In an exclusive interview with Ag. Fight, Mo Jassim, the organizer of the ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) World Championship, shared exciting details about the upcoming 2024 event, highlighting new developments and key athletes to watch.
Venue and Audience Growth
The ADCC 2024 will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a venue that Jassim considers “one of the nicest stadiums.” He emphasized the importance of attracting a broader audience beyond just Jiu-Jitsu fans. “If we want to grow grappling, we have to pull people from outside the sport,” Jassim noted. The event sold 6,400 tickets within 30 minutes of going live, with an expectation of a full house of 14,000 attendees.
Changes in Competition Format
To enhance the competition, Jassim mentioned several changes, including larger mats to prevent fighters from going out of bounds and a faster-paced event. “Bronze place matches will be on three mats, and we’ll use three mats in the absolute division as well,” he detailed. This year will see 105 competitors, with the addition of a women’s absolute division.
Meanwhile, Craig Jones has sent shock waves throughout the Jiu-Jitsu world, by officially announcing his Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) tournament for the same date as ADCC 2024.
The tournament itself is going to have a $2 million cash prize spread out throughout two divisions, and some athletes such as Ffion Davies, Mason Fowler, Nick Rodriguez, Takett bros, Jozef Chen and Luke Rockhold have already made the switch from ADCC to CJI.
When asked about potential withdrawals, including notable names like Craig Jones, Jassim remained unfazed.
Interviewer:
“I just saw like a few days ago, Ffion Davies is not competing in ADCC this year. It looks like other names, at least so far that I saw, Ffion Davies is the most, the biggest name, let’s say, but other names are not competing in ADCC this tournament with Craig Jones’ invitation. How does it work for you? How many names do you think ADCC is going to lose because of that?”
Jassim:
“I mean, we’ll see. At the end of the day, ADCC is voluntary. We don’t do contracts. So if someone wants to leave, that’s okay. My only thing is just let me know so I have time to get a replacement. But you know, I remember in 2019, I believe we had 19 pullouts due to injuries and stuff like that. So it’s nothing new to me. You know, we’re going to be fine. All the tickets have been sold and they’re taking a much different approach. And like we were discussing, my thing is I want to blow this up to pull people from outside the sport. But you know, if Craig’s bringing in big money and getting some athletes paid and it’s good for the sport, why not? But like I said, we’ve always, we’re used to having athletes pull out and you know, we’ll manage. There’s a lot of people who want to be in ADCC, let’s just say that.”
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.
