6th degree black belt, 5-time Mundials champion, and early MMA fighter Saulo Ribeiro spoke recently with Jits.fr and offered an opinion that may already be the de facto case.

“BJJ has been able to export well from Brazil to the United States, Europe, Japan,” he said, as translated by BJJEE. “It has become an international sport that no longer deserves to be called ‘Brazilian’ Jiu-Jitsu. Our sport, it’s an evolution of Jiu-Jitsu and should in fact bear that name.

“Schools nowadays teach Jiu-Jitsu with the competition in mind. They should go back to basics and the true values of our sport. The original philosophy is being lost. BJJ is primarily an art of self-defense, where the discipline, which is improved self-esteem, which is progressing at the physical, mental as well as the human level we learn.”

Originally called Gracie Jiu when Rorion began his quest to show that that the practice refined by his father and uncles was the world’s best martial art, over the years the term Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was adopted. What do you think UG? Is it time to call the art simply Jiu-Jitsu? Do you call it Jiu-Jitsu now?

Please don’t say you call it “Jits” 🙂