ABU DHABI // Jiu-jitsu’s biggest names have arrived in the capital aiming to win a portion of the US$200,000 (Dh734,600) prize money on offer as the two-day Grand Slam Abu Dhabi that gets underway at Ipic Arena on Friday.
Among the stars are the Brazilian men’s world No 1 Gabriel Arges and women’s world champion Mackenzie Dern of the United States. In all there are 1,564 entries, including 222 fighters with black belts.
Arges is enjoying a fruitful season, having won six gold medals, one silver and having amassed 840 ranking points.
A win here will earn him another 200 points and take him closer to the $25,000 grand prize.
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But Arges says his focus is on the title, not the paycheque.
“It’s not just about the money,” he told flograppling.com. “The accomplishment of being the best professional athlete of the year gives me a strong voice to fight for the professionalism of our sport.”
Arges has travelled extensively this year to amass those points.
He competed at the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s Grand Slam World Tour events in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro as well as the Las Vegas, Curitiba and Belem International Pro events and the Colombian Nationals.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “You can’t train as much when travelling every week. But the good side of it is you get a lot of tournament experience. It’s almost like the competition becomes my training.”
Arges’s closest challenger for the top spot is fellow Brazilian Jose Junior, the Abu Dhabi-based jiu-jitsu instructor who has enjoyed remarkable success in recent years. He is on 770 points and a win may see him leapfrog Arges to top spot.
“That is indeed my target,” Junior said. “Gabriel has participated in more competitions than me. In Abu Dhabi it’s not just about Gabriel as there are several challenging for the points.”
Friday’s action starts at 2pm, and will see No-Gi (without the traditional kimono) competitors in action. Gi fighters will take the stage on Saturday.
Abu Dhabi is the fourth stop of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation’s Grand Slam World Tour. London will host the fifth and final event on March 18.
Fahad Ali Al Shamsi, chief executive of the UAEJJF, said Abu Dhabi was added as a fourth venue this year because of the demand from Asian nations.
“The second reason is it provides more of our own players to compete at a top-level competition,” he said. “We usually select a squad of 15 to 25 to travel to the Grand Prix events overseas and here we have more than 450 taking part.”
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