Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, combat sport, and a self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. The art was derived from the Japanese martial art of Kodokan judo (which itself is derived from Japanese Jujutsu) in the early 20th century. It teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique – most notably by applying joint-locks and chokeholds to defeat the other person. BJJ training can be used for sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition or self defense. Sparring (commonly referred to as “rolling”) and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance, especially in competition, in relation to progress and ascension through its ranking system.

Jiu-Jitsu came to international prominence in the martial arts community in the early 1990s, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Royce Gracie won the first, second and fourth Ultimate Fighting Championships, which at the time were single elimination martial arts tournaments. Royce fought against often much-larger opponents who were practicing other styles, including boxing, shoot-fighting, karate, judo and tae kwon do. It has since become a staple art for many MMA fighters and is largely credited for bringing widespread attention to the importance of ground fighting. Sport BJJ tournaments continue to grow in popularity worldwide and have given rise to no-gi submission grappling tournaments, such as the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is gaining fast popularity in many parts of the world and is looking to be one of the most popular martial arts around.

BJJ in Mixed Martial Arts

In MMA, proficiency in grappling and ground fighting has become nearly a prerequisite for these competitions. With Royce Gracie going undefeated in mixed martial arts for nearly 7 years in part to his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu prowess, more and more fighters have cross-trained to include BJJ. Anderson Silva, holder of the UFC’s longest winning streak in history, earned his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt from fellow fighter Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.