Rickson Gracie: Modern BJJ Black Belts Remind Me of Karate Practitioners Clueless of Jiu-Jitsu

[Hickson]

I have tremendous respect for Rickson, but even in his prime, Rickson would be destroyed by today's fighter. Someone like Maia or Jacare or even Big Nog would embarrass him

i suggest you educate yourself, jacare is great - but many of TODAYS top BJJ guys have rolled with him and say he is still the king - do i think he woudl win ADCC now, no probably not - but people like werdum have rolled with him - also he would dominate big nog in JJ today...i dunno abuot jacare

yes based on my handle im a big fan

 

[Tuf_guy]

Are we at Sherdog, such morons that we can't understand the quote? He is not talking about MMA as a sport, he is talking about Jiu Jitsu as a fighting style. To many, as you've just pointed out, it has become only a part of the "ring" with rounds and rules. "What about Hughes", "What about Sakuraba", we ask, but place them in an open field with no time limits or judges and things change tremendously. You may find the action boring but the results may surprise you. Two of the greatest fights I have ever seen would never have occurred or may have had different results under the new rules: Gracie vs Kimo and Gracie vs Severn. Under the new rules, I believe both fighters would have "Matt Hughes-ed" Gracie but under the old rules Gracie would have beaten Hughes. Show some respect and don't rush to elite levels of Shertardedness just because a Gracie speaks out every once in a while.

How in the world was Royce going to beat Hughes without a time limit?

 

[Hairrow]

This fucking moron. 400-0.

 

[LostMyBlackBelt]

Are we at Sherdog, such morons that we can't understand the quote? He is not talking about MMA as a sport, he is talking about Jiu Jitsu as a fighting style. To many, as you've just pointed out, it has become only a part of the "ring" with rounds and rules. "What about Hughes", "What about Sakuraba", we ask, but place them in an open field with no time limits or judges and things change tremendously. You may find the action boring but the results may surprise you. Two of the greatest fights I have ever seen would never have occurred or may have had different results under the new rules: Gracie vs Kimo and Gracie vs Severn. Under the new rules, I believe both fighters would have "Matt Hughes-ed" Gracie but under the old rules Gracie would have beaten Hughes. Show some respect and don't rush to elite levels of Shertardedness just because a Gracie speaks out every once in a while.

You know Matt could have broken his arm easily right? He let it go out of respect and not wanting to brake an old man's arm.

 

[RemyR]

I do BJJ and I agree with Rickson

 

[Mmaprovost]

Rickson Gracie’s opinion on modern Jiu Jitsu:

“In the past, when we arrived in the US, we were teaching Jiu-Jitsu to Karate black belts, who at the time felt like they knew everything. When they got exposed to real Jiu-Jitsu, they would say that they lost 20 years of their lives doing Karate, and now they realized what the real thing is. So somehow when I go to a (BJJ) seminar these days, I get the same impression from Jiu-Jitsu black belts. They’re like “Wow, I never taught that this existed in Jiu-Jitsu”. If we don’t do something very soon, Jiu-Jitsu will lose its fight-identity.”

https://bjj-world.com/rickson-graci...mind-karate-practitioners-clueless-jiu-jitsu/

Maybe they should lose the pajamas.

 

[migeru29]

The original Gracie Jiu-Jitsu reminds me a lot to traditional Judo newaza (ground grappling) but with weak standing grappling it seems that Maeda mostly taught them newaza because is easier to learn.

 

[Deleted member 551049]

He's right for the wrong reasons.

Sport jiu-jitsu has become far more specified. A lot of it has almost no applicability to MMA, let alone a fight on the street. It is no longer required in many schools that a black belt be able to actually defend him or herself. All that matters now is how well they perform under IBJJF rules, which is a poor substitute for actual fight training. I've rolled with tons of higher belts who genuinely would be lost if they started getting hit in the face. The Gracies understood what worked in a no-time limit, one-on-one fight and they trained accordingly. That has gotten lost over the years, there's no doubt about that.

That said, the Gracies didn't invent shit. They took Judo and rebranded it, that's all. Through marketing, shady business practices, rule changes in their fights, etc., they managed to convince a lot of people that Helio not only created a new martial art, but that it was the only thing anyone needed to train. There is a strong cult mentality in BJJ and people still want to believe that story. To this day, most academies bow to framed pictures of the guy. Rickson comes from that same school of thought and has a strong financial incentive to push this narrative. There's also very obviously a ton of ego involved, considering this is a man who still lies about his fight record.

If you train modern sport BJJ 90% of the time and throw in just a little bit of striking, wrestling and MMA during the other 10%, you'll have something far better than anything the Gracies have ever done. Rickson is projecting here. He's wasted as much time focusing on 'Gracie Jiu-Jitsu' as the black belts he's taking shots at have on modern Jiu-Jitsu, if the goal is to be ready for a vale tudo fight. This is all without even mentioning the fact that gi training ultimately shouldn't even be a priority for just about anyone. It's something that improves submission defense and should be done largely for that reason, but only a small percentage of the time. Reliance on the gi is what is most responsible for the modern Jiu-Jitsu Rickson is complaining about.

 

[M.A.G.A.]

"Rickson faced judo and sambo champion Ron Tripp. Tripp threw Gracie to the canvas by uchi mata in 47 seconds, thus giving Tripp absolute victory under FIAS International Sambo rules. Rickson disputed this loss, claiming he was misinformed of the rules of the event."

