SFist Goes South For The Abu Dhabi
This past weekend we made our way down to Long Beach for the Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships. A competition between the best submission wrestlers, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practioners, and Judo players in the world, the combatants win by submission, points or referee decision. Drawing a diverse crowd, we found ourselves thisclose to BJJ fan and studentJoe Rogan, and we hear Julia Roberts fan and student Jason Patric was also in the audience.
Being the SFist that we are, our attention was focused on Bay Area-based fighters Jake Shields and Gibert Melendez both of whom represented the Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu Acadamy in Pleasant Hill. Jake Shields is a "no holds barred" fighting champion and winner of multiple jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling tounaments at a national level. Shields took on Cameron Earle, a black belt under Ralph Gracie, who has schools in San Francisco and Mountain View.
Naked choke and hyper extension after the jump!
Photos of Shields and Earle from NHBfights.com
SFist Tim, contributing
The start of the match had Earle jumping to a bottom position and going to a shoulder lock and quickly transitioning to place Shields in a straight armlock. It was "cinched in" deep and there seemed to be no escape, so Earle cranked the armlock and hyperextended Jake's elbow.
In this position one generally "taps out" and to submit. But wait, Shields isn't tapping. Instead Sheids pulls out his hyper extended arm and starts to attack Earle! Now from a standing position Shields shoots in for a double leg takedown. Shields then jumps on Earle's back and started attacking his neck. Time expires and Shields wins on points for the upset. Shields would later lose to Pablo Popovich, but win a great back-and-forth nonstop action battle against The Ultimate Fighter reality show winner Diego Sanchez for 3rd place.
Gibert Melendez, who received a last-minute invitation to compete in this year's competition, won his first bout against ADCC veteran Berat Yoshida via takedown. Not bad for a guy who had less than a week to prepare against one of the world's best. Melendez would later succumb to "Spider" DiCenso on points.
Marcello Garcia, what can you NOT say about this guy? He was one of the smaller people in his weight division (66-76 kilograms) and he just kept hunting them. With his match against former UFC heavyweight Champ Ricco Rodriguez, who had to outweigh him by at least a hundred pounds, it was even more impressive that he finished him via anklelock in the Absolute division.
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza was also impressive with his No-Gi Judo takedowns. His agressive submission style was fun to watch and he took the 77-87 KG division. Roger Gracie, world champion and the next generation of fighters from the famous Gracie family, was sort of slow starting and was even behind on points several times. But going 8-0, with 8 submissions, winning both his weight class and the absolute division, then beating Jacare via rear naked choke (while Jacare is standing!) in the finals was the most impressive feat we've seen in this sport to date.