Okay… this is wrapping up! This is Part Four of my interview with Robert Drysdale about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as self-defense. The pros and the cons. The first two episodes, we really went in depth on the self-defense side. The third one, we've talked a little bit about the history of Jiu Jitsu and we were just getting to the point to where we're talking about the inception and how it really birthed the UFC. In this conversation, we really talked about that. We talked about the early days and what it proved and why it was, you know…
Such a seminal event and the place that Jiu Jitsu held in that event and why it's important. This wraps up kind of everything that I wanted to do. You know, we've talked about in other videos. I've talked about, you know… the challenges of ground fighting and in this interview, we talked about that with Robert from his perspective and now we got to learn a little bit about unique history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and some of the controversies of him trying to get that information out. So again, please support Robert! Please make sure you get a copy of his book "Opening Closed Guard" and then "Closed Guard" the actual documentary should be coming out very soon! We will announce it as soon as I know it's out there and tell you what platform but I'm looking very forward to seeing it! Okay! So again, for those of you…
If you waited till Part Four to get in this and you don't know who Robert is, we've gone over that in Part One. You know, one of the few guys to be a double champion at the most prestigious Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Championships. Great MMA fighter. He's worked for some of the top people in the industry so he knows all aspects of combat sports and how they all come together. Again, you know… he's an author. He's just an intelligent guy and he's really, really fun to talk to.
So I think you're going to really like the closing of this interview. Again you know… when you get a chance, you know? Give me some comments on what you thought about you know, Robert's portrayal of Jiu Jitsu and this. I'd really like to hear what you think about it… but let's jump right in to Part Four! Robert: …combat. Tim: Yeah, but that the whole idea that being born, you know… in the Vale Tudo tradition and then taking that and then creating the UFC, you know… I mean the original… I loved the concept of the original UFC where you earned your way there to get that fight. That was a hell of it! I mean, I get it! It's brewed, I get there's a lot of controversy about it but it truly was… those early ones were really interesting from a tenacity standpoint. You saw some incredible, incredible… you know, just performances that you don't see. I understand… in order for them to do what they wanted to do. That they had to, they had to alter and get weight classes and do all that. I totally understand that! But from a purest standpoint…
(Robert: Oh yeah! I'm with you.) Tim: It's amazing! (Robert: It was incredible!) It was just amazing. Robert: I am more entertained by Royce Gracie… than I am with Francis Ngannou and I understand Francis would kill Royce Gracie without no fight. Royce and his prime wouldn't last around with Francis Ngannou… I get that! But I don't think it's nearly as interesting… because they, that was the moment… that's when the reality check take! Like there's more fighting than just like fancy kicks! Tim: People were shocked! Like they couldn't believe this relatively skinny guy, you know… like in a traditional gi you know, as far as the traditional Judo type gi was able to do what he's able to do! Robert: And he's from brazil doesn't make sense.
If he's from Japan! Tim: You know before that we have Brazil, wasn't known as… (Robert: it wasn't on the map!) Tim: It was just not something. We're just ignorant about it. You know, there's nothing! I've never seen any change. I've never seen what it's like and then what the positive things that it's done for Military Units, for Law Enforcement Units… The people that take up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu… at least they're training! You know… and I don't mean that in a denigrating way, but I mean is prior to that these guys weren't doing a lot of hands on training. You know, when it came to hand to hand combat and everything… Now they're regularly training. They're regularly rolling. They're regularly doing stuff. They feel comfortable! To me, it's just tremendous that they're able to do that and I give BJJ a huge credit for that! Robert: No! They were… I mean, and you know what's most remarkable in this whole story and that's just something that they never give themselves credit for.
It's like they get mad when I say that "Helio didn't invent like revolutionized the ground" because he didn't! The japanese were much better than him, in fact! We have many japanese who are much better grapplers than him. But what they did… imagine you have a business, right? And for what… let say 1930-1990, it's 60 years! It's not really pulling in a profit. Right? You're running that business and you're working that business non-stop and you're at it and you believe it! 60 years man! No one was paying attention to it. You think a lot of people practicing Jiu Jitsu in Brazil? No one even knew what it was! It's a lie. They had like the biggest tournament in the region and there have like 200 competitors before Royce and I was there and that's real! Outside really no one have heard of the Gracie family, right? And they stuck to their way of doing things.
