Best BJJ Grapplers of the Modern Era

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a form of martial arts practiced today, particularly the no-gi or submission grappling. It includes other grappling-based martial arts like jiu jitsu, wrestling, Judo, and Sambo. After its invention, many people from all walks of life have been blessed with the knowledge of practicing the sport. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is all about fighting on the ground, incorporating submissions, takedowns, locks, chokes, and grappling submissions to defeat opponents and win.

There is an aspect whereby a lot of effort is involved, such as using most of the body’s weight on the other performer or throwing them so that they are pinned down to the floor or the ground, exposing them to the possibility of surrendering. Simply put, BJJ or no-gi BJJ or submission grappling is a martial art that is on the rise. It is a mixed martial arts that comprises mat fighting, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Catch wrestling, Judo, and Sambo. This sport has transformed over time, with the distribution of information concerning it improving as several people from different origins became familiar with it.

A charismatic and outstanding female grappler is Miss Gabrielle Garcia, who was born in Campinas in June of 1985 and is more commonly known as Gabi. She found her passion for becoming the world's most muscular woman in BJJ in her teenage when she developed an interest in BJJ. She was exposed to several combat styles but opted for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She was trained under the umbrella of one of the biggest icons in sports, Fabio Gurgel, and was awarded her black belt in BJJ.

Miss Garcia is a positive and inspiring personality in fitness and leading a healthy lifestyle. Many young people love her and follow her lifestyle and passion for BJJ. Her performance during the Olympics and prominent assertive personality on social networks motivated many people to pursue a dream and follow a goal in any sphere of life. For the same reason, she is not just a name that can be erased but a symbol of strength and power for all women. Her successes are now recognized locally and globally, particularly in women’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Here are some of her accomplishments. As for the IBJJF World Championships, Gabriela García won several gold medals and is considered one of the best female athletes.

This was at 14, performing as the women’s fighting champion. She took part in many productions and received several prizes. This resulted in success in different world championships and combat, which placed her among the best female fighters in history. She also possesses a ferocious, striking style and is strong. She is described as having six victories and no losses, so she has not had a NoGi contest in the field of MMA. Her tactics of pressuring her opponent and overpowering her opponent were some of the skills that made her a winner in many  GI and No GI tournaments. She was among the most muscular women in the fighter era. She participated in multiple combats in IBJJF and ADCC and an MMA competition.

• Miss Gabi made a fight debut in 2015 in MMA and won that against Lei'D Tapa.

• She was the first woman to win four gold medals in ADCC against Carina Santi in 2019.

• She also won against Nathiely de Jesus in the Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships, another prestigious tournament within the BJJ.

• She was part of many other competitions and received titles from various grappling tournaments.

• She is a nine-time world champion in the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship and has also secured her title four times in the ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) competition.

• She is also a Hall of Fame of the 2018 batch in IBJJF.

• Gabi Garcia was promoted to black belt in 2023.

During her constructive years, Gabi devoted herself to strict training, which enabled her to pursue her dream. Her hard work made her stand out among the best fighting grapplers in BJJ. Her drilling started with intensive BJJ training, strength and conditioning workouts, a healthy lifestyle, mental conditioning, and techniques.

Her fighting style has been upgraded due to her intense training, which combined extreme strength and technical skills. Her BJJ grappling background gives her an edge, and her creative striking techniques make her a versatile fighter.

After years of training, Gabi earned her spot in the competitive background. She started partaking in local matches and quickly grew to national and international competitions. Her notable performances accumulated her glory and consideration within the BJJ community.

Craig Jones is a practice fighter in the history of BJJ. He was born in 1991 in Adelaide, Australia, and as a young boy, he dreamed of becoming an MMA fighter. He is often called the "new Eddie Bravo." He started training as a grappler and was introduced to martial arts at 15 at Isohealth Academy with his cousin Matt Jones. He made his name as the Austral grappler at a low rank. Jones began training at Maromba Academy in Asutrail to polish his skills and become a professional MMA fighter as a purpler belt.

