Royce: BJJ moving in wrong direction

The legendary Rorion Gracie recently appeared on Submission Radio for yet another wide-ranging and compelling interview by Australia’s awesome digital exporter.

BJJ was created for use in real fights. Then, with the best of intentions, a points system was devised, so that people would get all the benefits from competition, making their BJJ better. However, the tail is now wagging the dog, and countless BJJ practitioners spend their time perfecting moves that have zero relevance in a real fight.

Royce is not impressed.

“For example a BJJ school, the person doesn’t walk in thinking ‘Well I wanna learn BJJ so I can compete in ADCC. Or I’m gonna find out and learn BJJ Bazilian Jiu Jitsu so I can compete in Metamoris or Pan Ams,'” explained Gracie. “There is no such a thing. The person comes in because they heard that it’s some kind of self defense style, that they saw me fighting and they realized that ‘Man Royce fought some big guys and he was able to defeat them and defend himself. I wanna learn something like that.’

“But then the instructor will guide them into a point system and teach them how to score points, and how to compete in tournaments. Yah, it bothers me that Martial Arts in general are becoming not martial arts, but martial sports.”

Gracie is not a curmudgeon however, talking about how in the old days kids used to walk uphill ten miles to get to school, both ways. Early UFC fighter Oleg Taktarov recently said that the UFC was dead; Royce however had a nuanced response.

You can’t fight like that anymore because it became a show,” said Gracie. “I mean they can’t do pay per view without time limits. Plus, without a time limit, without a weight division it was illegal. I mean it was not illegal, it was only legal when there was no boxing commission. And once the boxing commission got involved, to be able to grow [the sport], to make it bigger, they had to add the time limit. They had to add the weight divisions, the gloves. It’s as close as you’re going to get to a fight. To a real fight.

“It’s better than – what’s ruining martial arts today is tournaments. Tournaments like point system tournaments. Like a taekwondo for instance. Taekwondo wasn’t built to score points. It was built to hit and knock the person out, but then the tournaments now, they don’t even have to hit the opponents. If they get close enough they score the point. It’s teaching the fighters how not to hit somebody. It’s like people want to compete. No. People want do martial arts. They don’t do the martial art because they’re interested in competing. They look for martial arts because they want to learn some kind of self-defense.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Royce discussed Jon Jones testing positive for cocaine metabolites.

Man sometimes these guys forget that they are an example for the crowd,” said Gracie. “So it’s not just when they do the fighting inside the cage, [but] what they do outside the cage, the way they behave themselves. There’s a lot of young kids looking up to him. You see, he’s an example for the new generation, for the new kids. So he should behave when you’re the example for the new kids. I don’t agree with any recreational drugs or any drugs.

“But sometimes you lose [sight]. He’s the champion. He loses consciousness of how important he is for the young kids, and that’s not the kind of example that I want my son to be looking up to a guy that’s playing around. Well that doesn’t help, but a lot of people are saying ‘Well that’s just recreational. That’s nothing to do with the fighting business.’ Doesn’t matter. It’s still illegal. It’s a drug.

Gracie also discussed CM Punk coming into MMA.

I haven’t had a chance to train with him yet, but it’s controversial,” he acknowldged. “Everybody is like, a lot of people are upset with him jumping from WWE to MMA. Man, MMA is for everybody. You want to try out? Go ahead. If you’re not ready, it’s not going to be a good way to make a living. ‘Cause he’s gonna get punched in the face for real. If he’s going to be good or not, time will tell. He might be awesome at it. He might be one of those talented guys. You see, with a little bit of training he could go on and be good, be an add-on to the MMA shows. But if he’s not ready, man the guys will hit him for real and they’ll punch him in the face for real. But I’m in favor of anybody should try out.

And Gracie discussed he role as a roving ambassador for Bellator MMA.

They are new and upcoming; that’s what attracts me to them,” he said. “Plus I know Scott Coker. Scott Coker is a friend of mine. Before there was Bellator involvement he was a martial artist. [He] used to train karate.

When he approached me, I was like ‘Sure man. Let’s how Bellator grow worldwide’ and he’s like “Yeah, there’s nobody better than you to educate the crowd. You’re good at that.

Of course I had to call Dana White first and ask for permission, because the UFC is my house man. I built that place.

(1:05:03 mark)