Now, that's truly incredible. Imagine you have this idea and you stick to it for 60 years and you had it handed out to your children and they handed out to their children, to family tradition… but no one cares! Just you and your family and half a dozen other people. It's incredible when you think about it, right? And they… and then they give us the UFC? Well, thank you! Like, I couldn't be more thankful but that being said… they didn't do it alone! Didn't invent anything. They've got to be fair here. Like, you have to be fair to the Japanese were the Japanese were light years ahead of them, technically! You can't even begin to compare or begin to compare! Right? But… the Japanese let it go. They didn't think it was important. They dropped the ground. They dropped the self-defense. They dropped their… they can't, they stuck to their Judo.
Their olympic style, right? That became the mainstream Judo and they neglected it! And that's the reality of it. And the Gracie family did it, they kept it alive. So… that's the conclusion from you know, the book and the documentary, basically. Tim: When do you think… I know it's a question probably you can't answer, when do you think we might be able to see the movie? We're hoping this year… but I've said that last year, the year before that as well. Like the truth of the matter is… it's much, the biggest problem has been compacting you know… 140 years of history into 90 minutes. That is a huge challenge! And it's because of what you leave out, right? If I'm introducing five new characters, I can't just mention their names. I gotta say who they are and why they're important. And I can't do that in less than five minutes. And that's just for one character. Right? You got to give them a background. If I'm going to destroy a myth, well… I have to talk about the myth first because I can't assume that the audience knows what the myth is.
So I have to present the myth and then I have to deconstrue it. You see like all these things are very thin. How do you talk about Luta Livre and Catch Wrestling and the birth of Vale Tudo and all these characters, all these moments… And it's incredibly difficult! That being said, you know… there's… we're making progress like it's going to happen but I think that the main concern now is not, I know there's a lot of people now are unhurried to watch it… we want something that's archival! I would like this something to be that 100 years from now, people are still referencing this because the very first MMA fighters in the world, the very first Jiu Jitsu practitioners in the world…
We interviewed! We've lost five of them since we finished filming (Tim: Wow!) because they're all in their 90s. (Tim: Wow!) So we caught them right before they went man! So you can't redo it. What we did you cannot redo because they're gone! Tim: That's awesome! So because of that, we understand the value and the importance of what we're doing. We're talking about the birth of MMA and Jiu Jitsu here, right? So it is an important work. So we want it to be archived and a reference for future generations to understand because most people aren't going to read the books, but they'll watch a 90 minute film. So we have that responsibility of delivering a good quality product and not doing it in a rush. Tim: Well that's… you know, I wish the best on that and I really hope we get to see within the year but I would tell everybody "Get the book! That the book is amazing. The book covers this amazing history." There was so much that I didn't know and I've actually read a couple of books on the history of Jiu Jitsu.
The research is great! You're honest as hell, unless you're just very like straightforward and it's a rare thing because you get that, you get the idea that you're really putting out a true history and I think it's huge for people and also "I would highly encourage you guys to check out, you know… Robert's got a lot of information! Check out his approach to training. Especially, you know… my children are actually were in your kids program for a while before Covid and we're hoping to get them all back in now." It's just been terrible! What it's done to kids and training and everything. But I would highly encourage it and if you're coming to Vegas, you know…
You got to check out his studio. it's just amazing! All the best, my friend! Robert: Thank you man, it's pleasure! (Tim: Really appreciate it!) Thank you it's a pleasure. Any time! Well, listen… I hope you enjoyed that Four Part series with Robert. I knew it was going to be an interesting interview but I think the whole idea of talking about the self-defense aspect of Jiu Jitsu, the pros and cons was really, really important and then I think it's also… just as important to do the history that we did in these last two segments. You know, it truly is amazing! A country that was not known for Combat Sports, was not known to have proficient you know… world class fighters comes out of nowhere essentially and dominates and completely changes the way people look at combat sports and it's pretty cool, cool history. There are those of you that, you know… I don't like Jiu Jitsu! It's not you know good for multi you know…
Multi attackers scenarios, all of that sh*t! Listen! Regardless of what you're saying… it dominates right now, BJJ dominates just about every aspect of Law Enforcement, Military you know… community. I mean the the community of Jiu Jitsu is just incredible with these guys and they have a lot of fun. I think we covered that pretty well so you can understand the phenomenon of Jiu Jitsu and then take it in! if you want to try it out… Now you know! Now you know a little bit about it. But I really enjoyed it! Again, I just… I am fascinated by the history of combat sports and the characters that come out. And Robert really did a great job of putting that all together in his book. So… I hope, I hope you take advantage of that. I hope you get the book. I hope you watch this documentary and then please any questions or follow ups that you want, Please send them in and we will look at having Robert back on to answer any of those…
So until next time, Thanks very much!.
