The Co-Evolution of Brazilian Jui Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts
Looking back on the history of mixed martial arts as we know it today, it’s hard to differentiate the evolution of the sport with the evolution of Brazilian Jiu Jistu as well. The late Helio Gracie, the Godfather of modern day Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or BJJ, as we know it, took the ancient Japanese martial art of Jiu Jitsu and modified the techniques and philosophies so that a much smaller person can overcome the strength of a bigger, stronger opponent. The current level of elite competitors in MMA are all versed to one extent or another in the disciplines of BJJ as well as a combination of other techniques borrowed from a growing number of martial arts.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship was not the first mixed martial arts competition to pit two fighters against each other under the premise of using strikes, joint locks, chokes and positioning to determine a winner. In Brazil and Japan there had been organized and un-organized levels of fighting competitions for decades before the UFC came about. What revolutionized MMA and subsequently the UFC in hindsight was the integration of BJJ into the minds of the world, specifically Americans as one of the most effective fighting styles against virtually any opponent. The Gracie Family, which pioneered BJJ, was extremely successful in the early days of the UFC as we saw Royce Gracie dominate the 8-man tournament submitting each of his opponents in UFC 1.
While Royce and many of the Gracies moved on to become legends in both BJJ and MMA, the evolution of both sports began to leave the traditional style of Gracie Jiu Jitsu seeming dated and less effective. BJJ was seen as the perfect fighting style as millions of people across the world repeatedly watched boxers, karate masters, judokas and wrestlers get tapped out from painful joint locks or go unconscious from a varied assault of chokes. But, this aura of BJJ being the only effective fighting style wore off once cross trained athletes started competing in MMA.
Probably some of the most successful athletes in the sport of MMA besides BJJ experts were wrestlers who simply knew how to defend against chokes and joint locks. Their highly trained bodies and minds were capable of bringing a fight to the floor and pounding on anyone who lay beneath them so long as they knew when a submission was being applied soon enough to get out of it.
Elite wrestlers that come to mind for different reasons are Mark Coleman and Randy Couture. Both were Olympic level wrestlers and have a storied career in NCAA college wrestling. Coleman is known for putting some savage beatings on BJJ experts, but also having submissions slapped on him at will. Couture on the other hand is a wrestler who learned how to strike and grapple for submission styling, even going as far as competing in an exhibition match with a modern BJJ legend in Ronald “Jacare” Souza.
Along comes MMA’s modern day stars; Fedor Emelianenko, Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn and Miguel Torres. Every one of these fighters has at least one, if not many dazzling submissions on their resume and is also capable of dynamically knocking out and out-lasting other fighters. These are the crème of the crop, elite, cross trained fighters of modern day MMA. Each of them comes from a different background, some focused on striking, some focused on grappling, but each has an extensive knowledge of the ground game and BJJ beyond just defending submissions.
The Gracies can mostly be attributed and thanked for the development of MMA as we know it through their unique brand of Jiu Jitsu that has expanded from Brazil throughout the world. The discipline alone does not excel in modern day Mixed Martial Arts competition alone, but in order to ever compete at a high level, BJJ is undisputedly a foundational building block for any complete fighter.
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