The popularity of mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship in particular is undeniable. What used to be the occasional water cooler conversation after a huge PPV has now turned into millions of people checking MMA forums and websites daily as part of their electronic media content upkeep ritual.

This phenomenon has grown to such great heights that we are now regularly seeing videos pop up that can only be described as backyard MMA. This occurs when a group of friends decide to get together and hold unsanctioned bouts between two guys who may or may not have legitimate issues with each other for the entertainment of all of their friends. This is exactly what we witness below.

Normally, these bouts feature very little skill however; what we witness below is some legitimate martial arts training on display in the form of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. These two participants are amateur at best, as evidence by the fact that they both choose to compete in the backyard and with their socks on, but the effort they put forth is tremendous.

As the fight begins, the first thing to notice is that the gentleman signaling the start of the fight immediately disappears and is replaced by a guy holding a camera-phone indicating that there is no real referee and no time limits. Once the fight gets underway it is clear that these two plan on going at it like wild banshees however; the distance is soon closed and the two participants are entangled in a flurry of backyard violence then and only then do we see the jiu jitsu skills of one of the participants begin to prevail.

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Jacob C. Stevens is a lifelong athlete and cerebral martial arts enthusiast who is also skilled in the art of linguistic manipulation, his published work, Afterthoughts and Handgrenades, can be found here…