In February 2013, he competed as a purple belt in the IBJJF's San Francisco Open and, to his surprise, won gold in his division, having done very little jiu-jitsu. In 2013 and 2014, he continued to compete at the purple belt level, winning numerous titles at the Australian state championship levels in gi and no gi, including the National American Grappling Association World Championship title in April 2014. He won the No Gi competition in IBJJF in 2015, was promoted to brown belt by Lachlan Giles, and won his black belt after years of training.

Craig Jones is well known for his leg lock game, and many of his wins involve submitting the opponent from the bottom position. His expertise in the No Gi competition can be seen throughout his record in BJJ combats, and he has influenced many practitioners of the young generation.

His No Gi has entered the MMA world and become an invaluable tool for fighters to enhance their ground-taking and creative game approaches, which are layers of strategies that contributed to developing the game in BJJ and MMA.

• His career as a grappling fighter began in 2014 when he completed a purple belt in AFBJJ Pan Pacific and won a gold medal.

• In 2015, he became the first Austrian male to win a purple belt division in the No-Gi IBJJF world championship.

• His road to success began in 2016 when he won a bronze medal in the brown belt division of the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Giles declared him a black belt while training at Absolute MMA Academy the same year.

• The turning point for his career was the 2017 ADCC World Championship, where he defeated many notable fighters, including five-time black belt champ Leandro Lo and Murilo Santana.

• He won a silver medal in 2019 in submission, fighting the world championship in ADCC.

• He won a match against three times world champion Nicholas Meregali in ADCC in 2022.

• In 2023, the JitsMagazine BJJ Awards announced him as "Submission of the Year" and "The Personality of the Year."

• In 2024, the Years on Jones, he won multiple matches in various tournaments against Rafael Lovato Jr., Philip Rowe, Rinat Fakhretdinov, and Joe Rogan Experience.

The renowned Australian BJJ grappler has revolutionized the combat style with his unique leg lock submission method, skillful leg locking, and vertical competition with the efficient guard in BJJ. His distinctive leg lock submission method has made him recognized worldwide. He was inspired by practitioners like Gordon Ryan and Eddie Cummings in the so-called Danaher Death Squad and competitions like the Eddie Bravo. He realized that teaching and competing in No-Gi was the best way to make a living off the sport he loved. He was such a prevalent BJJ player that Lachlan Giles presented him with a brown belt and also made him a trainer at his Absolute MMA Academy to teach students and coaches in 2016. The same year, he competed in the IBJJF World Nogi Championship and remained victorious.

Jones was a steady competitor from 2018-2022, with notable wins due to his distinctive leglock techniques and another submission applied against Jake Shields, Mason Fowler, Nicholas Meregali, Vagner, Rocha Gilbert Burns, Rousimar Palhares, Roberto Jimenez, Keenan Cornelius, among many others.

2019, Jones moved to New York to join the Danaher Death Squad. He was recognized for his ingenious leg lock and lower-body submission systems and rained among many athletes, including Gordon Ryan, Nicky Rya, and Eddie Cummings. His time in Danaher Death Squad helped develop his leg-locking game, and he named my victories using these submissions and a rear naked choke.

He is one of BJJ history's most assertive and amusing submission-heavy grappling players. Most of his victories are due to his leg-locking submission art, including his most used move, the heel hook.

Gordon Ryan, another American third-degree black belt in No-Gi submission grappling in BJJ, is also known as "The King."

Born in New Jersey, America, in 1995, a former member of John Danaher’s coaching team, popularly known as Danaher Death Squad. He was among those who introduced the New Wave in the BJJ world. This champion is considered to be the most astonishing and the best grappler of BJJ by the founder and legend Roger Gracie

Since he was 15, he has trained under Tom DeBlass and Miguel Benitez. He currently trains with other coaches at the Renzo Gracie Academy.

