Who was closer to being best in the world - Jacare in BJJ or Romero in rasslin'?

Anyone know the answer from their single discipline pre-MMA days?

 

The really dark asian guy

 

Jacare was either 1a or 1b in BJJ (relative to Roger Gracie) depending on who you ask

 

Off the top of my head, they were both pretty close.

 

An Olympic silver medal is a pretty definitive second best in the world. I don't know which jiu jitsu competition to compare to that.

 

Jacare.

 

Jacare was up there with roger. Did romero win olympic gold, if not jacare is the answer

 

Well Jacare won Multiple Mundials and ADCC championships, Romero a world champ in 1999 and a Silver Medalist in Sydney 2000 , I think Wrestling has the harder competition pool , but on the subject of the question Jacare was closer to being the Pinnacle of his Discipline

 

Well, they both were pretty equally close to being the best, but Romero deserves WAY more credit, since he was doing it with a strong international field of competition.

 

Jacare, obviously. Wrestling competition level is way superior.

 

Technically the question is very simple to answer as it asks about "pre-MMA days".

Jacar

 

The big difference I would say is that outside of some very rare guys like Karelin the talent pool in wrestling doesn't drop off as quickly behind the top guys as it does with BJJ, just to be at the Olympics for a major nation denotes a very high quality wrestler probably not too far behind guys who win medals.

 

Like others have said, getting to the top of wrestling is way harder than getting to the top of BJJ. So it's hard to compare. Jacare spent more time at the top, but Romero was the best wrestler in his weight class when he won the 1999 world championships. I don't know why the UFC always says olympic silver medal and never mentions that he's a world champion. I get that olympics is more high profile, but the competition in the world championships is the same and they should still mention it.

 

Yoel Romero

1998: 3rd
1999: 1st
2000: 2nd
2001: 3rd
2002: 2nd
2005: 2nd

Jacare
gi:

2001: 1st (1st absolute) (purple belt)
2002: 1st (2nd absolute) (brown belt)
2003: 1st (1st absolute) (brown belt)
2004: 2nd (1st absolute) (black belt)
2005: 1st (1st absolute) (black belt)

nogi:

2003: 2nd
2005: 1st (2nd absolute)

In terms of divisional dominance, Jacare is arguably more accomplished than Romero. However, the reality is Romero was facing much better competition. It really is apples vs oranges.

 

Yes, the Olympics does get a weirdly special reputation at times. Like how Ronda talks about how special Olympic athlete level is, when the Olympics have plenty of competitors that aren't great physical athletes because it's not required in all the events. It's just something that gets tossed out at times because it's of course the most prestigious competition in the sports that take part.

 

Agreed , I mean look at our Olympic trials , I can only Imagine how many All Americans or hell even Former NCAA champs that Don't even make it to the Olympics, and you would think that would get them well prepared for the Olympics and even that's not a guarantee

 

ADCC and Jacare was best at his weight.

 

Jacare was basically the man

 

Jacare by far.
He was both his weight class and the open weight category at bjj world championships.
Romero didn't beat all of the heavier guys.

 

id say Jacare