This past weekend in Barcelona, Spain; Alliance and Atlanta’s own 4 x Black Belt and current 2009 Jiu Jitsu World Champion, Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, competed in the prestigious 2009 Abu Dhabi World Championship.

The ADCC  World Championship is a competition involving professional athletes who have been successful at the highest levels of Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Judo, Sambo, Shooto and Mixed Martial Arts around the world and are personally invited by the Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the former UAE president Sheikh Zayed bin Sulton Al Nahyan to compete. The rules of the event disallow strikes while promoting grappling and submissions.

The first edition took place on March 20, 21 & 22, 1998 in Abu Dhabi U.A.E, but since then it is held in different parts of the world every year. The prize money for the tournament ranges from $40,000 for the first place Absolute and super fight winners to $10,000 for weight division domination, best match, best take down and best submission.

Cobrinha competed in the under 66 kg division with names like Ryan Hall, WEC vets Jeff Curran and Rani Yahya,  Leo Vieira, Baret Yoshida and Jeff Glover to name but a few.

In his first match he faced off with Horishi Nakamura winning via armbar which placed him in the quarterfinals against Joel Tudor to which he also defeated. That win set up an interesting semi final of two champions, Cobrinha vs Rani Yahya.

Rani Yaya is the 2007 ADCC World Champion and also currently fights in the WEC.

Cobrinha, who is also the instructor at Alliance Atlanta and the current 4x and 2009 Mundial Champion, ended up tapping the former 2007 champion Yahya. The win placed him in the finals with the only person to beat him in 2009, Rafael Mendes!

In probably the highest display of Jiu Jitsu ever witnessed, these two put on a war for the fans. With a display of incredible takedowns, heel hooks, d’arce chokes and sweeps, the scores remained tied at 4-4  in the extremely fast paced first 10 minute period. In overtime Mendes managed to pull guard and was eventually able to sweep and take Cobrinha’s back with time running out before he could work for the submission. But not before he earned the 2009 ADCC World Championship Title.

GeorgiaFighters.com would like to congratulate Cobrinha for such a hard fought tournamnet and we and the fans hope to see him again fight for the ADCC title next year.