James Burman, writer for "Fighters Only Magazine" provides an expert's view on the latest UFC matters.
Even though we enjoy MIXED martial arts has anyone else noticed that we’re not seeing so much Jiu Jitsu recently?
At one time you knew that a fight was pretty much over once the Jiu Jitsu guy got the fight to the mat. They’d always find a way to the arm bar, triangle or rear-naked choke and all the traditional martial arts fans would nod approvingly at the way that almost mystical techniques had overcome brawn and aggression.
But the sport changed.
One thing that we can all enjoy about MMA is the fact that it’s constantly evolving and the emergence of different strategies over the years has enriched the sport. Ground and pound, sprawl and brawl, hit and run. All simple phrases for strategies that can be incredibly complex.
Recently we’ve seen a real lack of submissions though and initially I was concerned that we were beginning to see the death of Jiu Jitsu in MMA. In the last two UFC events we’ve had 20 fights and only 1 submission (courtesy of Demian Maia – who else?). Have the days of the ‘gentle way’ passed us by? We still have a few stand-out submission masters like Dustin Hazelett and the new guard of Brazilian masters – Palhares and Maia, but what other evidence is there of Jiu Jitsu in The Octagon?
Well, plenty to be honest...we just have to dig a little deeper than before to appreciate it.
Jiu Jitsu’s influence in The Octagon, despite the lack of its most potent techniques (submissions), is still strong if not stronger than ever. Before we herald its death we should note that three of the five UFC champions are Jiu Jitsu Black Belts. Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre and BJ Penn each hold the fabled rank and the respective straps at their weight. Does a Muay Thai machine like Silva need it? When he beat Nate Marquardt and Travis Lutter it certainly didn’t work against him!
The other point of note is that we’re not considering all the wins recorded by ground and pound. How do you pass someone’s guard to get into a dominant position to deliver strikes? How do you get out from underneath someone so you can stand back up and knock them out with a high kick? Spend some time in a Jiu Jitsu class and you’ll learn these techniques and more. We wouldn’t herald the death of Boxing in the Octagon if people stopped getting knocked out with punches for a while. Fighters would still be scoring with them.
The recent run of results only proves that if you submit someone you’re more likely to earn yourself a nice bonus than you are if you knock them out because there’ll be more competition for the KO of the Night bonus.
Jiu Jitsu started this thing and it’ll be here forever.
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