Who are the top 5 greatest P4P BJJ practitioners of all time?

[JustOnce]

1. Roger
2. Marcelo
3. Gordon
4. Jacare
5. Maia

This is just pure BJJ, not MMA BJJ.

 

[ItsArun]

Roger, Marcelo, Pena, Lepri, Rafa

 

[JustOnce]

I mean in order.

 

[tekkenfan]

1. Roger
2. Marcelo
3. Gordon
4. Jacare
5. Maia

This is just pure BJJ, not MMA BJJ.

maias my fav but u cant put maia on that list due to never once winning mundials at black

i like to have 2 greatest guys on accomplishments and on guys ho may only were competign a shorter time than others but were just insanely dominant like dan gabel for instance only wrestled till olympics and quit but was extremely dominant for those 2 years he wrestled freestyle


i feel rafa mendes has to be number one given how he doesnt even get subbed at atos hq

leandro lo -going up 1 weight class each year and still winning worlds was insane feat to me

roger gracie- his accomplishments speak for itself but i feel bigger guys dont have as much talented competition in combat sports than the smaller weight classes the same in mma which is why i put the first 2 above him slightly

marcelo garcia- amazing accomplishments most adcc medals i think was so ahead of the game from 03-2011 nobody could touch him and he did not have the ideal bjj body being short and stocky bu still had both an amazing bottom game of subs/sweeps and crushing top passing game

bruno malcfine due to his medals alone show hes the best guy in his weight class undisputed


those are the goats in the gi id say no gi off the top of my head


gordon ryan- yes hes still new but already double gold 2 adccs so far is dominating guys like young marcelo was during his days n a time with way more competition

rafa mendes- extremely athletic sadly we didnt get much footage of him no gi but his adcc 09 run was insane his tec+ his athletics couldnt be matched and going all the way to finals of 2011 pro challenge to fight rodolfo vieria speaks for itself and match was a draw!!!


marcelo garcia- very explosive grappler insane wrist control has great guillotines his game is tailor made for no gi tbh

braulio estima 2009- idk what it was but braulio from 2009-2012 was a freak of nature with how he dominated he was always amazing but just watching how he dominated the 2009 adcc the way he did taking out garcia with a choke upside down triangling andre galvao almost catching xande in one too he was on a whole nother level.

pablo popovitch- might get some weird looks for this but pablo was the man during garcias crazy run 2003-2011 pablo was basically the number 2 guy to hi his rival sadly most people try to discredit him as if he had 0 technique and was just a roid head pablo had some amazingggg back taking ability his back game was very ahead of its time like marcelos had great passing as well i learnt how to over under pass from him wish he wasnt so old would love to see what he could do today

 

[sb413197]

1. Roger
2. Marcelo
3. Gordon
4. Jacare
5. Maia

This is just pure BJJ, not MMA BJJ.

If we're talking BJJ, I have a bit of a problem ranking Gordon - as great of a submission grappler as he is, he only does no-gi, whereas guys like Marcels, Roger etc have dominated in both. If we're talking best submission grapplers though, he's definitely up there.

Wouldn't rank Maia - terrific grappler but very much a MMA guy.

Other than the standard "BJJ holy trinity" of Roger, Marcelo and Jacare that most would agree upon, I would probably rank Xande Ribeiro up there too. 5th, out of admittedly pure bias because he's my favorite, I would put Bernardo Faria...yeah yeah I know but he's an amazing teacher in addition to being a decorated champion and is just plain great

 

[Chandler sama]

There are a few names that nobody has mentioned yet, but probably should be considered.

Bruno Malfacine - 10 x world champ in the gi. This is a ridiculous stat. He also has a 63% submission rate, which IMO is really high.

Caio Tera - 10 x nogi world champ and 2 x gi champ. Super technical and has been able to beat people much larger than himself. I can't find his submission rate, but I'm assuming its very high.

Mikey Musumeci - I know he's young, but he's been a black belt for 4 years and has won worlds 3 x. I believe he's won the world championship at every belt level and he rarely loses. As far as I can find he has the highest winning percentage of any high level blackbelt(Yes it is higher than Roger and Rafa). His most recent lose is to a blackbelt heavyweight champion who out weighs him by almost 100lbs. He also has never been submitted or lost on points. Also he is still only a part time athlete and has many competitive years ahead of him if he want to continue to compete.