His training with John Danaher sharpened his skills and played a significant part in his success in BJJ. He was an excellent comparator during his early training to become a grappler, as he trained under various of the best grapplers of that time. He began his grappling career at 15 and has competed in many tournaments while being a brown belt.

• He stayed a brown belt for six months, competed in the No-Gi Worlds and Newaza Challenges, and named the victory that took his career to another level. With years of hard work and brilliant performance, he was elevated to black belt by Garry Tonon in 2016.

• During the same year, he was able to pin world champion Yuri Simões in the Eddie Bravo Invitational Championship tournament. In 2017.

• He was granted a gold medal in the ADCC World Championship in 2017 for beating well-known champions like Xande Ribeiro, Keenan Cornelius, Dillon Danis, Romulo Barral, and Keenan Cornelius in the weight of class.

• He won the EBI Champion and earned a name for himself as "The Iron Dragon" by defeating Yuri Simões.

• He made a remarkable win by achieving the title in weight class and the Aboulate division in the 2018 IBJJF Pan No-Gi tournament.

• Despite being injured, he participated in the 2019 ADCC and won the match and a gold medal in the absolute division.

• In 2022, Gordon was declared the first grappler in ADCC history to become champion in three different weight classes against numerous players and also the first to submit the fastest submission in ADCC history in 11 seconds.

• He retained his heavyweight title against Lucas Barbosa in 2023 at Who's Number One.

• He competed against Josh Saunders in 2024, Who's Number One, and remained victorious.

He is one of the very attentive grapplers, defeating his opponents, pinning them down, and submitting them. His no-gi skills are unbeatable and show that he has invested countless hours in Jiu-Jitsu, practicing, struggling, exercising, training, coaching, and simply living in a gym for years. His ability to observe his opponent's moves or change strategies is a sign of cleverness in the game. This gives him an advantage over the opponent's weaknesses and available opportunities for submission, making it very difficult for them to manage themselves.

He continued smoothing his techniques despite every hurdle, including his severe stomach pains from leaving the Danaher Death Squad. Those issues never made him lose his determination to be the best he could be. For that reason, he has maintained a competitive edge and can continue to do so in the future.

Garry Tonon is an American grappler pushing the New Wave in BJJ. He was born in New Jersey, America, in 1991 and has grappled since a very young age. He is known as "The Lion Killer" of BJJ and trained under the guidelines of Tom DeBlass and John Danaher. He is listed among those who brought the leg lock submission game to the BJJ community in recent years.

His journey to becoming an influential team member started very young. He started wrestling in fifth grade and wrestled for five successive years.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu helped him achieve global recognition when he was 14 years old. Garry is one of the most talented and successful competitors around. He participated in submission grappling and mixed martial arts. He became an EBI champion many times and an ADCC medalist.

He was trained under Tom de Blass and Ricardo Almeida and became a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. John Danaher mentored and trained him. He was a member of the Danahewildlyth Squad, a well-known and highly skilled submission grappling team.

He won the IBJJF World and Pan American Championships in no-gi combat. He is known as one of the most valuable submission grapplers of all time, along with Eddie Bravo, Polaris, and Metamoris.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts helped him fight and improve his health, which has helped him become a champion and make positive changes in his new life. His ADHD made him a legend in BJJ and MMA. The symptoms helped him stay hyper-focused, which gave him an upper hand in mastering BJJ's tech questions and submissions. He trained twice a day with Tom DeBlass.

• At 16, he participated in his first international competition as a blue belt and won the title of World Championship in 2008.

• He competed in the IBJJF Pan Championship in the No-Gi Purple Belt category in first Place and the No-Gi Peso Leve weight class in second Place in 2010.

• He also won several titles in many compilations as a brown belt and was promoted to black belt in 2013.

• As a black belt from 2013 to 2017, he competed in many Jiu-Jitsu competitions, including the IBJJF World and Pan American Championships, NAGA, and many more.

