This August, the most prestigious no-gi submission grappling tournament will take place, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championships. Known in shorthand has the “ADCCs”, it is a professional grappling tournament held every two years that attracts the top grappling talent from all across the world. The rule set is extremely open in terms of submissions and positions allowed, the scoring system designed to increase aggressive takedowns and an attacking style on the ground. The event features a tournament and then one-off super fights between major ADCC champions.
Some of the athletes – specifically former ADCC champions, other major grappling champions, and well known MMA fighters, are invited to come compete at the ADCCs, while others go through regional qualifiers. This series will seek to profile some of the major players at the 2015 ADCCs.
Michelle Nicolini
Who is this lady?
Arguably the best female competitor in the Jiu Jitsu world right now and has accomplishments that stack with any of her male counterparts. Michelle Nicolini was born on New Years Day in 1982 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her first martial art was Capoeira, which she took up at 14-years-old, and transitioned to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at 17. She spent her entire progression from white belt to black belt under Brasa star Robert Drysdale. She later transitioned to Rodrigo Cavaca’s gym.
Nicolini normally competes at Light Featherweight, though she has been known to just jump into high weigth classes purely for the challenge. Going back to 2006 it would be easier to list the years Nicolini hasn’t won a world championship (2009 and 2015), some of them coming as many as four weight classes above her actual weight. Nicolini also won the under 60kg weight class at the 2013 ADCCs and also as dabbled in professional MMA with a 2-1 record and is planning on taking part in an MMA tournament in early August to try to gain entry into Invicta FC’s ranks.
In the grappling world the female competitors rarely get the same level of respect as the male grapplers, but Nicolini’s technical ability is one that draws admirers from both genders and some of her techniques have become influential factors in the metagame on the men’s side of the sport.
What is her game like?
Nicolini is almost purely a guard player, she will sit to guard even when faced with an opponent who herself has sat to guard. In a double guard situation Nicolini has a strong array of inversion based sweeps to threaten the back with which she mixes an infamous toe hold and kneebar chain attack that has claimed many victims. Against opponents who are intent on passing her guard Nicolini has her famous shin-on-shin guard, and variants of that guard have become very much a cutting edge part of the metagame of jiu jitsu on both the men’s and women’s side of the sport. The shin-on-shin is just one aspect of Nicolini’s overall outstanding open guard, which is constantly attacking an opponent’s balance and at the slightest opening Nicolini will attack her for a triangle, likely her best submission.
How is she likely to do?
The women’s divisions get compressed, so there is some serious talent. Atos’ Tammi Musumeci will be there, she came very close to beating Nicolini in the 2014 IBJJF Worlds before Nicolini broke her arm in a joint lock. Rikako Yuasa will also be in the division, she recently won the 2015 IBJJF Worlds becoming the first Japanese athlete to become a BJJ world champion. And then fellow women’s BJJ stars Mackenzie Dern and Beatriz Mesquita will also enter the -60kg lists. Dern defeated Nicolini at the 2015 Worlds in what is considered to be possibly the best women’s match of all time, so the hope is we get a rematch of that epic match in the finals. Nicolini seems very likely to be in the medal round both in her weight and in Absolutes.