Faisal Al-Ketbi

Faisal Al Kitbe was born on May 10, 1987, in the United Arab Emirates, and his path to becoming a pioneering figure in grappling unfolded through an unconventional athletic journey. He first encountered jiu-jitsu at age 11, but that initial exposure lasted only about a year before he redirected his competitive energy toward freestyle wrestling. Brief as that introduction was, it planted a foundational understanding of ground-based combat that would later serve him well on the BJJ mats.

During his wrestling years, Al Kitbe traveled internationally with a small UAE wrestling team, actively seeking elite training environments and high-level competition. The discipline and technical rigor demanded by freestyle wrestling at the international level forged a robust grappling base — a physical and tactical toolkit he would eventually carry back into jiu-jitsu with considerable effect.

Central to understanding Faisal's story is his identity as the adoptive son of His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the UAE's ruling Al Nahyan family. Sheikh Tahnoon drove the introduction of jiu-jitsu to the United Arab Emirates and played a foundational role in creating the ADCC tournament, one of the most prestigious grappling competitions in the world. This familial connection placed Faisal at the heart of the UAE's emerging grappling infrastructure — not merely as a participant in the country's jiu-jitsu movement, but as one of its most visible symbols.

Around 2009, Faisal Al Kitbe returned to jiu-jitsu with decisive commitment, joining the UAE Jiu Jitsu Team as a full-time athlete. His reentry into the sport coincided with the formalization and expansion of a government-funded jiu-jitsu development program — one that would grow into the largest state-supported program of its kind in the world. Initiated under Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed's vision and advanced through the United Arab Emirates Jiu-Jitsu Federation (UAEJJF), the program gave UAE athletes access to a rotating roster of world-class international instructors.

Among those instructors, Alex Paz and Maiky Reiter became Al Kitbe's primary coaches and mentors. Their influence on his technical and competitive development was profound, and it was they who awarded Faisal his black belt in May 2014 — a promotion that followed directly on the heels of a landmark double gold performance at the Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship, underscoring how closely his belt progression tracked his competitive excellence.

The road to that black belt was methodical and decorated. Al Kitbe's time in the lower ranks was defined by consistent success at the Abu Dhabi World Pro (UAEJJF), where he claimed titles at blue belt in 2009 and 2010, at purple belt in 2012, and at brown belt in 2013 and 2014. Competing primarily in the Super-Pesado (100kg/221lbs) and Pesado (94kg/208lbs) weight divisions, he demonstrated both versatility and sustained elite-level performance across multiple years and belt levels.

Few grapplers have entered the black belt division carrying the kind of pre-black-belt résumé that Faisal Al Kitbe assembled. His six Abu Dhabi World Pro titles — all earned before crossing into the black belt ranks — stand as one of the most impressive lower-belt records in the tournament's history. That run began with back-to-back blue belt victories at the 2009 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship and the 2010 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship, continued through a purple belt title at the 2012 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship, and culminated in back-to-back brown belt victories at the 2013 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship and the 2014 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship.

Even in the years he fell short of gold, Al Kitbe remained a finalist — notably finishing as runner-up at the 2011 Abu Dhabi World Pro at blue belt, a result that only reinforced his standing as the dominant force in his division across the entire lower-belt span of his career. His performances beyond the Abu Dhabi circuit further validated his quality: he reached the final of the 2013 IBJJF Pan Championship at brown belt and earned a bronze medal at the 2013 IBJJF European Open, demonstrating competitive credibility across multiple prestigious formats.

The 2014 World Pro double gold — capturing both his weight division and the absolute — served as the defining capstone of his colored-belt career and the immediate catalyst for his black belt promotion by Alex Paz and Maiky Reiter that same month. At black belt, Al Kitbe continued to compete at the highest levels, earning silver medals at the 2015 UAEJJF Tokyo Grand Slam, the 2017 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro Championship, and the 2019 UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro Championship — results that confirmed his place among the sport's elite in the open division.

Faisal Al Kitbe holds a distinction no future competition can diminish: he was the first high-level grappler to emerge from the United Arab Emirates. In a sport long dominated by Brazilian, American, and European athletes, his success on the international stage provided tangible proof that the UAE's ambitious jiu-jitsu development program could produce world-class talent from within its own borders.

His career arc — from a young wrestler traveling with a small national team in search of quality training, to a six-time Abu Dhabi World Pro champion carrying the UAE flag at the sport's highest levels — gave both inspiration and a competitive blueprint to the generations of grapplers who followed within the Emirates program. The infrastructure built by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed and the UAEJJF, with Al Kitbe as its most prominent early product, established a model for state-supported grappling development that has since influenced how the sport is organized and funded at a national level worldwide.

Al Kitbe's position at the intersection of elite athletics and the institutional foundations of UAE jiu-jitsu gives his career a significance that extends far beyond personal achievement. As both a champion and the adoptive son of the program's chief architect, he embodies the vision Sheikh Tahnoon set out to realize — that jiu-jitsu could be woven into the fabric of UAE national identity and that homegrown athletes could compete with, and defeat, the world's best. That legacy continues to resonate through every UAE grappler who has come after him.