Respect the Belt: The Resurgence of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
By Josh Stein on Feb 09, 2008
This is my first post on the site, and I’m glad to be here. Looks like a great group of guys and a solid think-tank. Given my background in the sport, and some of the results from the recent UFC cards, I thought this would be a good way to start this off.
There was a time when many a sherdog columnist wrote that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was done, and that the new fighter was a hybrid of wrestling and muay thai, with a little jiu-jitsu and some submission defense. There was a time when there was not a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter could be found in the UFC.
That time wasn’t too long ago, but you’d never guess it by looking at the current status of the UFC, and objective assessment will show that those predictions, that BJJ would become an obsolete style when people figured out how to defend the armbar and utilize the groundnpound form guard, are clearly wrong.
Four of the UFC’s five champions are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelts. Anderson Silva, Matt Serra, BJ Penn and recently crowned heavyweight king Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (who gave Silva his blackbelt) all hold the honor, but they’re not the only one, and it’s clear that the knowledge of the ground game is something that can’t just be learned from wrestling and transitioning to grappling, as we’ve seen time and time again.
It’s not going to stop, though, because even though the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu warriors dominate the top of the division, just as they did in the sports beginning, when the style was just called Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
While the UFC now boasts the four title-holders, it’s not as though their the only men in the division to put on a gi. Here’s the look, weight class for weight class.
The lightweight division boasts a half dozen BJJ blackbelts, almost all of whom are at the top of the division. Kenny Florian, Kurt Pellegrino and Jorge, Gurgel are all considered in the top of that division, and even Hermes Franca, who is still serving his suspension after testing positive for steroids, holds a black belt. While Sean Sherk dominated the division with his powerful wrestling and ground control, it’s clear that Sherk is the exception, not the rule, and all four of those guys, including BJJ world champion Alberto Crane (also a blackbelt) and the division is riddled with lower ranking BJJ students.
Welterweight champion Matt Serra is a ground wizard, of that there is no doubt, but it’s also become apparent that top contender and former champion Georges St. Pierre takes the ground work seriously, and has worked his way up to the rank of brown belt. St. Pierre’s submission game, like his wrestling, has never really gotten the respect it deserves, but it is certainly a force to be reckoned with.
The middleweight division is the only real anomaly, and even it isn’t too severe. The division does hold Silva, a well respected grappler, though the UFC commentators love to talk about his striking. It also holds Dean Lister, a world champion in submission grappling and a second degree blackbelt. While the middleweight division seems packed with powerful strikers, we’ve seen from Martin Kampmann that knowing how to handle yourself once the fight hits the floor is important, as he finished Drew McFedries with a submission.
The light heavyweight division is alone in that it does not have a blackbelt at its helm, but it does have its share of blackbelts. Besides the obvious ones of Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and long time veteran Elvis Sinosic (who, while not on the roster right now, appears periodically as a gatekeeper) are there, but they are not the serious grappling forces that call for respecting in the division. It’s also important to respect the ground prowess of top contenders Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida (Silva is a blackbelt, Machida is still working towards his), as one of them will almost certainly be fighting for a title in the near future.
The heavyweights seem to have even the greatest depth of talent in the jiu-jitsu department, which is a little bit strange given that they’re more or less the worst at everything else. The division contains the ranks of the champion Noguiera, Fabricio Werdum, Gabriel Gonzaga, Marcio Cruz and Fabiano Scherner. The last four not only hold blackbelts, but are also world champions in the sport. The division also boasts Frank Mir (who showed that any wrestler who neglects jiu-jitsu is going to get hurt) and Brandon Vera, both students of the style and brown belts.
The black belt isn’t just something that Joe Rogan mentions to make a fighter sound tough. While there is certainly a lot of stigma placed on the traditional martial arts for not being as brutal as MMA, it’s important to remember, not just where this sport came from, but what it is about. The sport began with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but even beyond the history, the gi is still important, and still relevant, not just something that we can pleasantly reminisce about when we watch tapes of Royce and Rickson.
A brief prediction: 2008 is going to be the year of the BJJ masters. We’ve already seen them take some level of control and continue to establish their dominance, but this year we are going to see them really control the upper echelon of their divisions and dominate opponents.
I’ve got some specific examples in mind, for upcoming fights, and I’ll mention them as the fights approach, but believe me when I say that, without a BJJ blackbelt, no one is going to take a title in the 155, 185 and 265 pound divisions. While St. Pierre may upset Serra, he will not neglect the ground game, and no one should.
If you do, you’ll end up like Brock Lesnar.
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Awesome article. Wish I’d thought of it!
For a while I was under the impression that today’s MMA fighters had grown out of getting caught in subs, concentrating on submission & takedown defense and power striking. It’s nice to see a good old fashioned tap now and again.
- Caleb
Josh
Great Article! It is funny, but do you remember what Rampage said… “I got Jui Jitsu!” He may have been saying it to be funny, but it is so true. To be a complete fighter you have to have a ground game as well. BJJ is a must to be at the top of your division.
