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I agree that blue belt had stiffer requirements in the past, though I don't think the difference is that much - blue isn't the new purple for instance. And even back then, it wasn't true that BJJ blue belt meant you could beat any judo black belt, Olympic wrestler etc. For instance, Gracie Mag (not a judo fan base) wrote that Roger Gracie and Kenzo Nakamura (96 Olympic gold medalist in judo) went at it hard on the ground for ten minutes, where Roger had positional dominance, but neither was able to sub the other. I doubt many BJJ blue belts would have been able to do what Roger Gracie couldn't do.
And though you're right a blue belt doesn't take away strength, speed etc, most blue belts (or judo black belts, high school wrestlers etc) don't have the same physical attributes as Mike Tyson, who was a one in a million athlete.
And most BJJ blue belts are good on the ground but bad at takedowns for the same reason most judo black belts are good at takedowns and bad on the ground - they don't spend much time on it. If you spend 20% of your time on takedowns, you're not going to get good enough at it to take down a very strong, very athletic guy unless you're the 1 in a thousand athlete who's also very strong, very athletic on that scale.
Judo people are bad for thinking spending a bit of time on the ground makes them submission machines, but its just as incorrect for BJJ people to think a bit of time practicing throws makes them takedown machines. And most BJJ'ers spend as little time practicing throws and takedowns as judo people spend on groundwork. There are exceptions, but as a general rule, if you want to be good at both groundwork and takedowns, you have to mix BJJ with either wrestling or judo (or sambo).
I think Royce Gracie wouldh have beaten Tyson if he didn't get caught coming in (and Rickson I'm sure would have beaten him), but they competed in judo and sambo tournaments and practiced throwing a lot. That's not true of most BJJ blue belts, today or before.
bro, I was just explaining why people thought that blue belts were going to kick judo and wrestlers asses in subgrappling...
Regarding tyson, If a blue belt (bad ass) with similar physical atributes (size and weight) gets tyson down, im pretty sure he will sub him, it doesnt matter how atheltic and explosive tyson is/was, without grappling training, that explosiveness athleticism and strength means squad, now, give him 3 months of training and were are talking about a completely different thing...
I also think anyone that does not train tdd will get taken down pretty easily, specially if we are talking about people of the same size, no matter how explosive and athletic you are, if Fighter A is looking to blow his opponents head with strikes, fighter b is looking to get him down, chances are, fighter b will get the take down, unless fighter A does not get reckless and has some actually tdd training...