It is Saturday afternoon in the United Arab Emirates and the noisy Jordan fans screams leave no doubt as to who has just arrived to the famous Abu Dhabi Combat Club, in the county’s capital city. Outside the temperature reaches 107 degrees Fahrenheit but inside the gymnasium the air conditioned makes it perfect for the athletes from 38 different countries.
Young Sadam Abdullah, a tough Jordanian military, opens the last day of competitions of the 2008 Abu Dhabi International Jiu-Jitsu Cup with a exciting victory over Vietnamese Tho Hoang, in the blue belt 62kg semifinal. After standing up to defend a triangle choke applied by the master division Pan-American champion, Zaid Mirza, Pedro Galiza and Jonatas “Tagarela” Gurgel’s student passes the guard in the final seconds and wins 3-2. “These Arab guys really fight like crazies. They are very strong,” recognizes Hoang, who lives in the USA and came through London just for Carlao Santos’ tournament.
The Venue
Leader of the Emirates Team and GMA member in the country, Carlao was able to witness the good work done by professors Olavo Abreu, Suyan Queiroz, Sid Jacintho, Ricardinho Brandao e Marcello “Guardinha”, who brought the team to seven gold medals, despite the tough dispute with Jordan and Bahrein. Among the gold medalists it was Olympic medalist (Sydney-2000) Hassen Moussa, one among many foreigners that adopted the UAE, a country that rimes with opportunity nowadays in the middle-east. Especially in Jiu-Jitsu.
Arab dispute
“The foundation work is being really well done here and now we fell it is time to open for the black belts to participate. They are fighting for a total amount of US$ 37,000 in prizes. That is exactly what we are going to do in the next Emirates Asian JJ Super Cup, on December 12th -13th. We are even going to have a qualifier in Porto Alegre, Brazil, just for Brazilians,” invites Carlao, the boss of Jiu-Jitsu in the UAE.
Working the mats
Prior to the arrival of the black belts, it was party time for blue, purple and brown belts. Brazilian Luizinho Fernandes made note by conquering the purple/brown belt absolute category by defeating Faisal Al Kutbi, Sheik Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan adoptive son. The son of ADCC’s founder came out of the fight very satisfied, once he was the first fighter out of 21 in the UAE that avoided being submitted by Fernandes, 2006 purple belt world champion. Besides the prize, Jordan Team’s champion drew applauses from the event’s patron, young Sheik Zayed Bin Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Carlao (on top) and the champions
* Marcelo Dunlop travelled to the UAE on the event’s invitation.
RESULTS:
White & blue belts: - 62 KG 1- SADAM ABDULLAH -JORDAN 2- AHMAD GHULOUM -UAE 3- ANAS FARHAN -JORDAN 3- THO HOANG -USA
-67 KG 1- SEIF ALNUEMI -UAE 2- TALEB SALEH -UAE 3- MAHMOOD HUSSAIN -JORDAN 3- MOHAMMAD RASMI -JORDAN
-72 KG 1- SAAD ALANANZA -JORDAN 2- ALI AHMAD ALMENHALI -UAE 3- WAHAB WAHEED -BAHRAIN 3- MOHAMMAD ART -KUWAIT
- 77 KG 1- MOHAMMAD MIRZA -BAHRAIN 2- EBRAHIM KAMEEL -UAE 3- ADNAN MOIDATIR -MOROCO 3- MAJID ALNAKABI -UAE
- 82 KG 1- KHALIFA ALKUBAISI -UAE 2- JARETT MATHEW -USA 3- ROB DELONGE -BAHRAIN 3- SAEED HASSUNI -UAE
- 87 KG 1- ABDULLAH ALKUTBI -UAE 2- LEFI VALI -ROMENIA 3- KHALEFA ALKAABI -UAE 3- SUHEL SAID -UAE
- 93 KG 1- JARO FEDORISIN -SLOVAQIA 2- MOHAMMAD RASHID -UAE 3- AHMAD HATAMLEH -JORDAN 3- ABDULLAH RASHID -UAE
- 99 KG 1- MOHAMMAD ALMENHALI -UAE 2- BADER ALSENANI -UAE 3- ROB OHR -KOREIA 3- MICHAEL CHATEFIELD -UK
+ 99 KG 1- EID REHAN -UAE 2- TALAL AWAD -UAE 3- FERAS AJRAMI -JORDAN 3- MOHAMMAD AHMAD -UAE
