Two-time ADCC champion Ruben "Cobrinha" Charles is poised to make grappling history with the prospect of the "Super Grand Slam:" winning gold medals at the IBJJF European, Pan, Brazilian National, and World Championships and capping it off with a gold medal at the upcoming 2017 ADCC. 

The chance to achieve this feat comes around only once every two years, and so far nobody has ever done it. 


​Cobrinha (right) grapples with Bruno Frazatto (left) in the final of the 66kg division at the 2015 ADCC in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Hywel Teague

But even though Cobrinha is facing one of the most notable moments in his career, he claims to feel no pressure heading into this weekend's ADCC in Espoo, Finland. 

"Pressure? Here is the way I deal with pressure," he said. "I train hours and hours every day preparing myself for all the situations I could be facing at ADCC, so when I get there I feel like I have trained enough to be confident to face anyone."

Cobrinha has twice won the ADCC -66kg division (2013 and 2015) and twice taken the silver medal (2009 and 2011). It's fair to say every weight class at ADCC is hypercompetitive, but the featherweight division is chock full of tough names including Paulo Miyao, Tanquinho, Bruno Frazatto, Baret Yoshida, Justin Rader, AJ Agazarm, and more. 

"Please don't forget about Cobrinha as well, because I heard he has been training hard for this competition and he is hungry as well," Charles joked. 

All eyes will be Cobrinha as he heads into ADCC 2017. If he wins his third ADCC title, he enters a select club of men and women to have won three titles, which includes: 

• Marcelo Garcia (4x weight division)
• Mark Kerr (3x, 2x weight division, 1 absolute)
• Ricardo Arona (3x, 2x weight division, 1 absolute)
• Royler Gracie (3x weight division) 
• Hannette Stack (3x, 2x weight division, 1 absolute)
• Kyra Gracie (3x weight division)


Cobrinha attacks the legs of Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes at the 2015 ADCC. Photo: ​Hywel Teague

The prospect of reaching that milestone will surely be in Cobrinha's mind, but he claims that he's not thinking any further ahead than that all-important weekend in Finland.

"My focus is at the ADCC to not get distract by thinking what I am going to do in the future," he said.

I learned to live in the present and not the future. So as soon as I compete I will starting thinking what is next for Cobrinha. For now let's do the ADCC first.

Based in Los Angeles, the school owner has handed off teaching responsibilities while he train for this next challenge. The weight cut and the training sessions mean he's 100 percent focused on the task in hand.

As ADCC only comes around once every two years, he needs to drop everything to full prepare. 

"It is a different competition format and it happens only every two years, so I have to take advantage and compete while I am healthy and motivated to do it," he said. 

To prepare for ADCC, Charles studies his opponents and pays more attention to leg locks -- even though the rules present a different challenge, to Charles it's still just jiu-jitsu. 

Yes, [ADCC] is little bit different, but I don't understand why people don't train both, because like I said before, in the end both are jiu-jitsu and both complement each other.

​READ MORE: 
The Final List Of Every Grappler In For ADCC 2017 World Championship

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