Rickson Gracie is universally beloved in the bjj community but even so he’s had some difficulty establishing his own vision for the sport and finding the footing for it. He’s been openly criticizing the IBJJF ruleset and how it endorses certain behaviors that will never serve the sport.
Still recently he’s had a great opportunity to clarify some of his positions when he guested on Chael Sonnen’s podcast:
On the difficulty community has singling out champions due to many different rulesets and promotions
Today, the rules are based on interpretations. Same judge can give 2 almost identical fights different results because the interpretation is different so it’s important for us to create a set of rules. But really define who is really winning the fight and most of all hurting the growth because as a competitor in MMA, judo or jiu-jitsu you want to minimize the risks. You want to maximize the chance to win.
Judo Oympian Travis Stevens: ‘In An IBJJF Match I would Pull Guard’
Rickson continued:
In order to do that in jiu jitsu today they’re not only learning how to pass the guard and defeat the opponent but they’re also learning in a very big way how to stall the fight. How to be able to stop the match at will and keep you recognizing points and advantages as victory. And that’s jeopardizing our culture in terms of being a progressive fight, dynamic fight to the end. So the rules have to be regulated immediately and to make adjustments, consistently adjustments to make the athletes not be stalling, holding sleeves – what I call the anti jiu-jitsu game which sometimes I can’t relate to. I see 10 fights of black belts, 9 I feel like what they do in there – they don’t even want to fight they just want to win the match by a little advantage or so.
Rickson Gracie On Why BJJ fighters Are Afraid to Pull Guard in MMA
