Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu isn’t useless, and it’s not in crisis. It is, and always will be, applicable in MMA, despite what BJJ legend Rickson Gracie might think.
However, it’s easy to see why some might think that Jiu-Jitsu’s prestige has fallen because, quite frankly, it has.
When BJJ (then called “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu” in a brilliant stroke of marketing) burst into the United States in 1993, it quickly became the most feared martial art on the planet.
Royce Gracie—the representative of the Gracie family—ran through some of the world’s best martial artists by using grappling and submission holds (which were practically unheard of in the mainstream U.S. martial arts culture at the time—thanks, Karate Kid).