• He made his professional debut in MMA for ONE Championship in 2018 against Richard Corminal and came back victorious. He remained victorious in his second professional MAA fight against Rahul Raju and this red one against Sung Jong Lee, defeating both by TKO and Guillotine Choke.

• He scored his fifth unbreakable victory in 2019 against Yoshiki Nakahara.

• In 2020, he completed a computation without his coach and secured a win by a compatible decision against Koyomi Matsushima.

• Garry Tonon won another match in 20203 in the ONE Fight Night competition. He won the game in the first round by using a Kimura lock submission against Johnny Nuñez. In July of the same year, he was awarded 'Performance of the Night' in the same competition against Shamil Gasanov.

• He was rewarded again with the same title in a 2024 match against Martin Nguyen in the ONE 165 competition.

His life is an excellent example for youngsters. His medical condition doesn't stop him from pursuing his dreams. His unique fighting style has made him a 4-degree black belt and two-time holder of ADCC world championship titles as a young grappler of America.

Eddie Cummings's success influenced him in no-gi grappling. He followed in his footsteps into the no-GI competition and began training with coach John Danaher in submission-based techniques and to focus on no-gi gameplay.

Tonon is well known for his grappling style, in which he strikes the lower limbs and uses heel hooks, submission locks, and rear naked chokes to submit the opponent. This was because Tonon and Cummings displayed remarkable victory and initial successes in the submission-only attacks, and thus, the Danaher Death Squad was born.

Torre's gripping technique and strength earned him the nickname The Spider-Man. His grabbing technique was referred to as a spider web, allowing Torres to hold down the opponent and preserve his movements of escaping or using an account attack. His methods include proper concentration on the knees and then grabbing the opponent's Gi collar to make sense of the move.

He stood near his opponent by gripping his thumb, bringing both hands under the armpit, and digging his elbow onto the opponent's body as hard as possible.

The recent decade in submission grappling has produced many outstanding champions with diverse backgrounds who have revolutionized the sport and are among the extraordinary grapplers. As these incredible transformations from mere dreams of wanting to become athletes take submission wrestling to new frontiers, they remain inspiring and etch indelible imprints on the history of BJJ. For as long as they continue to be those spectacular transformations from being no more than mere dreamers wanting to become athletes, inspiration is sure to come their way, and in so doing, will leave indelible marks on the history of BJJ as they forge new frontiers for submission wrestling. Their impact does not stop on the mat but transcends and continues to influence generations and the future grappling as we see it now.

Garry Tonon grappled from when he was five and was known as the "Lion Killer of BJJ." Regarding the New Wave in BJJ, Tom DeBlass and John Danaher advised him on how this new wave might continue. Garry Tonon became popular in the BJJ world, becoming the EBI champion and an ADCC medalist. He further ventured into and won several professional MMA contests.

Gordon Ryan is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt who was brought up from a young age with seasoned coaches like John Danaher. These have made him influential in grappling since he specializes in training and development. The difficulties and injuries that Gordon Ryan had to endure during the training accompanied him, and the fluctuations of his training partners kept him concentrated on his chosen career. He is preparing and fighting at the top level while training to grapple by overcoming everything.

Submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu share many similarities regarding technique, equipment, and discipline. It also shares some similarities with MMA combat on a mat. Other forms of grappling martial arts are jiu-jitsu, wrestling, judo, and sambo, but submission grappling means any sort of wrestling that allows for grappling, not BJJ.

Craig Jones is an Australian by birth. He has been training as a grappler since a tender age and is of quality in the class. He has garnered several accolades in his playing career and is a professional player. For instance, while training for three years as a purple belt with the IBJJF in jiu-jitsu, he bagged gold in his division in the San Francisco Open.

Gabi is an alias of a Brazilian grappler and an athlete renowned for her incredible fighting style. She has succeeded many times in both her GI and NO GI fighting careers, placing her among the best fighters of the generation in general and female fighters in particular.