The Lie That Sold BJJ To The World
Most fights don't go to the ground.
Let’s start with a disclaimer. BJJ is a fine art. They have driven the progress of submission grappling in a way that hasn’t been done since the early 20th century. BJJ has largely maintained the quality standard of what it is to be a black belt, and through a massive, global movement, they have found major improvements in efficiency in grappling. The net positive is far greater than the negative. Nevertheless, there is a negative here, and we need to start with UFC 1.
The Gracies and their investment partners were on a mission to promote their art. They decided the best way to do this was a competition. A highly stacked and selected competition that guaranteed them a win.
From these dubious wins they began telling people it wasn’t just sport, but it was self defense. That a grand majority of fights went to the ground. Except that turns out to not be true.
It turns out that it only gets turned into a majority (and not anywhere close to 90%) when you include cops putting people on the ground to arrest them. Some of that being when perpetrators were pulling away or fleeing. Hardly a fight. Felling a suspect to prevent flight is a specific circumstance that is neither fighting nor part of the common man’s experience in fighting. So the actual number of altercations involving ground fighting is a minority.
And then, in 2019, a BJJ group decided to do an informal study of their own, analyzing street fights, trying to be as impartial as they could be, trying to find a natural phenomenon, as opposed to one groomed by martial arts culture. And they found…31%. That’s right, less than a third of street fights went to the ground. Thus confirming the minority of the previous police study.
And you know what the worst part is? After a stacked event to demonstrate their dominance, people figured out the trick, and most MMA definitive wins (that is, not a judge’s decision, which is the majority) are achieved by striking!
And just to pour salt on the wound, the greatest percentage of MMA champions aren’t BJJ based. No, they’re WRESTLERS!
So, again, BJJ is a fine system, but it is not the dominant force that it claims to be. It is a specialized component of the overall combat puzzle. Hell, it’s not even that unique when you compare it to competitors like SAMBO and our beloved Catch Wrestling. Let’s put away the rose colored glasses, and turn off the magical thinking. Perspective lets us put things in their place and progress forward stronger, and with more honesty.