Since its inception in 1998, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Championships has been the premier no-gi competition, starting as a way for athletes from various disciplines to test themselves. Initially taking place yearly and then moving to a biennial affair, there have been 13 ADCC events so far in its history.

I’m going to rank the most dominant 88kg champs in ADCC history. Saulo Ribeiro is the only athlete to win this weight more than once, with titles in 2000 and 2003. This weight has been won by athletes from four different countries, with the United States, Brazil, Russia, and Japan represented here.

This is a weight with a ridiculously low submission rate by the champs compared to 77kg. Only three out of 13 finals have been finished with a sub here, and four of the champs won ADCC without a single submission.

I’ve already ranked the 66 and 77kg champs — those rankings can be viewed here:

ADCC 66KG Champion Rankings

ADCC 77KG Champion Rankings

I went back and rewatched every ADCC besides 1999 to research for this article. I’m looking at dominance, level of competition, submissions, and more importantly who those submissions were against and in what round.

Two of these 88kg champs have also gone on to win the absolute division in the same year. Keep in mind that the absolute results are not factored in here; that will be an entirely different article. As always, these are completely subjective, so relax.

Let’s get it over with.Here are the 88kg ADCC Champion Rankings:

13 - Kareem Barkalaev - 1999 Abu Dhabi - 0% submission rate

Barkalaev didn’t get any subs in 1999, but he defeated some impressive names on his way to gold. Amaury Bitetti, Egan Inoue, and Belarussian wrestling champion Sasha Savko were his last three matches, a formidable field for sure.

No subs, no dominant points victories or wins against future ADCC champs has Barkalaev ranked dead last here. 

12 - Matheus Diniz - 2019 Anaheim - 0% submission rate

Tough road here for Matheus, but it doesn’t really compare with the competition of the athletes ranked ahead of him. He didn’t get any subs, but defeated Gabriel Arges, Josh Hinger, and Craig Jones to take gold. Shutting out Hinger and Craig 5-0 in the semis and finals was pretty impressive.

No subs, plus the fact that none of his competition had ever made the podium at ADCC has Matheus ranked 12th. This division was a far cry from the insanely stacked 88kg division just two years earlier in Finland.

Watch: Matheus Diniz Vs Craig Jones ADCC 2019 Final

11 - Sinae Kikuta - 2001 Abu Dhabi - 0% submission rate

No subs for Kikuta, but he was pretty impressive positionally in this tournament. He passed the guard of UFC champ Evan Tanner, took the back of Chris Brown (who had just defeated Renzo Gracie), and hit a nice inside trip on Egan Inoue. An outside trip in the final set up a truly remarkable accomplishment, when he passed the guard of defending champion Saulo Ribeiro.

I’m putting Kikuta ahead of Matheus based on him not only defeating a two-time ADCC champ in the final, but passing his guard in the process.

10 - Saulo RIbeiro - 2000 Abu Dhabi - 25% submission rate

Saulo had a nice run here, submitting Menne in the quarters and pulling off a 3-2 win over Egan in the semis. He had a really tough final, coming away with a win by penalty over Ricardo Liborio.

I have this ranked below his 0% sub performance, based on the strength of his wins and the fact that he won in the final by penalty here.

9 - Rodrigo Gracie - 1998 Abu Dhabi - 50% submission rate

This is the highest a 1998 champion has been ranked so far, based largely off the fact that the 88kg has had some not so dominant performances in its history.

Rodrigo Gracie had two submissions on his way to winning the first ADCC title at 88kg, plus a 6-0 win over Pride and UFC veteran Carlos Newton. In the final he defeated the next year's champion, Kareem Barkalaev, by penalty.

8 - Saulo Ribeiro - 2003 Sao Paulo - 0% submission rate

Saulo didn’t have any subs in ‘03, but he beat some tough competition to win gold. He took down Comprido a couple of times in the quarters and then defeated UFC veteran David Terrel in the semis. In the final he faced off with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, a back take off a single leg secured the 3-0 win for Saulo.

This one jumps Rodrigo Gracie’s 1998 performance based on one big detail, Saulo took out Jacare in the final here, and in impressive fashion.

7 - Romulo Barral - 2013 Beijing - 25% submission rate

After an easy first-round sub, Romulo had a grueling run to finish off his ADCC title. Overtime wins over Lucas Leite and Keenan Cornelius, followed by a back take to win the final after 30 minutes of grappling with Rafael Lovato Jr.

Romulo picked up a classic early-round ADCC submission here, but his wins over Leite and Keenan were extremely close. A back take to win in the final is impressive, but it's hard to rank him any higher here.

