Metamoris 5 is scheduled to take place on Saturday November 22nd at the Long Beach Convention Center in California. One of the matches will be Atos Jiu-Jitsu’s JT Torres (2013 no gi world champion) vs UFC welterweight contender Rory MacDonald.
in 2012, Rory MacDonald was awarded a black belt in “No Gi Brazilian jiu jitsu”. David Lea of Toshido MMA in Kelowna, British Columbia promoted MacDonald. This basically means that he has the black belt level in Jiu-Jitsu/ No Gi grappling even though he has never used the Gi. Rolles Gracie famously promoted Rashad Evans to no gi jiu jitsu black belt, saying that Evans would be able to compete at that level in grappling competitions, and was heavily criticized for it, even by the Gracies. Eddie Bravo also awards no gi belts in his 10th Planet system.
Welterweight contender Rory MacDonald awarded a black belt in no gi Brazilian jiu jitsu
“Rory is a great MMA fighter with huge potential to capture the UFC belt,” JT Torres told Fightland. “When the offer came across the table to fight him, I was a little surprised, but at the same time super excited for the challenge.”
About his own martial arts bacground and karate training:
“While training karate, my dad and I started watching the UFC, and when he caught wind of jiu-jitsu he pushed me to do it, because at the time I was a lazy kid,” he recalls. “When I started grappling, because of my striking background I was interested in pursuing MMA, but I fell in love jiu-jitsu to the point that I became obsessed with the art – the flow, the endless techniques. MMA took a back seat to jiu-jitsu, but I still catch all the UFC fights…
“BJJ is more practicable for self defence purposes, and also training purposes. You train grappling at 100% speed with another person, and that gives a realistic feel to a fight. But in karate you can’t kick each other in the head six times a week. Karate, and many other contact sports, just don’t offer the same realism.”
JT doesn’t think that MacDonald’s MMA background will translate too well in a grappling match setting:
“When an MMA fighter catches his opponent in a vulnerable position, he typically focuses on raining down punches, where a high-level BJJ guy is going to lock-in a submission. The minds are just trained differently – different rules of combat, different judging criteria, etcetera.”
“You know, to be honest with you, I have no idea [what to expect from Rory] because I haven’t seen much of his grappling. He’s such a tremendous striker that his fights rarely hit the ground – but I know he’s a black belt, so I’m going to sharpen my tools in every position.”
