Category — BJJ isn't a dirty word

A mediocre karate guy gets choked out by a mediocre jiu-jitsu guy. Okay, fine, whatever. But the karate guy taps, and taps, and taps, and the jiu-jitsu guy still chokes him unconscious. Gives himself, his club and the entire sport a huge black eye. Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s deplorable. This guy should be kicked in the nuts with a Buick.

Ralek Gracie deserves a lump of coal in his Christmas stocking. He should then be beaten about the head with it. And then choked out with it.

Sure, I know it’s gotta be tough to be a Gracie, at least if you intend to make your life in martial arts. And maybe that’s why the son of UFC founder Rorion Gracie (and nephew of Royce and Rickson) is making a bid to be Vanilla Ice, because a three-fight Dream career just wasn’t cutting it. But rapping about jiu-jitsu? This is Super Bowl Shuffle-level bad. I have to wonder if this is some kind of horribly unfunny joke.

If you’ve done any jiu-jitsu you’ve likely been in this situation or one similar, where somebody catches you with a knee or elbow or cranks an armbar a bit too hard or slams his way out of a triangle choke. Frustration can do that too you. Seems to happen mostly with white and blue belts, I’ve noticed. But does an accidental knee — during competition — deserve a bitch slap?

I’m not sure which bothers me more: that Ashton Kutcher is training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu or that he’s wearing a black belt while doing it. Yeah, I know the belt’s borrowed and that Ricardo De La Riva said it was cool and all, but still, it just doesn’t seem right.

Every blue moon I come across something that just makes me happy. A gesture, an act of good will or kindness that restores my faith in people. Today, that blue moon was provided by Clinton O’Shea, who will be wearing a pink gi to the South East Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open to raise money for cancer research. He’ll also shave his head into a hot pink mohawk. You can donate to him online here.

A small but inspirational gesture. Maybe one day I’ll get the stones to wear my pink gi outside the house…

Diego Sanchez, formerly “The Nightmare,” now rebranded “The Dream,” put his rep on the line at last weekend’s Grapplers Quest at the UFC Fan Expo in Toronto. Sanchez competed in the four-man pro tourney, his first grappling tournament in six years. He picked up the opening-round win with a nasty kneebar in the dying seconds of the match against Andrew McInnes (check out that amazing, almost-posed-looking pic above!) and followed up with some “Yes!” cartwheels, but dropped his second match on points to Ryan Hall. It was a no-win situation, regardless. If he wins, he’s a UFC fighter who beat some unknown Canadian grapplers (and by “unknown” I mean nobody knows them on the international level); if he loses, he loses to no-name Canadian grapplers. Regardless, good on him for competing and for donating his entire purse to AutismRadio.org.

The Gracies had their Youtube channel stuffed by UFC boss Dana White for copyright infringement yesterday but their back with a UFC-less version. Hopefully they can work something out with White with regards to using UFC (and now Strikeforce) clips in their jiu-jitsu breakdown videos because they really do add a lot to them.

Within minutes of my posting Ryron and Rener Gracie’s breakdown of the submissions (and submission attempts) from UFC 128 (most notably Chan Sung Jung’s twister sub of Leonard Garcia) and the video was removed from Youtube due to “multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement from claimants including Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and ZUFFA, LLC.”

Talk about shortsightedness. The video used a couple of brief clips from UFC 128 amounting to no more than 20 seconds that were used to illustrate the submissions. That’s it. Sure, it’s a copyright violation (although a few seconds should fall under “fair use,” shouldn’t it?) but doesn’t UFC boss Dana White realize that those clips actually help the UFC’s cause by educating fans on the intricacies of the ground game? It’s ridiculous and heavy-handed and Zuffa is just out of control. Swallowing Strikeforce, stepping on the Gracies (who only just invented the damn UFC to begin with). What’s next?