What have the favorites been up to in the United Arab Emirates? What’s it like when luxury and Jiu-Jitsu converge in Abu Dhabi? Who’ll come out on top in the final? What was the training session between Gracie Barra and CheckMat athletes like in the lead-up to the Abu Dhabi WPJJC, a professional international championship into its fourth installment? As an old GRACIEMAG article described, Abu Dhabi is where the unbelievable happens, and here you don’t miss a beat.

Like our Facebook page and find out, direct from your computer or smartphone, all the latest and greatest from the land of the Zayed Al Nahyan family—in videos, photo galleries, behind-the-scenes info and much, much more.

If the internet connection in the gymnasium holds up, you’ll be able to keep up with all the results real time via our Twitter: @graciemag_br, in Portuguese, and @graciemag, in English.

At the end of the day, our special envoys will post a bulletin on GRACIEMAG.com to provide an update and analyze all the highlights from the championship that kicked off today and ends on Saturday. Enjoy it with us.

Faisal in action. Photo: Luca Atalla

The white and blue belt dispute served up heaps of excitement as well, on the final day of the World Pro in Abu Dhabi. Among the standouts was adoptive son of Sheikh Tahnoon, Faisal Al Kutbi.

In the over-78kg absolute, the local representative defeated all his opponents and overcame Tarek Mattar in the decider, by 4 to 2 with takedowns. The crowd went wild. Faisal also won at weight (93 kg), defeating Brazil’s Celson Frabetti.

In the under-78 kg absolute, Jonathan Tuck was on a roll, but lost in the final, dropping 2 to 0 against Mohammed Naser.

Matheus Luckmann was another who did great. The Alliance representative, who won last week’s Pan-American, won the under-68 kg division.

Check out all the results:

Over 78 kg Absolute

Faisal Al Kutbi (EAU)  defeated Tarek Mattar

Under-78kg Absolute

Jonathan Tuck (Guam) defeated Mohammed Naser (UAE)

Under -63kg

Tarek Al Kutbi (UAE) defeated Ahmed Gloum (UAE)

Under -68kg

Matheus Luckmann (Brazil) defeated Jacob Sandoval (USA)

Under -73kg
Final: Daniel Agard (United Kingdom) defeated Daniel Svensson (Sweden)

Under -78kg
Final: Khaled Abdul Kareem (Jordan) defeated Jonathan Tuck (Guam, USA)

Under -83kg
Final: Kit Dale (Australia) defeated Gustavo Silvestro (Brazil)

Under -88kg
Final: Krysztof Saganowski (Poland) defeated Majid Al Naqbi (UAE)

Under -93kg
Final: Faisal Al Kutbi (UAE)defeated Celson Frabetti (Brazil)

Under -98kg
Final: Yahya Mansoor (UAE)defeated Marcelo Tarso (Brazil)

Over-98kg
Final: Hideki Sekine (Japan)defeated Willie Leonard (USA)

Anderson and Demian in staredown. Photo: Josh Hedges

All you had to do was open the local Abu Dhabi newspaper to notice how today is truly a special Saturday for the Arab Emirates.

In the sports section, a giant photo of Anderson Silva. In yesterday’s paper, a photo of Wanderlei Silva, as a reminder of how the UFC is becoming international. “Within three months we’ll hold a UFC in Afghanistan for the troops,” Dana White would say in an article in Abu Dhabi’s The National. “It will be a lot of work, there will be a lot of concern with security, but we’re going to do it. The folks will go by helicopter, we’re seeing to it,” added Dana in the article. The UFC president also went on to explain the next step for the show in the Emirates: a reality show to reveal the local MMA champion.

The article goes on to remind of how the toughest guys in UFC 112 had other professions before the career of fighter: there’s a butcher, a wood chopper, a suit… “I worked in McDonald’s,” remembers Anderson Silva, who would go on to face Demian Maia in the main event of the first UFC to be held in open air.

In the hotel lobby, there was a lot of fan action, mainly from the Americans present. Georges Saint-Pierre spoke politely with everyone, taking photos. Renzo was another to draw a lot of attention yesterday, when he weighed in wearing a Machester City jersey. A present from the Sheikhs? No, I bought it at the shop upstairs,” revealed Gracie.

Yesterday Renzo had dinner with Sheikh Tahnoon, Dana White and the Fertitta brothers in the palace. As an appetizer, a long no-gi training session with the Sheikh and ADCC 2009 champion Braulio Estima, who showed up at a lean 80 kg, which he will carry starting now, for his MMA career.

The temperature is incredibly pleasant; perfect for the spectacle. Among those present in the area were Ricardo Cachorrão, Roberto Gordo, André Galvão, Joinha Guimarães, Ramon Lemos, Pat Cooligan, Sérgio Ignácio, announcer Bruce Buffer, doctor and black belt Zé Alfredo Padilha and the untiring Paulinha Saack, of Brazil’s Combat channel.

For more than ten years GRACIEMAG has been following Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed’s passion for Jiu-Jitsu.

His passion for the gentle art is so intense that it bore gigantic fruits like the ADCC and infected his brother, Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamad Bin Zayed – the one to provide the greatest incentive for Jiu-Jitsu projects in schools in the Emirates and professionalization of the sport through the Abu Dhabi Pro tournament.

Over the past ten years Tahnoon has provided his adoptive sons, then just kids  who are now grown up in the army, with an intense training routine. These youths have conquered several medals in important tournaments from Japan to the USA. But, there was still one challenge left for the boys.

And it was on the evening of Saturday, the 28th, in Holland, at the Showtime MMA Gala event, that Hassan Alrumaithi, one of those adoptive sons of Tahnoon’s, needed exactly 28 seconds to sink a triangle on Dennis de Jong, Melvin Manhoef’s training partner, and prove that Tahnoon presented his country with the most effective fighting  style invented by man.

Hassan is coached by Brazilian teachers on Emirates Team Alex Negao and Maiki Reiter.

(By: Mohamad Jehad – Emirates Team)