galvão (1/4) Braulio Estima 2015 André Galvão (2/4) Roberto Abreu 2017 André Galvão (3/4) Claudio Calasans 2019 André Galvão (4/4) Felipe Pena 2022 Gordon Ryan (1/3) André Galvão 2024 Gordon Ryan (2/3) Felipe Pena 2024 Gordon Ryan (3/3) Yuri Simões 2026 Yuri Simões (1/1) Kaynan Duarte
List of winners by total titles Rank Wrestler Total Absolute Weight Class Super Fight Winning years1 Gordon Ryan71332017, 2019, 2022, 20242 André Galvão61142011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 20193 Marcelo Garcia40402003, 2005, 2007, 2011 Kaynan Duarte41302019, 2022, 2024 Mário Sperry41121998, 1999, 2000 Gabi Garcia40402011, 2013, 2017, 2019 Mark Kerr41211999, 2000, 2001 Ricardo Arona41212000, 2001, 2003 Yuri Simões41212015, 2017, 2022, 202610 Hannette Staack31202007, 2009 Royler Gracie30301999, 2000, 2001 Kyra Gracie30302005, 2007, 2011 Rubens Charles30302013, 2015, 2017 Roger Gracie31112005, 2007 Braulio Estima31112009, 2011 Dean Lister31112003, 2005, 2011 Felipe Pena31202017, 2024, 202618 Renzo Gracie20201998, 2000 Juliana Borges21102005 Saulo Ribeiro20202000, 2003 Leo Vieira20202003, 2005 Jeff Monson20201999, 2005 Alexandre Ribeiro20202007, 2009 Fabrício Werdum20202007, 2009 Rafael Mendes20202009, 2011 Marcus Almeida20202013, 2017 Diogo Reis20202022, 2024 Jonathan Torres20202017, 2019 Giancarlo Bodoni20202022, 2024 Ronaldo Souza20112005, 2009 Adele Fornarino21102024 Ana Carolina Vieira20202024, 202633 Roberto Traven11001998 Robert Drysdale11002007 Roberto Abreu11002013 Claudio Calasans11002015 Alexander Freitas10101998 Rodrigo Gracie10101998 Ricco Rodriguez10101998 Jean Jacques Machado10101999 Karimula Barkalaev10101999 Marcio Feitosa10102001 Sanae Kikuta10102001 Mark Robinson10102001 Jon Olav Einemo10102003 Márcio Cruz10102003 Sayaka Shioda10102007 Penny Thomas10102007 Rani Yahya10102007 Demian Maia10102007 Luanna Alzuguir10102009 Pablo Popovitch10102009 Vinny Magalhães10102011 Michelle Nicolini10102013 Kron Gracie10102013 Romulo Barral10102013 João Assis10102013 Mackenzie Dern10102015 Ana Laura Cordeiro10102015 Davi Ramos10102015 Rodolfo Vieira10102015 Orlando Sanchez10102015 Beatriz Mesquita10102017 Bianca Basílio10102019 Augusto Mendes10102019 Matheus Diniz10102019 Kade Ruotolo10102022 Ffion Davies10102022 Amy Campo10102022 Micael Galvão10102024 Rafaela Guedes10102024 Kennedy Maciel10102026 Magomed Dzharbaev10102026 Pawel Jaworski10102026 Luke Griffith10102026 Victor Hugo10102026 Jasmine Rocha10102026 Helena Crevar10102026
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 Yuri Simões