MAY 19, 2024, PARIS, FRANCE, yesterday we saw another solid night of entertainment by the Abu Dhabi Extreme Championship (ADXC), a professional submission grappling promotion, partner of the famous AJP federation. Although only in its 4th edition, ADXC has brought its high-level jiu-jitsu across the globe, this being its first venture into Europe.
The event featured many big names in jiu-jitsu as well as two stars of the MMA world, who competed under ADXC’s grappling rules, namely Benoît “God of War” Saint-Denis and Marc Diakiese, who faced each other in the main event of the evening. Traditionally, MMA crossovers into the grappling world have made for cruder matches than those between jiu-jitsu specialists, but that was not the case at ADXC 4. Saint-Denis and Marc Diakiese put on a really fun show for the fans, displaying great takedowns and aggressive submission attempts throughout the 25 minutes of the match. The match saw the Parisien, Saint-Denis have the best submission attempts and dominant positions of the match, which ended with a judge’s decision in his favor.
Despite there being many international stars on the card, it was the, arguably, lesser-known Florian Bayili and Youness Bennouali who won the Match Of The Night Award. French brown belt Youness Bennouali may still be slightly annonymous on the international circuit but keep him in your sights in future events. This young man looked tremendous against tried and tested black belt Bayili using incredible takedown ability and athletic jiu-jitsu to overcome Belgium’s Florian. This was a tight match overall, but one where Bennouali would receive the nod of the judges thanks to the outstanding pace, risk-taking ability, and dominant/beautiful takedowns.
The Grappling Co-Main Event brought another victory for Essential Jiu-Jitsu team representative Ffion Davies. The Welsh grappler started the match with a different strategy, pulling guard on Mo Black, sweeping her, and going on to put the pressure on the American, passing her guard and finishing the ADCC Trials winner via armbar in the second round.
In the Gi (Jiu-Jitsu) Main Event, Espen Mathiesen made it look easy in his second ADXC Match. Mathiesen dominated France’s Leon Larman early, using his deadly berimbolo skills to find the back and finish the match. Below are the results of the night.
Main Event
– Benoit Saint-Denis defeated Marc Diakiese via unanimous decision
– Espen Mathiesen defeated Leon Larman via collar choke (R1 2:03)
Co-Main Event
– Ffion Davies defeated Morgan Black via armbar (R1 1:26)
– Khaled Al Shehhi defeated Leonardo Mario via split decision
Main Card
– Abdul-Kareem Al Sewady defeated Amin Youb via unanimous decision
– Cassio Silva defeated Marko Oikarainen via unanimous decision
– Nathiely de Jesus defeated Elizabeth Mitrovic via unanimous decision
– Nia Blackman defeated Magdalena Loska via split decision
– Steven Ray defeated Ibrahima Mane via guillotine (R3 2:05)
Preliminary Card
– Youness Bennouali defeated Florian Bayili via split decision
– Geo Martinez defeated Nicolas Renier via heel hook (R1 0:27)
– Kalim Mastouri defeated Luca Anacoreta via unanimous decision
– Kasper Larsen defeated Alexander Alexandrov via rear naked choke (R3 1:54)
– Shamma Al Kalbani defeated Lina Grosset via split decision
