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So, I guess nowadays BJJ is almost pre-requisite for most fighters, and we have some exciting BJJ wizards coming into MMA as well more and more. Though wrestling can dictate where the fights go, it's probably BJJ that's most important whether you end up on top or bottom, though obviously it could be argued that it's not only BJJ that can prepare for you for that.
It probably feels like that there have been more success at the highest level with wrestlers(https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/top-60-wrestlers-of-all-time-in-mma-history.4148829/) probably due to their ability to dictate where the fight goes, but perhaps there are more BJJ fighters than Judo based fighters at the highest level(https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/top-10-judo-fighters-of-all-time.4148627/)
I think I'm least confident to recall all the BJJ fighters perhaps, and I think it's most tricky, I mean if you just count Gracies, maybe you can find Top 30 out of them over the years, but here it goes...(ps. I will just list more famous Gracies....)
The criteria is how well you've applied in MMA your BJJ skills to success and what you have been able to do in pure BJJ as well. And mind you, it can be subjective thing when you combine the two, what you consider more important, and how much success they may have had. For one, Kron would sub Joe Lauzon so fast, but Joe did much more in MMA so I'd rank him higher here.
I wouldn't list someone like Fergusson on here, who's pretty slick but who is a wrestler and then got their BJJ black belts later, like someone like Weidman for one. Or Jim Miller or Jake Shields. I guess to be fair, I put Dean Lister here, who started out as a wrestler...hmm...but Dean did so much in BJJ and MMA as well so I'd include him here
Also, GSP is pretty tricky case. His grappling base is BJJ but....
It probably feels like that there have been more success at the highest level with wrestlers(https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/top-60-wrestlers-of-all-time-in-mma-history.4148829/) probably due to their ability to dictate where the fight goes, but perhaps there are more BJJ fighters than Judo based fighters at the highest level(https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/top-10-judo-fighters-of-all-time.4148627/)
I think I'm least confident to recall all the BJJ fighters perhaps, and I think it's most tricky, I mean if you just count Gracies, maybe you can find Top 30 out of them over the years, but here it goes...(ps. I will just list more famous Gracies....)
The criteria is how well you've applied in MMA your BJJ skills to success and what you have been able to do in pure BJJ as well. And mind you, it can be subjective thing when you combine the two, what you consider more important, and how much success they may have had. For one, Kron would sub Joe Lauzon so fast, but Joe did much more in MMA so I'd rank him higher here.
I wouldn't list someone like Fergusson on here, who's pretty slick but who is a wrestler and then got their BJJ black belts later, like someone like Weidman for one. Or Jim Miller or Jake Shields. I guess to be fair, I put Dean Lister here, who started out as a wrestler...hmm...but Dean did so much in BJJ and MMA as well so I'd include him here
Also, GSP is pretty tricky case. His grappling base is BJJ but....
- Werdum
- Maia
- Nog
- BJ
- Royce
- Mir
- Arona
- Paulo Filho
- Jacare
- Oliveira
- Rickson
- Nate Marquardt
- Bibianno Fernandes
- Rani Yahya
- Renzo Gracie
- Formiga
- Royler Gracie
- Ricardo Almeida
- Dean Lister
- Thales Leites
- Matt Serra
- Marcus Aurelio
- Kenny Florian
- Lovato Jr
- Roger Gracie
- Joe Lauzon
- Kron Gracie
- Hall
- Rodolfo Vieira
- Gary Tonon
