More than half a century ago, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was at the dawn of its creation. It became popular only during the 90s, when the Gracie family brought it to the big stage. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighting system has changed the martial arts world forever and helps a lot in the development of MMA (mixed martial arts).
This sport incorporates a lot of grappling and ground fighting. In 1971, Carlos and Helio Gracie were watching matches in Vale Tudo (MMA), which included boxers, wrestlers and other athletes in martial arts and sports. In its early years, MMA had been very famous in Brazil and in the contests had no rules.
At one of the competitions, they watched a fighter from Japan - a judo master, Mitsuyo Maeda, who defeated a few opponents in the ring, one after another. They were ecstatic, because although local fighters were very strong, no one managed to beat the Japanese fighter. He used the then almost unknown martial art of judo, or kano jiu jitsu.
One after another, he knocked his opponents to the ground and there he beat them with a lock or just knocked them out at the outset. One of his opponents was so incensed that he even drew a weapon against him. Without any break, the Japanese fighter beat him too.
After seeing this demonstration two brothers decided to learn this new style and with the help of their father started BJJ. Mitsuyo Maeda was a disciple of the founder of Judo, Kano Jigoro. Maeda was sent outside of Japan to present its culture and martial arts in the world.
Kano was convinced that by training judo, everyone gets better as a whole and therefore wanted more people know about it, to make the world a better place. Maeda was also an experienced trainer and had long taught the techniques to the Gracie boys.
He also taught them and punches. These were part of Japanese jujutsu. The boys' new knowledge was combined with the skills of local fighters. That is the origin of the way of life you will learn from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
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