The tenth installment of the prestigious ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship took place last weekend and it was one for the history books. It was dramatic, it was emotional, yet it was also marred by controversy and inconsistent officiating. 


Newcomers Steal The Limelight 



ADCC first-timers Yuri Simoes and Davi Ramos took home gold in the 88kg and 77kg divisions respectively, with both men showing an impressive wrestling ability on their way to victory. 

Simoes has been training wrestling six days a week and working with noted technician Caio Terra to sharpen his game for this tournament, and he s never looked better. Yuri blew through his early matches before dispatching of 2013 champ Romulo Barral with a 3-0 points win. Simoes shut down American phenom Keenan Cornelius in the finals, winning again by 3-0. After switching teams a number of times earlier in his career, Simoes has blossomed under the supervision of Terra and is the best he s ever looked. 


After a break from jiu-jitsu to focus on an MMA career, Davi Ramos found time after breaking his hand to focus once again on his first love and returned to grappling competition earlier this year. Ramos had the highlight of the weekend with the blink and you ll miss it armbar of Lucas Lepri in the finals, but was equally impressive in the earlier rounds. he scored three submissions in four of his matches, including a rear naked choke finish of Gilbert Burns, with his lone points victory a 3-0 win over Gariel Rollo. 


Mackenzie Dern is having the best year of her competitive career, and she s still only 22 years old. After winning the IBJJF World Championships and PanAms, the Abu Dhabi World Pro (weight and absolute), and the Five Grappling 8-woman invitational, she now adds the ADCC 60kg title to her resume. She s fully grown into her position as one of the best female black belts in the world, and she showed it once again by capturing waht is sure to be her first ADCC title of many.


Strategic Wrestling Proves Key to Victory at ADCC 



At ADCC the clue is in the name -- these are the Submission Wrestling World Championships, not the no-gi jiu-jitsu world championships. With penalty points for pulling guard, competitors are forced to fight for takedowns or lose points for dragging the match to the mat. This means we see much more stand-up wrestling in ADCC than other grappling tournaments -- though that s not always a good thing. 


It s no exaggeration to say that Rodolfo, Sanchez and Simoes wouldn t have won gold had it not been for their wrestling skills, while you could argue it was Joao Gabriel Rocha's lack of stand-up that cost him the Absolute title against Calasans. 


Felipe Pena's improved takedown game (both in attack and defense) helped him capture second place in a division above his normal weight, and Galvao's repeated single leg attacks (combined with his dynamic passing) gave him the edge over Cyborg. Rustam Chsiev is notorious for wrestling his way through submission grappling tournaments yet barely ever attacking for a finish. This year he did just that as he plodded to a third place spot in the 88kg category, and aside from a few tight front headlocks, we didn t see a submission attack from him all weekend. 


Perhaps the best example of how the rules favor wrestlers and penalize submission fighters was the legends superfight between veterans Mario Sperry and Ricardo Liborio. They easily stuffed each other s sluggish takedown attempts, and unable to take the fight to the floor without risking penalty points the crowd was forced to endure 20 minutes of two men with a combined age of almost a hundred pushing each other back and forth across the mat. 


Veterans Show Back to Basics Approach Still Rules 




Much was said in the run-up to this year s event about the unorthodox jiu-jitsu of grapplers such as Geo Martinez, Garry Tonon and Eddie Cummings. While impressive, all three fell short against those more experienced. 


Alliance stand-out Lucas Lepri shut down Tonon s vaunted leglock attacks, showing submissions skills don t work when you re getting smashed from top half guard. Augusto Tanquinho Mendes showed excellent base and defense against the innovative leg lock attacks of Eddie Cummings, and a solid no-nonsense approach against Eddie Bravo-trained Geo Martinez. Bruno Frazatto also managed to avoid the tricky set-ups of Martinez, outpointing the Mexican-American 3-0 for bronze. 

An Emotional Weekend for Joao Gabriel 

Joao Gabriel Rocha had a rough time this weekend -- the Rio native fought his friend and training partner Abraham Marte in the second round of the +99kg division, before losing via a controversial penalty point to Jared Dopp in the semi-finals. Returning for the absolute, Rocha was forced to confront another friend and training partner in Rodolfo Vieira. 

Both men were visibly emotional before and after the contest, and were at point warned that the officials did not consider them to be fighting hard enough. After this talking to, Rocha took it up a gear and scored 3 for a back take, ensuring his place in the final. The event was sure to have been an emotional rollercoaster for Rocha as he only returned to competition earlier this year after losing all of 2014 to a battle with cancer.

By Hywel Teague