Hey Munky?

[VictorCharlie]

have any world class judokans won the abu dhabi?

[MPhelan]

A couple high class Judo players have competed in Abu Dhabi, but to my knowledge none have won.

Many of the people who win are accomplished in Judo, but not what we'd consider elite level Judo players. Guys like Jacare, Xande Ribeiro, and Renzo Gracie all have done significant amounts of Judo.

Now, as far as more dedicated Judo players go, the two that spring to mind are Aoki Shinya (the rubber guard phenom, got submitted by Marcelo Garcia) and American Olympian Rhadi Ferguson, who lost in 2005 semifinals of HW to Monson. Both are also BJJ black belts, Aoki under Nakai Yuki and Rhadi I think under Tavares.

[Munkymagic]

Yep. I was going to say Rhadi Ferguson. I remember watching the two huge throws he did on IShi his first round opponent (who weighed 300lb). he won the best takedown of the 2005 tournament with one of the throws. Awesome (will hunt around see if i can find a vid).

Alas he was beaten by decision (2-0) by Jeff Monson in the semi's.

[VictorCharlie]

Marcelo Garcia is awesome...watching him against Ricco was phenomenal