Category — BJJ isn't a dirty word

When UFC president Dana White was in Toronto a couple of months ago, he was asked if his partnership with Flash Entertainment, the company that organizes the ADCC submission wrestling world championships, would help the UFC educate the fan base about the ground game used in MMA. White’s answer ended with a direct and crisp comment: “Two people hustling it on the ground is boring!”

Yet UFC 116, which can be considered a success, delivered a festival of submissions. Is it time to put Brazilian jiu-jitsu, grappling and its delicacies at the forefront of sports coverage?

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Apparently, Josh Barnett got bored on the weekend and entered a grappling competition in California. Cage Potato is asking whether you think it’s awesome that the almost-foe of Fedor Emelianenko would compete in an event that didn’t offer money, fame or glory, or whether it was horrible that he’d show up like some ‘roided-up has-been to beat up a bunch of guys who never had a chance. Me, I think it’s pretty awesome. Sure, it sucks for the other guy, but who wouldn’t want to go into a tournament and be The Man? I wish he’d clear up his steroid issues and get back in the cage. Strikeforce could use him.

Multiple-time world gi and no gi champion Xande Ribeiro was at Toronto BJJ on Saturday for a seminar and UFC fighter Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was on hand to try and strengthen his ground game. Ribeiro, who has a pair of MMA fights under the Sengoku promotion, attended Shogun’s MMA seminar on Sunday to pick up the finer points of the flying head stomp and the Superman punch pass.

If you’re interested in watching the No Gi World Championships taking place today in Long Beach, CA, head on over to ScottOnTheNet for a live stream. Thanks, Scott!

The 2009 No Gi World Championships are being held next week in Long Beach, CA, and if you’re interested in watching them, they will be streaming live and for free at NoGi.com. Thanks to Scott Wallace over at ScottOnTheNet for bringing this to my attention as he and I have several teammates from Toronto BJJ competing.

I’m not sure if this is a web series, a proposed TV series or what, but I’d be a regular viewer. A couple of young talented Gracie black belts living it up in Miami? What’s not to like? The Valente Brothers, Pedro and Gui, seem charismatic enough, and if they focus as much on the jiu-jitsu as they do on the nightclubs, I’m sold.

A couple of things, though: having Royce Gracie stop by might make a promotable selling point and lend the brothers some BJJ credibility, but the guy’s got all the charm of a mannequin. And I feel sorry for the poor sap in the jail sell who thinks he doesn’t have to worry about dropping the soap because he studied BJJ for two weeks. I hope the show is around long enough to do a followup with him a few months into his incarceration.

UFC lightweight contender Diego Sanchez is three kinds of crazy. His coach, BJJ great Saulo Ribeiro, is the polar opposite, a soft-spoken gentle man who can also turn you into a pretzel. But Sanchez is right about one thing – Ribeiro wears these stylish eyeglasses that give him an unsuspecting teacherly appearance. But when he takes them off and puts on a gi… it’s like Clark Kent and Superman.