■ Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Grand Slam: Tournament starts Friday at 2pm, doors open at noon; Saturday at 11am, doors open at 9am | More information
RIO DE JANEIRO // It is almost three years since the Ultimate Fighting Championship last muscled its way on to the UAE sporting calendar, but according to former interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira, the next generation of UFC greats will potentially be on show in the UAE capital this weekend at the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Grand Slam.
Nogueira, the Brazilian who headlined UFC Fight Night 39 at the Du Arena in April 2014, not only believes the sport’s next batch of champions will come from a jiu-jitsu background, but also that any number of the 1,564 international practitioners competing in the two-day event at Zayed Sports City are equipped with enough skills to make man-of-the-moment Conor McGregor tap-out.
“McGregor’s the best boxer in the UFC — a great striker — but take him to the ground and he’s done,” Nogueira, who won 46 fights throughout his 16-year mixed martial arts career, said of the reigning Lightweight and former Featherweight champion. “Nate Diaz made him submit, so if a guy like Diaz submitted him easy, a lot of the guys doing jiu-jitsu on the Abu Dhabi World Tour could beat him on the ground. That’s what I think.”
More than 220 jiu-jitsu black belts will compete at the IPIC Arena in what is the penultimate leg of a five-round championship organised by the UAE Jiu Jitsu Federation (UAEJJF). It is scheduled to climax in London on March 18.
Organisers say 54 nationalities have registered to take part this weekend, with the hosts — as is custom — boasting the most athletes at 459. More than 150 Brazilians and almost 60 Colombians have also travelled to the Gulf to compete for a share of the $100,000 prize fund (Dh367,300).
"It's a great chance for the sport to become more popular and the prize money ensures the best of the best compete," Nogueira told The National. "A lot of these guys live for jiu-jitsu, have personal coaches and dedicate their lives to the sport, yet usually all they get is a medal. That's not fair and Abu Dhabi understand that."
The Abu Dhabi World Tour is fast becoming one of the sport’s premier competitions and this weekend is its flagship event. With rare financial rewards as well as professional organisation and a world-class field, the UAEJJF and Abu Dhabi having been catching people’s attention globally.
“The last leg in Rio was a great show — one of the biggest jiu jitsu events in the world — and Los Angeles and Tokyo were major events, too. But Abu Dhabi is the biggest — it’s the mother,” Nogueira said. “I’ve been following what’s going on there closely over the past two years and the people at the UAEJJF are very smart. They can see potential before others see it. They want to get jiu-jitsu into the Olympics and already we can see they are on the right path.”
This weekend provides an opportunity for practitioners to catch the eye, and Nogueira says he is ready to direct the best towards UFC. Having helped the likes of Demian Maia and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza reach the pinnacle of MMA, he is confident there is plenty more talent in the jiu-jitsu world capable of making the crossover.
“We have to get more people from jiu-jitsu into the UFC; that’s what I am looking for — our guys fighting in UFC,” said Nogueira, who is now vice-president of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation. “The UFC does not do too much grappling because they use Vaseline, so you have to be a very good grappler to succeed. Even a midlevel grappler cannot do it in UFC. That’s where the jiu-jitsu helps. The level that these guys on Tour are competing, they could hold their own in UFC, for sure.”
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