UAE’s top-ranked competitor Faisal Al Ketbi is just one win away from claiming his first gold in the black belt of the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship.

The Emirati, competing in his third year since being promoted from brown belt, will have a shot to claim the big prize in front of his home fans when he takes on Claudio Calasan in today’s 85kg final at the IPIC Arena.

Yesterday the crowd were treated to two spectacles with Al Ketbi getting his campaign off to a flyer with a 2-0 victory of Jordan’s Tahbet Al Taher before going one better in the semi-final.

Against Great Britan’s Ross Keeping, the scores were level at 0-0 for four minutes before Al Ketbi got the upper hand to score quick points in the 9-0 win.

Al Ketbi, who won his first black belt gold in the Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam in November, was happy to have overcome the tests.

“It was a good day and hopefully tomorrow will be the same,” he said.

“I did my best and just followed by coach’s instructions and have now made it to the final.”

Brazil’s Calasan is next up and while he’s wary of his opponent, Al Ketbi is optimistic he can give the home crowd another reason to
celebrate.

“We are both fighting extremely well and for sure I expect to do my best. Hopefully I can win because I have trained very hard for this and it would be a dream to win gold in Abu Dhabi. Of course, I have the same chance as my opponent Calasan to win gold.”