Rickson losing a match lol is there a video of this event?

 

[yookfarb]

People here talk as if he was a neutral party.

He doesn't sound sour or delusional, but like the representative of a brand. Which he is: he is a representative of Gracie JJ, and of his own brand which is an extension of it. In a day with thousands of academies and approaches, they have a lot of competition. Of course they are going to hype themselves up as the 'real deal'. They are a business.

You don't expect McDonalds to say they think In and Out makes a better burger.

It's like Ray Kroc raising from the grave just to complain about how burgers just ain't being as good as they used to. It's absolutely inane.

The original Gracie Jiu-Jitsu reminds me a lot to traditional Judo newaza (ground grappling) but with weak standing grappling it seems that Maeda mostly taught them newaza because is easier to learn.

Newaza in particular the guard was Helios specialty because he was weaker than his older brothers. Their students eventually started going to him and a rich cat gave him the money for his own school.

 

[giatinu]

You stupid fuckers always think he’s talking about the ufc. He’s talking about the average man defending himself in a street fight. Just average joe is what he’s worried about. Those guys learning berimbolos but cant get out of a headlock. I don’t think he’s concerned about a ufc fighter you idiots. Put any of the gracies in a street fight against a street punk and see what happens. Most of us don’t come across a dangerous situation where your going to fight against a UFC fighter in a street fight. It’s against a regular guy that drunk or being a bully or punk. Stop talking about the gracies vs gsp or khabib. You sound stupid. You guys are rookies to martial arts obviously. Or young meatheads.

 

[Willek]

Who are the two dingbats who hang out with Schaub?

 

[Venom]

How come Roger isnt HW champ then?

Some of you are so clueless of Rickson's point here it's laughable.

 

[Venom]

There are jiujitsu black belts even (and Rickson has demonstrated this before) who don't even know to turn their head away from the direction they bridge to. It's so much easier to roll the person mounting you when you do that (bridge "northeast" or "northwest" instead of directly sideways). Little things like that.

 

[lsu480]

A white belt taking Gracie Combatives correspondence lessons could beat these modern day BJJ black belts

 

[FrenchFri3dNinja]

In my book.. Rickson is such a legend and icon in martial arts that he gets a pass to say what ever he wants..

Good thing youre not an author

 

[wufabufa]

The EBI events are interesting because they allow open hand strikes on the ground. It really helps sift through the fluff that certain sport BJJ techniques have pumped into the grappling world. However, I still enjoy watching submission grappling and BJJ matches. The last Quintet event was great.

The sport has far surpassed Rickson and most of his family.

 

[Iroh]

He might want to teach the Black Beast some of dat hot yoga, so he can get his balls even hotter than he ever thought was possible.

 

[moreorless87]

He's right for the wrong reasons.

Sport jiu-jitsu has become far more specified. A lot of it has almost no applicability to MMA, let alone a fight on the street. It is no longer required in many schools that a black belt be able to actually defend him or herself. All that matters now is how well they perform under IBJJF rules, which is a poor substitute for actual fight training. I've rolled with tons of higher belts who genuinely would be lost if they started getting hit in the face. The Gracies understood what worked in a no-time limit, one-on-one fight and they trained accordingly. That has gotten lost over the years, there's no doubt about that.

That said, the Gracies didn't invent shit. They took Judo and rebranded it, that's all. Through marketing, shady business practices, rule changes in their fights, etc., they managed to convince a lot of people that Helio not only created a new martial art, but that it was the only thing anyone needed to train. There is a strong cult mentality in BJJ and people still want to believe that story. To this day, most academies bow to framed pictures of the guy. Rickson comes from that same school of thought and has a strong financial incentive to push this narrative. There's also very obviously a ton of ego involved, considering this is a man who still lies about his fight record.

If you train modern sport BJJ 90% of the time and throw in just a little bit of striking, wrestling and MMA during the other 10%, you'll have something far better than anything the Gracies have ever done. Rickson is projecting here. He's wasted as much time focusing on 'Gracie Jiu-Jitsu' as the black belts he's taking shots at have on modern Jiu-Jitsu, if the goal is to be ready for a vale tudo fight. This is all without even mentioning the fact that gi training ultimately shouldn't even be a priority for just about anyone. It's something that improves submission defense and should be done largely for that reason, but only a small percentage of the time. Reliance on the gi is what is most responsible for the modern Jiu-Jitsu Rickson is complaining about.

Honestly though I tend to think the Gracies themselves were a bit less "pure" than is often talked up, whilst they didn't actively strike much in early MMA(wouldn't have sold the brand well) I think they clearly had some experience of training against strikers and in Ricksons case he looked like he'd worked with Judoka/Wrestlers as well.

I suspect Rickson is maybe talking about two things, modern sports BJJ moving away from real fighting but also modern MMA BJJ often becoming rather simplified. You definitely are seeing MMA BJJ BB's who really don't look all that great and I think part of the issue is that theres very little in the way of ultra high level BJJ guys who've become rounded proper MMA fighters these days, guys like Werdum, Jacare and Maia are a dying breed, I suspect because BJJ is becoming a richer sport in terms of training others and fighting in comps.

 

[Thaijitsu612]

Cool story Mr. Rickson.

I wonder why you did not show Royce how to outgrapple Matt Hughes.

I hate when kids describe everything as savage....but that was savage