Joe Rogan on Why BJJ is the True Martial Art

There are many martial arts in the world, and for every martial art, there are a lot of fans and viewers around the world. People who watch and are actively involved in martial arts have different opinions about which martial art is the best and the truest art. Like many other people and martial arts lovers, the prominent name in terms of commenting on and discussing martial arts is Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan has been famous, particularly among martial arts fans, for his podcasts, in which he shares his views and opinions on different martial arts with logic and facts. His podcast comes with the name “Joe Rogan Experience”. In one of his podcast episodes, he discusses the same topic, i.e., which martial art is the best and truest form of martial art. In that discussion, Joe declares that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is the true martial art.

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is one of the earliest martial arts in the world. BJJ is a martial art in which there is ground fighting, submission holds and grappling. The fighters try to gain a dominant position over their opponents throughout the match. They do this by trying to get their opponent to the ground and control them. They try different techniques to trap their opponent, such as chokes, holds, armbars, and many other techniques that are used for submitting opponents.

• Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ originated for the first time in Japan, the country that gave birth to many martial arts known as Japanese Jiu-Jitsu (JJJ). After some time, it was emigrated to Brazil by the Gracie brothers, and then it was called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).

Yes, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the truest form of martial arts. Many martial arts lovers and practitioners believe BJJ to be the true martial art. It is called true martial art because of the following reasons;

• Almost all martial arts rely on the power and strength of the martial arts fighters. You have to be strong enough to win the match. The stronger you are, the more chances you have of winning. But BJJ is not such a type of martial art. BJJ relies solely on the technique and skills you bring to the ground against your opponent. You have to learn techniques to take your opponent down, trap them, and submit them. Being stronger will obviously give you a plus point, but you are definitely not going to win against physically weaker opponents with stronger BJJ techniques and skills.

• BJJ provides mental toughness and discipline despite making a person strong physically and technically. This helps not only those who want to start their career in BJJ but also those who are just learning BJJ to get benefits in their real life.

• BJJ is a martial art that makes no discrimination between larger size people and smaller size people. Anyone with the techniques and skills can win the game and defeat their opponent.

• All sorts of people can get benefits from BJJ and transfer them to their real lives.

Joe Rogan discussed a topic about martial arts and which martial arts is the true representative of martial arts. Lex Fridman asked some questions from Joe Rogan and asked his opinions and later on, Lex shared his own opinions about the topic.

The key logic and facts that Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman discussed in support of BJJ as the true martial art in the podcast are the following;

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, and Wrestling are the hard ones. These are absolute martial arts. If you have a fantastic physique, incredible speed, and ridiculous power, you can generate ridiculous, powerful moves.

• Other martial arts cannot be called as the true martial arts. The reason is simple: they are not fulfilling the requirement of being a true martial art. In other martial arts, you have to be strong. That is it. No technique, no skill. If you are stronger, you are the winner. Let's discuss this with the help of an example. Deontay Wilder is a very strong, muscular player. He can throw very powerful punches. Suppose he has never done boxing and has no experience at all.

• He confronts someone who is an expert in boxing and has learned all the techniques and skills which are required in boxing. But he is not as strong and muscular as Deontay Wilder is. Both have a boxing match. Who will win? Deontay Wilder with no boxing experience or a person with very good boxing experience. Deontay Wilder will definitely win. He will throw very powerful punches at that person and will easily win the game. That’s why other martial arts are all about power, strength, and physique. 

• Let's discuss the same case in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. If you are a person who, let's say, doesn't exercise and who is not strong, you are a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Then there is a person who is physically very strong, has a strong muscular body, does regular workouts, and has a lot of power, but he doesn't have any experience in martial arts at all. Guess who wins?

• This time, the person who is a black belt in BJJ can easily win over the strong, muscular, and powerful person. That is the difference. You just have to apply the technique correctly. That is why Brazilian jiu-jitsu is the absolute martial art in that you have control of the body, and once you grab and hold a person's body, he cannot escape from you as long as you are grabbing them correctly with a proper technique.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the highest representative of martial arts. When you practice wrestling, BJJ, and judo, you will feel that you have never been as humbled as in BJJ. When you start in martial arts and you start doing powerlifting, you are doing wrong. A 130-pound guy or girl with a BJJ background and experience can tap you out quickly. It is confusing because you can get pretty far with that joint head power in wrestling, and in judo, you can get a little less. So, BJJ is at its highest level of being a true martial art. If you go to Japan, you will see that the whole dream of BJJ is to effortlessly throw you, but if you go to gyms in America, you will see that there is some hard wrestling style. There is just gripping and just beating each other up pretty intensely.

BJJ is a humble sport. You cannot get this in wrestling; in wrestling, you can get away with the power. But in BJJ, you can’t. You have to show some skills you are capable of. That is the motto of martial arts in which a smaller person with the technique can beat the bigger person with no skill or technique. Just for example, you can see Bruce Lee. He is the best example for proving this point. He is a short-height guy and doesn’t have such a muscular body. But did he lose against bigger fighters? No. He could beat smaller and bigger fighters just because he has some technique. He has got some power. He showed the more prominent player who is the more significant player. That is what BJJ has given us. This is a reality in BJJ; that technique is over everything else. This is what other martial arts cannot provide us.

Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman proved in the podcast that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, without any doubt, is the truest form of martial arts. The things, the benefits, and the martial arts essence that BJJ gives are not given by any other martial art. Starting the podcast, Joe Rogan selected Judo and BJJ as the best forms of martial arts. After that, they both compared BJJ and Judo. They concluded that although Judo is also a good martial art and fulfills the target of being the true martial art to a large extent, BJJ is even better than Judo. It fulfills all the requirements to be declared as the truest form of martial art. So, the BJJ, with all the dependence on techniques makes itself the best and true martial art in the world.

BJJ is a martial art in which there is ground fighting, submission holds and grappling. The fighters try to gain a dominant position over their opponents throughout the match. They do this by trying to get their opponent to the ground and control them. They try different techniques to trap their opponent, such as chokes, holds, armbars, and many other techniques that are used for submitting opponents.

BJJ is a humble sport. You cannot get this in wrestling; in wrestling, you can get away with the power. But in BJJ, you can’t. You have to show some skills you are capable of. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the highest representative of martial arts. When you practice wrestling, BJJ, and judo, you will feel that you have never been as humbled as in BJJ. That is the motto of martial arts in which a smaller person with the technique can beat the bigger person with no skill or technique. 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the truest form of martial arts. It is called true martial art because of the following reasons;

• Almost all martial arts rely on the power and strength of the martial arts fighters. You have to be strong enough to win the match. BJJ relies solely on the technique and skills you bring to the ground against your opponent. You have to learn techniques to take your opponent down, trap them, and submit them.

• BJJ provides mental toughness and discipline despite making a person strong physically and technically.

• BJJ is a martial art that makes no discrimination between larger size people and smaller size people. Anyone with the techniques and skills can win the game and defeat their opponent.

• All sorts of people can get benefits from BJJ and transfer them to their real lives.