Estima, Werdum Lead Abu Dhabi Victories

Several of the more prominent grapplers in MMA competed in the 2009 Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Championships over the weekend in Barcelona, Spain. One, Strikeforce women’s titleholder Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, suffered an injury in her bout that may pull her off the promotion’s upcoming CBS event on Nov. 7.

Perhaps the most successful MMA name in the grappling tournament was Strikeforce heavyweight Fabricio Werdum, who took gold in the “over 99kg” category for the second consecutive time, defeating Saulo Ribeiro and Roberto Abreu.

Other fighters with MMA pedigrees who won medals include Alexandre Ribeiro, Andre Galvao, Vinny Magalhaes, Jeff Monson, Gregor Gracie and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. Santos suffered a shoulder injury in the competition, calling into question whether she can compete as planned against Marloes Coenen, out of the Golden Glory team in Holland, on Nov. 7.

While he has not fought MMA, the breakout star of the tournament was the Gracie Barra black belt Braulio Estima, who dropped jaws by submitting grappling legend Marcelo Garcia and defeating Galvao and Ribeiro to take the “absolute” and the “under 88kg” divisions.

The ADCC grapplers weren't the only fighters to successfully dabble outside of MMA this past week. Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem defeated K-1 legend Peter Aerts via decision in the latest round of the venerable kickboxing promotion’s grand prix tournament on Sept. 25, while unwieldy knockout artist Melvin Manhoef tested grand prix champion Remy Bonjansky in a close decision. The tournament finals will be held Dec. 5 in Yokohama, Japan.