Bixente Lizarazu. Former Footy/Soccer player

Just found this pic, in which Bixente Lizarazu, a succesful and very good French footballer, took up BJJ upon his retirement and won the European BJJ Championship (blue belt i think in 2009). I think if he was to try MMA, it could get a lot of publicity, especially in Europe.

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BebsvxjCIAEUkO8.jpg:large

 

Great.Didn't know it.Love how he always bashed french players when he's commenting their games lol.

 

That French team with Zidane, Lizarazu, and Desailly was such a pleasure to watch.

 

haha yes, Evra had a confrontation with him after a game too. I hate Evra, would of love him to of got an armbar on him ha

 

How can you leave out Henry

 

He won that in 2009, too late for him to take up MMA.

 

And Petit and Vieira.

 

And Thuram and Laurent Blanc and Didier Deschamps and Youri Djorkaeff. Hell even Frank Leboeuf.

 

Bayern legend!

 

you're right guys, should have named the entire team.

 

How could you all forget Trezeguet and Barthez bald head

 

He's 44, he's got an incredibly busy schedule right now and MMA is still illegal in France so that's not happening.

 

isn't really illegal, simply there's a rule set that doens't allow gnp; it would be like saying that MMA is illegal in USA cauz they don't allow soccer kicks.
Is a rule set similar to the old Pancrase/RINGS one.
That would be very good for a plain grappler, cauz u don't have to fear about gnp when u r on the ground.

BTW he's one of the best soccer lateral backs in the last decades

EDIT: Actually they've many promotions like 100% Fight. Here's I think the rule set:
http://www.ikusa.fr/static.php?op=reglement_mma.html

 

No strikes on the ground?

Actually that would make the sport much more respectful, instead of this human cockfighting we have right now.

 

It was like that in Japan back in the days, with the addition of other rules: they used to fight without gloves so no punches but only palm strikes.

Also, in KSW all elbows to the head of the opponent are forbidden (rule that I like a lot).

There r different rule sets worldwide, many use the Nevada Unified Rules, ONE FC and others use the Global Rules, ...

 

Are we just gonna left out pires n duggary like that?

 

I think they were allowed to hit the body on the ground in rings.

Either way, mma would be more interesting if strikes were not allowed on the groud, fighters would have to work on their ground game

 

Lizarazu is also a very good surfer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fIr0wvtBCA, his brother Peyo is a pro surfer i have already seen Bixente and his brother in differents places of the french part of Euskadi

In France you CAN train in mma but the competitions in mma with strike on the ground are forbidden, because the Judo and the Karate federation (the two biggest combat sport federation in France) are against the legalization of the strikes on the ground it's really funny because the karate federation authorized the strikes on the ground in Kempo Karate , they are just scared of losing their members

 

I remember Lizarazu, fine LB. Agree with the posters above, that French team that raped Brazil in the WC Final was immense, I remember I was about 14 or something at the time and had a French shirt (bought it before the first game kicked off, so I wasn't glory hunting, haha!), loved that tournament.