 

[Ryo]

No love for Leonardo Viera?

 

[Pierced7681]

Nobody mentioned Cobrinha, that’s pretty interesting.

 

[Smato_rules]

No mention of amaury bitetti?

 

[Ishaq]

For me there is no distinction between pure BJJ and MMA BJJ. The essence and raison d'etre of the martial art of BJJ is to be most effective in a Vale Tudo scenario.

So, Maia is always on the top of my list.

 

[Solidus Snake]

Roger
Marcelo
Lepri
Rafa
Malfacine

I tried to pick a grappler for each macro weight category or something.

 

[mataleaos]

1. Roger
2. Marcelo
3. Gordon
4. Jacare
5. Maia

This is just pure BJJ, not MMA BJJ.

You got the holy trinity in there but I'd swap Gordon and Maia out for some names like Rafa, Lepri, Malfacine, Xande, Braulio, or Cobrinha. Some names like that. Maia only won ADCC and never won Worlds. Gordon hasn't done anything in the gi. If you put Gordon as a top 5 submission grappler of all time then I'd easily agree but you said bjj. I have to think gi accomplishments when I think of bjj.

Rafa is a 6x world champ and 2x ADCC champ. Cobrinha is a 4x World champ and 3x ADCC champ. Lepri is a 6x World champ with 5 of those being consecutive, as well as an multi-time ADCC finalist. Xande is a multi time Worlds and ADCC champ.

In terms of bjj in mma though I'd have Maia at #1.

 

[sb413197]

For me there is no distinction between pure BJJ and MMA BJJ. The essence of the martial art of BJJ is to be most effective in a Vale Tudo scenario.

So, Maia is always on the top of my list.

Fair point - if we are counting MMA guys, I would probably rank Nog and Werdum a bit ahead of Maia though, even though Maia's BJJ is likely higher level than Nog. I love Maia and he's an amazing BJJ representative in MMA, and in fact like his style the best of those 3, but Nog and Werdum dominated as the champ with their BJJ, and Werdum choking out Cain V and Fedor puts him high up there (and plus he is a BJJ champion as well).

Jacare has done some great stuff in MMA too - strangely not as much as those other 3, despite being one of the BJJ GOATs.

 

[Ishaq]

Fair point - if we are counting MMA guys, I would probably rank Nog and Werdum a bit ahead of Maia though, even though Maia's BJJ is likely higher level than Nog. I love Maia and he's an amazing BJJ representative in MMA, and in fact like his style the best of those 3, but Nog and Werdum dominated as the champ with their BJJ, and Werdum choking out Cain V and Fedor puts him high up there (and plus he is a BJJ champion as well).

Jacare has done some great stuff in MMA too - strangely not as much as those other 3, despite being one of the BJJ GOATs.

I would not rank any of those above Maia. Whilst they might have achieved more than Maia in terms of accolades and titles, none of them have achieved what Maia has achieved using strictly BJJ.

Both Nog and Werdum are good strikers in their own right and only fall back on their BJJ when required, whilst Maia actively seeks to enforce his BJJ, and has no plan B.

 

[Solidus Snake]

I would not rank any of those above Maia. Whilst they might have achieved more than Maia in terms of accolades and titles, none of them have achieved what Maia has achieved using strictly BJJ.

Both Nog and Werdum are good strikers in their own right and only fall back on their BJJ when required, whilst Maia actively seeks to enforce his BJJ, and has no plan B.

As far as I remember Big Nog in his prime (the whole Pride stint) always wanted to bring the fight to the ground a way or another. Then I still think Maia is the better MMA grappler between them two by a good margin, but imo it's a bit unfair to put him in the Werdum and Jacarè wagon.

 

[Ishaq]

As far as I remember Big Nog in his prime (the whole Pride stint) always wanted to bring the fight to the ground a way or another. Then I still think Maia is the better MMA grappler between them two by a good margin, but imo it's a bit unfair to put him in the Werdum and Jacarè wagon.

I was far too young to watch Big Nog in his Pride days. Only saw his UFC stint.

So yeah, I can't really comment on it. In terms of pure BJJ in a Vale Tudo scenario. Maia is up there with Rickson for me.

