Former UFC welterweight title challenger Frank Trigg has questioned the fairness of the early ADCC tournaments, claiming the rules and event structure appeared to work against elite wrestlers while favoring members of the Gracie family.
Speaking on the MMA History Podcast, Trigg recalled his meeting with Renzo Gracie at the inaugural ADCC event in 1998. The bout went to overtime, where Trigg believed he had secured the decisive takedown. However, the scoring left him confused and frustrated.
“He won and that was it. And that was the end of the tournament. I was like, ‘Okay, all right. This is this is a complete shafting thing. I get it,’” Trigg said.
According to Trigg, the rules required competitors to hold a position for two seconds before receiving points. He said he took Gracie down, only for Gracie to sweep him before the required time had elapsed.
The officials ultimately awarded Gracie the victory, despite Trigg’s belief that the exchange should have resulted in no points for either athlete.
“Like, no, Renzo won. He swept you,” Trigg recalled being told. “I’m like, ‘He swept me. I got the takedown then, right?’”
Trigg also suggested that the tournament’s selection process limited the presence of accomplished wrestlers. He stated that Rico Chiapparelli and Mark Schultz were not invited, despite their credentials, and connected their absence to earlier examples of wrestlers performing well against established jiu-jitsu names.
“I felt like that’s what was happening at Abu Dhabi is like, let’s screw the wrestlers,” Trigg said.
The former UFC contender further alleged that some Gracie losses from early ADCC events were not properly preserved or included in official releases. He pointed to a match involving Eddie Ruiz and Robin Gracie, as well as footage from an exhibition involving Rickson Gracie, claiming that important moments were missing from the available recordings.
“None of the Gracie losses are even in the DVD and the footage has been destroyed,” the hosts stated during the discussion.
