ADCC SERBIA

The Club and the competition ADCC World Submission Fighting Championships were the idea and creation of a UAE national Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of then U.A.E. leader Sheik Zayed. who at the time was completing his advanced studies in USA. In 1993 after watching the first U.F.C. Sheik Tahnoon the became a fan of MMA. Shortly after that he started studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, California. Upon completing his studies, Sheik Tahnoon returned to the U.A.E. but his passion for Martial arts did not stop. Sheik Tahnoon set out to create and build his vision of implementing Martial Arts not only in his native U.A.E. but also creating a standard for which all ground fighting martial arts would be measured.

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To put his vision to reality Sheik Tahnoon developed and propelled a two fold plan; to implement the growth of Martial Arts in the U.A.E. Sheik Tahnoon created the ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club). Sheik Tahnoon converted an idle facility in Abu Dhabi into a Martial Arts Club. He began by hiring top instructors in various martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Wrestling, Sambo, Muay Thai etc. and giving them a World class facility to minister their classes and to train top professional fighters. Soon the ADCC became the top facility for learning and training MMA in the Arab World.


At the ADCC facilities World class instructors teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo, Boxing, Kickboxing, Judo, Wrestling and various other arts beneficial to MMA and No Rules Fighting.

The second part of Sheik Tahnoon’s plan was perhaps harder to accomplish but even more rewarding, as after the implementation of his plan, Sheik Tahnoon had not only created the best grappling tournament in the World, but in that process, he created a whole new fighting modality: Submission Fighting.

As he became more and more proficient in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Sheik Tahnoon saw flaws in the then philosophy of BJJ, particularly the fact that, at the time, the majority of practitioners ignored lower body submissions such as knee and foot locks. Sheik Tahnoon, however, is a man who followed his own ideas and soon embarked on a course that would create a whole new sport that has taken over the World.

Tahnoon proceeded to learn Russian Sambo, and his thirst for knowledge led him to other fighting styles like wrestling and Judo. While learning all these styles, Tahnoon often came across the same questions or statements by instructors of different styles: “My art is better than all others. If you know it, you can beat any other fighting style!” The problem at the time was that since every fighting style had its own set of rules, it was impossible to establish which one was the most effective.

With this idea in mind, Sheik Tahnoon created a new competition and a set of “neutral” rules that would allow practitioners of various martial arts to compete against each other and, without the brutality of strikes, prove to themselves and others that their style was the most effective “submission-fighting” style available. Thus, in 1998, the first Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Submission Fighting Championships was created. The rules of ADCC rewarded points that allowed all the submission-fighting styles an equal chance. Additionally, ADCC allowed most submission attacks (except for spinal attacks), thus unshackling the restrictions of each martial art style and creating a neutral ground where BJJ, Sambo, Judo, Wrestling, and any other fighting style could compete against each other. ADCC had 16 fighters in each of 5 weight divisions and the Absolute competing for the title. Additionally, the ADCC Tournament had a great benefit that was not found in any other submission-fighting competition at the time: a large monetary prize for the winners of each weight division. For the first time ever, fighters could compete and receive monetary prizes without having to submit to the dangers of strikes, thus creating a great venue for up-and-coming fighters to expose their skills and develop their game prior to competing in MMA.

The first edition of ADCC took place on March 20, 21 & 22, 1998, in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Despite its novelty and lack of publicity (because of the lack of specialized media at the time), the first ADCC tournament still attracted some of the best “submission-fighters” in the World at the time, while others, perhaps afraid of bias in the rules or worried about exposing themselves in a different format, remained home and awaited the end of the event to make their judgment, passing on the chance to compete in March 1998.

After the completion of the first event, with competitors returning home raving about the quality of the event and the equality of the rules, what followed was an explosion of interest in the next years. With each edition, more and more top fighters from the four corners of the World actively began training and preparing for ADCC. With the increased interest, a problem started to occur: there were too many entrants for the available 16 spots, thus forcing ADCC to create regional qualifying trials. Soon, Submission Fighting spread throughout the four corners of the World, and a new and exciting sport was created.

ADCC Champions and top competitors became highly sought commodities for MMA Events and soon became stars in shows like UFC in America and Pride and K1 in Japan. Names like Royler Gracie, Mark Kerr, Matt Hughes, Ricardo Arona, Tito Ortiz, Rodrigo “Minotauro”, Dean Lister, Ricco Rodrigues, Ricardo Arona, Matt Lindland, Tom Erickson, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, & Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, just to name a few, had or currently have successful careers in MMA.

The ever-expanding Submission Fighting, led by the huge success of ADCC, spawned amateur leagues around the World, and with each year, the number of competitors in these and other like events grew tremendously. The ADCC Championships is and has always been considered the pinnacle of the modality. The creation of one visionary, ADCC, has now become the beacon of a new generation and a new sport.