Did you actually mean “While St. Pierre may upset Serra”?
Your article seems to be from the mind of an intelligent person but if anyone thinks that a St. Pierre win would be an upset they should have the old IQ check done.
737: Although St. Pierre is an amazing well-rounded fighter, it was Matt Serra who was awarded a black belt in BJJ from a Gracie in 2000. I think Josh was saying that St. Pierre, as a brown belt, will upset a black belt on the ground. Just my guess!
To clear that up, I was saying that Serra initially upset GSP. I will also say that I think GSP’s jiu-jitsu skills are seriously underrated, but I’m not going to call GSP a heavy favorite, at least not in my mind, for their upcoming fight.
I say that not only because I respect Serra’s jiu-jitsu (both as a blackbelt and as a man who has a history of destroying much bigger, stronger fighters with his submissions, like in his fight with Gomi at ADCC), but because I respect Luongo’s genius as a kickboxing coach.
As far as that fight goes, I’m giving the edge to GSP, because of his wrestling and Serra’s recent injury. That said, don’t count Serra out. Don’t count anyone with the black belt out, because if you get caught (as Nogueira and Mir showed on that most recent card) it’s done.
Thanks for the props on the article.
As for the comment about Rampage’s jiu-jitsu, I’ve watched footage of him training, and we works with alot of great jiu-jitsu guys, and I believe that Vera has recently gone down to that camp to start training. Saying that Rampage doesn’t have technical skills does him a great disservice. His standup, as he showed in the Liddell fight, is very technical, and so is his jiu-jitsu. While he’s very strong, that’s not his entire game.
This is a silly article. I thought we left those my TMA is better than your TMA days behind us. You’re suggestion that the 4 champs are BJJ practitioners is way beyong silly. They are champs because they are “Mixed” martial artists. Anderson Silva in addition to his BB in BJJ is (as even you must know) a devestating Muay Thai striker and is champ more for his striking than his BJJ. BJ Penn was a boxer for many years until he took up BJJ due to a neighbours pressure. Even today, he sets up his subs with his striking prowess.
Not that I think wrestling skills are better than BJJ skills in general. I don’t, I think expertise in both is required today. However I will say that GSP’s wrestling together with his strength advantage will nulify Serra’s masterful BJJ. We saw Karo GnP Serra, Serra’s BJJ skills from his back against Karo were not good enough. Karo obviously has a great sub game but my point is BJJ is not enough and although Serra is a champ, it has little to do with his sub skills. He is champ because he knocked St. Pierre out. Despite Serra’s pedigree of BJJ, he has always been a very good MMA fighter but not an elite one.
You really have to get off the BJJ (as they say on the forums) nuthugging and realize like any intelligent MMA fan already knows that BJJ has always been very important, it still is today and always will be. It is not making a comeback, it together with muay Thai and wrestling form the basis of top MMA’rs.
Nepal, you make a point that’s interesting, and it’s something that’s good to bring up.
I’m not saying that BJJ is the best martial art (I’m a practitioner and I’m not even arrogant enough to believe that). The fact is that it’s still necessary and still relevant to the sport, while many people have suspected otherwise.
You bring up a laundry list of fighters who you think are irrelevant because of their other skills, but lets actually look at that list:
Anderson Silva may have devastating Muay Thai skills, but without his jiu-jitsu he would be thoroughly dominated against even a substantial wrestling. Knowing how to fight off of his back is one of the key elements of his game, probably right up there with being able to control distance and his clinch.
BJ Penn was not a boxer for “many years” before he started fighting in MMA, he was too busy becoming a world champion in BJJ. The only reason Penn appeared in the sport of mixed martial arts initially was because of his BJJ pedigree. He developed standup under Frank Shamrock and a handful of other good coaches, and he’s is an incredibly well rounded fighter, but jiu-jitsu is still a seriously important element of his game.
As for Serra vs. GSP, I agree that St. Pierre will win that matchup. I agree that St. Pierre is too big and too strong for Serra, but if you don’t think that Serra’s rise to prominance in MMA (or, rather, his rise to respectability, since I’m the only person who apparently thinks he’s a damn good fighter) is due to his jiu-jitsu, you need to check up on your history. He because famous for his combination of BJJ based groundnpound (which is to say his ability to transition between positions) and his submission skills. That’s why he was even on TUF 4 to begin with.
I will not pull a Gracie and say that all you need to know is BJJ, but it is important to realize that if you don’t know BJJ (and, realistically, if you don’t know alot of BJJ) you’re, for lack of a better phrase, up shit’s creek. I don’t think that’s really a disputable point, the way the divisions are shaping up right now.
not that related but the new trend is the mix of jiujitsu and american wrestling they compliment each other, and the hybrid form is better than the two parent components. Jiujitsu guys should learn wrestling because all the mma wrestlers are learning jiujitsu, and again the hybrid form is better than the two components. Just my two cents.
The place that I (occasionally) train at has a lot of ex-high school wrestlers who are amazing on the mat. It doesn’t take them long to learn the submissions and they grasp the guard concept pretty quickly.