 

[mataleaos]

Fair point - if we are counting MMA guys, I would probably rank Nog and Werdum a bit ahead of Maia though, even though Maia's BJJ is likely higher level than Nog. I love Maia and he's an amazing BJJ representative in MMA, and in fact like his style the best of those 3, but Nog and Werdum dominated as the champ with their BJJ, and Werdum choking out Cain V and Fedor puts him high up there (and plus he is a BJJ champion as well).

Jacare has done some great stuff in MMA too - strangely not as much as those other 3, despite being one of the BJJ GOATs.

Wow. That surprises me. Maia is a older guy with only a couple of takedowns in his arsenal and was able to string together one of the most impressive runs on the way to a title shot ever. He also used a lot less striking than Nog and Werdum.

I'm going to nerd out on you and throw a couple stats out. On the run to his title shot with Woodley, Maia had a 4-fight run during his 7-fight winning streak where he beat Neil Magny, Gunnar Nelson, Matt Brown, and Carlos Condit. In those 4 fights he only got hit with 13 strikes, and the only person he didn't finish by rear naked choke was Gunnar Nelson. Until his most recent fight with Durinho the only 3 people he lost to in the past 6 years were all NCAA All American wrestlers.

Demian Maia has such a pure expression of bjj. Big Nog is one of my personal 5 favorite fighters ever. Bit in some regards he had to use the Homer Simpson from guard until he could find a way to win. It was magical and inspirational. But Maia really exemplifies the philosophy of taking as little damage as possible and submitting opponents without having to brutalize them on the way to victory. All while being less athletic than almost everyone he’s ever fought.

He’s one of the best one dimensional fighters of all time and the fact that he can impose a game that narrow in the UFC in his 40’s is maddeningly impressive. To be fair to Werdum he and Maia are the same age but Werdum has more than half as many t/ko wins as he does sub wins. Maia also has more submission wins than Werdum. A lot of Wedum’s biggest subs are like the guillotine off the shot from Cain. Almost all of Maia’s subs are rear naked chokes (the most dominant sub from the most dominant position.)

 

[shunyata]

We'll never really know how much of a terror Caio could have been if he had the frame and strength of Roger.

 

[mataleaos]

We'll never really know how much of a terror Caio could have been if he had the frame and strength of Roger.

Shit. I don’t think he had to even be as big as that. If he was even big enough to do ADCC at 66kg I’d like to have seen how that would’ve played out. He was a 10x no-gi world champ but due to being small and shooting him self in the foot by asking for an invite (and then turning it down right after) we potentially missed out on some major Caio performances.

Imagine him against Rafa and Cobrinha during that time period. Those could’ve been good matches.

 

[sb413197]

Wow. That surprises me. Maia is a older guy with only a couple of takedowns in his arsenal and was able to string together one of the most impressive runs on the way to a title shot ever. He also used a lot less striking than Nog and Werdum.

I'm going to nerd out on you and throw a couple stats out. On the run to his title shot with Woodley, Maia had a 4-fight run during his 7-fight winning streak where he beat Neil Magny, Gunnar Nelson, Matt Brown, and Carlos Condit. In those 4 fights he only got hit with 13 strikes, and the only person he didn't finish by rear naked choke was Gunnar Nelson. Until his most recent fight with Durinho the only 3 people he lost to in the past 6 years were all NCAA All American wrestlers.

Demian Maia has such a pure expression of bjj. Big Nog is one of my personal 5 favorite fighters ever. Bit in some regards he had to use the Homer Simpson from guard until he could find a way to win. It was magical and inspirational. But Maia really exemplifies the philosophy of taking as little damage as possible and submitting opponents without having to brutalize them on the way to victory. All while being less athletic than almost everyone he’s ever fought.

He’s one of the best one dimensional fighters of all time and the fact that he can impose a game that narrow in the UFC in his 40’s is maddeningly impressive. To be fair to Werdum he and Maia are the same age but Werdum has more than half as many t/ko wins as he does sub wins. Maia also has more submission wins than Werdum. A lot of Wedum’s biggest subs are like the guillotine off the shot from Cain. Almost all of Maia’s subs are rear naked chokes (the most dominant sub from the most dominant position.)

Fair point, I can definitely respect that argument - I'm actually a bigger fan of Maia than of Nog or Werdum too - Maia essentially applied pure BJJ within the context of MMA and made it work, gotta respect that.