Jiu-Jitsu is truly known for being the martial that favorizes the smaller, weaker practitioner against the bigger one… We have seen so many times the David vs Goliath match ups. Examples that come to mind at the highest level are Rooster weight Caio Terra winning an IBJJJF tournament open class where he defeated the Ultra Heavy Bruno Bastos in the final. Another example is Rooster weight Bruno Malfacine also winning the open class at IBJJF Atlanta open where he defeated the high level super heavyweight Guybson Sa (who himself defeated in the past Buchecha and Rodolfo Vieira).

Other notable examples:

Huge Guy Challenges Much Smaller BJJ World Champ Robson Moura

&

Large Man Blown Away by Smaller Female BJJ Black Belt’s Skills

But what about when a 80 kg BJJ black belt faces a 180kg white belt with 1,5 year experience in BJJ?

BJJ black belt and former UFC vet Masanori Kanehara wanted to test himself and he did so by facing ‘Big Joe’, a huge American who lives and trains in Japan. Kanehara has an amazing combat sports pedigree, he is currently fighting in Japan’s DEEP’s MMA organization. He is a professional MMA fighter since 2003. In the past he has fought for World Victory Road, K-1, the UFC, Pancrase, ZST, Dynamite!! 2009. He is the 2009 Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix Champion and inaugural Sengoku Featherweight Champion.

Let’s see what happens (fight starts from 12:40 min) :

Remember, the big guys are beatable. If, at any stage of a match, if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or defeated, don’t panic and look for their pressure points to neutralize them. Strike first and strike hard.

To get more instruction from ADCC and IBJJF World Champ, Claudio Calasans, check out his Giant Killing series where he shows how to defeat bigger opponents by using wristlocks, closed guard attacks and leglocks, available in convenient On Demand and DVD formats.  You can get it here at BJJ Fanatics!