Why is there so many Brazilians in this sport?

Do you guys have a theory?

 

yeah, the UFC was created by the Gracie Family (and a few other promoters) to showcase their style of martial arts, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu which is a variation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They purposely selected Royce Gracie over other bigger Gracie (Rorian, the mythical Rickson Gracie) because he was smaller and it would look more impressive for him to beat these big guys with just Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

The Brazilians have been fighting 'Vale Tudo' for decades which is a no holds barred version of MMA without gloves. So it's been a natural transition for many Brazilians to take up MMA.

That's the short version.

 

Thanks CF.

So is this Vale Tudo somewhat popular in Brazil?

 

Not sure about now, but guys like Chuck Liddell, Wanderlai Silva have fought in Vale Tudo fights in the 90's. They rebroadcast some of them in Canada here on the Fight Network and I think the organization 'Jungle Fight' is still going.

 

I went to Wikipedia to learn a bit more about this subject, there is plenty of interesting information there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_tudo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Jiu-Jitsu

 

Good find, Speeds should be able to add some more info to this topic too

 

Thanks, speeds.

 

I would say Thiago Alves and Wanderlei would be good examples in terms of the fact if they have strong BJJ games, they don't seem to try to use it. (Thiago is a black belt, dunno what Wanderlei is) You would be surprized if a black belt in BJJ would only have 1 sub in 15 wins.

Thiago, jt because he focuses on winning based on muay thai and striking. He has one victory by submission (described as verbal) I don't know if it was a verbal tap due to a submission or due to strikes. He has 15 wins with only 1 of them being that submission.

However of his 3 losses, 2 of them are due to submission.

Apparently he is a black belt in bjj, however it is not reflected in his fight record. Comparatively with a guy like Big nog who has 18 of 28 wins being submissions, Demian Maia have 6 of 9 wins being subs, Rousimar Palhares having 6 of 8 wins being subs.

As well Wanderlei would be a good example, he has 33 wins, out of those he has 4 submissions, out of those only 1 is a "BJJ submission" being a RNC, the other 3 being submission due to strikes.

1 submission victory out of 33 is quite low, even for a non-BJJ fighter.

Matt Hughes for example is not known as a BJJ guy by any standards, however he has 18 of 43 wins being by submission. (Granted only like 13 would be considered "BJJ submissions") as opposed to submission due to strikes.

 

Is BJJ such a superior technique in MMA?

 

it's one of the top 3 skills you need.

Striking (boxing or muay-thai)
Wrestling
Submissions - BJJ

If you can't at least defend against BJJ submissions... well you end up getting your arm broke like Raz Al-Hassan did on Wednesday.

 

If you had to choose only one fight, which one would you pick for winning in MMA?

Boxing
Muay-thai
Wrestling
BJJ

 

Wrestling.. it allows you to control your opponent. You can keep a fight standing or take it to the ground if you have superior wrestling skills.

 

In other words, you are saying that if you match the best Wrestler in the world against the best BJJ fighter in a MMA fight, the wrestler would win?

 

Jiujitsu was the most dominant martial arts back in the UFC's infancy. Once people started catching on to it, it really revolutionized the sport of MMA mixing striking with an excellent submission game. I used to watch all the gracies beat the crap out of all these brawlers and martial artists who did not have Jiujitsu as part of their resume. It didn't take long however for others to realize that Jiujitsu was very important for a well rounded game.

This is the reason Im such a huge fan of BJ Penn. The guy was one of the fastest to get his black belt in the world of BJJ. He knew its importance in the sport and mastered it.

Whats funny is that most people hate watching the ground game, but its very interesting and exciting if you actually know what they are trying to do. Very technical art.

 

Im not a huge fan of wrestling although its a great base for MMA. Wrestlers use to much LAY and PRAY tactics during their early years in the sport and its just plain boring. I prefer watching the submission game.

 

I agree with you on that, but having great wrestling can take you far in MMA because it does allow you to dictate where the fight will be fought and they can score takedowns to earn points and win.

A lot of BJJ guy's don't have great take downs IMO, especially vs good wrestlers. Stand up guys have to at least be able to sprawl and avoid take downs like Krystof did Saturday night.

 

That's a tough call. Royce Gracie faced some good wrestlers in the early UFC's and he tapped them. The issue with just wrestling is you don't have a way to end the fight, you can only control it to a certain amount. BJJ guys have submissions they can slap on and end a fight.

Wrestling is the best base skill, IMO, to start with because you can learn some basic BJJ very easily and striking can be learned through great training. Wrestling is a hard skill to pick up and be very good at if you haven't done it a long time (unless your name is GSP)

 

As I see it and from what I have read, the closest thing of a style vs style happened during Royce Gracie's era and he was the most dominant fighter.

I understand that today's MMA is a different sport and evolved a lot, so I don't think one style can make the cut anymore.