6 - Andre Galvao - 2011 Nottingham - 0% submission rate

The highest-ranked of the champions who didn’t have a submission. Galvao went on to submit two opponents in his absolute run that year, but I’m not factoring in absolute results in these weight class rankings.

Andre defeated Don Ortgega in the first round, then shut out Gunnar Nelson 3-0 and ADCC champ Pablo Popovitch 2-0 in the quarters and semis. That set him up for an epic final with the terrifying Rousimar Palhares, who had just heelhooked all three of his opponents. Andre took out Palhares 9-4 in that final, then went on to win the absolute and his decade of dominance at ADCC followed.

I know, Galvao is the king of ADCC, but this article is only taking into account his four matches from his weight in 2011, not the absolute gold or four superfight victories that followed.

5 - Yuri Simoes - 2015 Sao Paulo - 25% submission rate

One sub and three wins by a score of 3-0 equaled a pretty dominant 2015 performance by Yuri. A back take in the opening round and an RNC in the quarters put him in the semis with defending champ Romulo Barral. In that match he would pass Romulos guard, then went on to take Keenan’s back in the final for gold.

Yuri shut out his three points victories, and winning 3-0 on either Romulo or Keenan is crazy, but to do it back-to-back is remarkable. Yuri was on fire this day, his wrestling and passing was perfect for the ADCC ruleset. Some interesting notes about this run are that Yuri had a mustache for his first match and then it was gone for the next round, and he competed in a wrestling headgear.

4 - Demian Maia - 2007 Trenton - 25% submission rate

Before becoming one of the best grapplers in MMA history, Maia was a 2005 ADCC silver medalist and 2007 ADCC champion.

Three points wins and then a submission in the finals locked up the 2007 gold medal for Demian Maia. He beat a pretty impressive group in Yushin Okami, Rafael Lovato Jr, and Tarsis Humphreys to make the final. In the final, he won by armbar over Flavio Almeida. Winning by sub in the ADCC finals is no joke; he has to get major points here for that.

A tough road and then a sub in the final made Demian an easy choice for fourth here. Now is when the decisions get tough though.

3 - Ronaldo Souza - 2005 Los Angeles - 75% submission rate

Another beast from the MMA scene coming in highly ranked at 88kg.

Jacare was ridiculous in 2005. He started with three submissions, a kimura on David Bieklheiden, a triangle on Robert Suiski and then an armbar on Dennis Hallman. His win over Demian Maia, the next ADCC champ at this weight, in the finals was by penalty, but Jacare controlled the action throughout and clearly deserved the win.

‘05 Jacare was a monster — you should look up some highlights of this guy. I would love to see him return for a superfight while he still can.

2 - Gordon Ryan - 2017 Espoo - 50% submission rate

This article came down to an incredibly close call between Gordon and Braulio for the number one spot. I went back and forth several times on who had the better case. In the end I’m going with Braulio for having one more sub, plus getting subs in both the semis and finals in ‘09. Gordon’s first of three ADCC gold medals was incredibly impressive, though; here is the summary:

He beat two ADCC champs in this division, plus tapped Keenan Cornelius in the final. His run here was really difficult, taking out Dillon Danis first round, submitting Romulo Barral with a heelhook in the quarters, and then defeating Xande Ribeiro in the semis. When he tapped Keenan in the final, it was only the second time Keenan had been submitted in his career, and both times were by Gordon.

Gordon fans, don’t hate me yet, he’s still going to get ranked at 99kg and the absolute in upcoming articles.

Watch: All Of Gordon's 2017 Matches

1 - Braulio Estima - 2009 Barcelona - 75% submission rate

You could definitely argue that Gordon had a tougher road, with Romulo-Xande-Keenan as opposed to Lovato-Galvao for Braulio. But submitting arguably the greatest ADCC competitor of all time in the finals does a lot for Braulio here. 

Braulio submitted three out of four in ‘09, including in the semis and finals. After an RNC on Yuji Arai, James Brasco in the quarters was the only opponent to make it to the end of regulation. Braulio tapped Rafael Lovato Jr with his patented Estima Lock in the semis, before finishing Andre Galvao with a beautiful inverted triangle in the final.

Again, this is subjective. I wavered relentlessly between the top two spots, and really only Jacare, Gordon, and Braulio put in performances that belong with each other at the top. But yeah, Braulio submitted Galvao in the final, I’m giving him the top spot here for that.

Watch: Braulio Describes His ADCC 2009 Double Gold Experience