Hey guys. This is my first post working with profighting-fans, so I figured I'd link it up. It's also a pretty massive preview (it's really hard to keep an Abu Dhabi preview under 1500 words, but I pulled it off with this one.
Anyway, enjoy:
Quote:
Originally Posted by IronMan @ Profighting-fans.com
Spain will act as a backdrop this year for the worlds greatest biennial grappling competition. The no-gi invitational Abu Dhabi Combat Club has long been considered the world’s greatest test of grappling prowess and features a showcase of many of the worlds top Brazilian Jiu-Jistu, wrestling and MMA practitioners stepping onto the mat to test their skills in pure-grappling. While many of the biggest names in grappling are set to appear, there are a few warriors who names will be more familiar to fans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and MMA in general, as well as unknown warriors, legends and rising stars in the worlds of both full contact fighting and pure position-then-submission combat.
Men’s -65.9kg Division
In MMA and grappling, the small guys often prove to be the most exciting, and the smallest division at ADCC this year will certainly be among the most volatile and feature some of the most exciting competitors. A familiar name to fans of the WEC, Rickson Gracie blackbelt Rani Yahya will certainly be one of the favorites in the division. The returning ADCC champion Yahya has a phenomenal ground game and will be considered a leading threat in a division populated with many young American and Brazilian up-and-comers like Ryan Hall (who’s triangle choke has been as regular as a sunset in many of his matches), 2X All-American wrestler Jayson Patino and master of the guard game Jeff Glover.
Yahya is hardly the prohibitive favorite in the division, as he will have get past two time ADCC champion (and 2007 runner up) Leo Viera, who was ranked the third greatest grappler of all time by Gracie Magazine, long time ADCC staple Baret Yoshida and six time (four in gi, two no gi) world champion Rubens Charles Maciel (who goes, casually, by “Cobrinha”).
Probably Podium: 1st Rani Yahya ; 2nd Leo Viera ; 3rd Cobrinha/Ryan Hall
Great job on this Iron Man. I have followed this site for months now and they do a great job of adding fantastic content and your addition on the grappling just adds to it. Nice work.
Great job on this Iron Man. I have followed this site for months now and they do a great job of adding fantastic content and your addition on the grappling just adds to it. Nice work.
For sure. I'll have a post Abu Dhabi writeup (which I'll be sure to post here) and a look at the 2009-2010 NCAA wrestling season (just DI).
By the way, Ben Askren, who's a 4 time All-American and 2 time NCAA champ, as well as 3-0 in MMA, will be on the roster. Still, he's going to get smashed, but it should be interesting.
Ben Askren will be outclassed by thats an interesting story line, and this tournament is so stacked, I am hoping there is some way for me to watch all the matches. Watching Marcelo is always a treat and Ryan Hall is fun to watch too, should be interesting to see how he does. Is he a blackbelt yet?
Yo Ironman I can't click your link or pretty much anything here at work. But I'm currently in Dubai for the next couple of months, Abu Dhabi is an emirate near by, like 30 mins drive from me. I would literally sell my left arm to go, however I'm unsure as I don't know much about it.
Is it actually hosted in Abu Dhabi?
What are the prices like?
Are there even tickets for regular fans just to watch?
Thanks.
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I probably was being sarcastic in the above post. I think you should flame me for it.
ADCC 2009: Barcelona Preview
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