BTG 114 - Will the UFC take over BJJ?

[Music] hello and welcome to Breaking the guard today episode we'll talk about a few different topics first off just going off fight news uh if you watched there was UFC in in China and maau I believe and Peter Yan got back into winning form uh beating uh Davis and figure RTO um so that's good for him and now it looks like morab wants to get a rematch with Peter Jan uh which is interesting normally the chant doesn't call out Challengers like that it's usually the other way around but that's an interesting matchup they also have uh coming up Jerry prasa versus Jamal Hill that's actually an interesting fight uh I think Jerry is a bit too much of a Wildman for somebody like Pereira who's very technical but against Jamal Hill I think that would be a a good matchup to see uh who will come out on top now uh one of the things I wanted to discuss was the UFC taking a bigger step into the grappling world I talked about this on Friday on the news segment but I'll expand a bit more on it as far as also my views of how this shapes the future for grappling the right now we have flow grappling who's doing who's number one and other events like that we have and they're kind of been they're both doing events and also like the being the hosting the video hosting and recording and production for other events like ibjjf for example of course ibjjf is I I imagine the biggest grappling event currently but now ADCC is also taking a big role in doing events worldwide you got the nagas you know and other smaller shows and I feel there's a good healthy competition between these events ADCC ibjjf uh you have some of the Eddie Bravo stuff going on UFC making its move in to me is a big signal that grappling is on the rise and signing up Mikey musami for an exclusive contract is also a big signal uh that there's going to be a battle for talent now some people were saying oh you know these exclusive contracts are bad for the fighters because it's going to potentially block people from competing at other shows and events and then we're going to kind of have a a repeat of early 2000s MMA where UFC and pride where they weren't really crossing over much and there was a argument whether who was the best fighter because one of the top fighters was in each promotion that is a valid argument and I think uh that will definitely play a factor it's I know people on both sides of this one thinking the UFC going into grappling is going to be great the contracts are going to give like steady income and a reliable source of employment lots of exposure to sponsors and because of the resources that they have through their parent company at TKO they're going to have um lots of talent coming in so now you're going to be able to shine against the best Stars which is what ultimately what any true champion wants is to be able to say they're the best Undisputed right not that I'm the best in this particular League these may all come to pass and I hope it does but the UFC is going to do what the UFC does which is going to be to Corner the market right it's what they did in MMA and I have no doubt they will attempt to do the same thing in grappling and with their resources they definitely will probably be able to do that and if so it may enhance The Spectator viewer experience as far is having a lot more events and being able to get better production and whatnot but it might not be as beneficial for the Grapplers right where they might be stuck in the contract they don't end up getting paid for sponsors because the UFC gets this pay and then they kind of they filter it down they trickle down effect if you will of Your sponsorship money you know and it's going to be contingent on your ranking and status which is not going to determine who you get to Grapple right it's going to be a popularity contest like it's always been so you could tell that I'm a little jaded about that right uh so I don't think it's all sunshine and rainbows the like I said it is a good sign as far as the market that the UFC wants to get into grappling they've actually uh I believe they just announced they're doing a reality show for Grapplers now and they're going to expand on the fight pass imitational I don't know it wasn't clear the name of the Fight Pass invitation is going to be the the name of the league they're describing uh but in any case it might it might be FBI just grows into the league or it might be another uh name that moves forward that becomes this grappling League that the UFC wants to Foster and in Dana's words I'm paraphrasing here but TKO the parent company is going to be the home of all Combat Sports boxing kickboxing MMA and grappling Jiu-Jitsu so they're obviously going after the whole pie and it's interesting because Dana White is not a fan of grappling from what I can tell so this only tells me that there's enough money in grappling now or potential that he's interested in getting in there and and uh taking the LI share of it that seems to to track as far as they had to build the MMA market right the there was a market for it when Dana got in there but it wasn't that big they had to build it and that took a lot of work a lot of lobbying uh and he got it done and you know kudos to him for doing doing it because we probably wouldn't be here without it but that being said I don't think he was going to be the guy to put in the work to get grappling at that same level so he did the smart thing I I believe which is he let other people build that market and now that it's been built up and mind you it's still not at the level it would need to be to be very serious or at least on the level of MMA but it's getting up there where it has now that potential at least that's what I'm hoping that he's seeing so he's said okay now it's going to be a good time to swoop in and I can take this to the next level I don't want to start from Ground Zero I'm going to start from you know the middle floor and then build up I mentioned this like there's teams that are like this right there are teams that or I'm talking about jusa schools or MMA schools that specialize on creating Talent like the or they they they will get somebody who's a nobody and make them into a star and then there's other schools that are recruitment schools that they don't know how to make Talent they can recognize it and then they can elevate it or give it the platform of needs to be able to bump up right so in this case I believe u the UFC is doing the recruitment strategy here which is they're not going to build the market they're going to go into a market Market that's already up and coming and then they can elevate it a level uh so I think that's great news for Grapplers right whether you're excited about this new Venture the UFC is doing or you think it's like the downfall of the of grappling you at least have to recognize that the UFC moving in is kind of like waren Buffett taking interest in your company right like there's going to be a lot of money coming your way now right um now if that long-term creates a better position for the grappling economy is another story I think ultimately it will right the but the other players have to remain involved uh I think if you just trust the UFC to do right by the athlete you're going to be you're going to be sorely mistaken right like you're going to have to be vigilant uh make sure you don't get locked into anything uh that is too Ironclad against you uh typically fight promotion contracts go one way which is to the promotion and you're not seen as uh you're well you're not an employee of the company you're a contractor you're disposable right you're only used not uh grown so if you're a Grappler that's in the process of getting acquired by the UFC just realize that that's it's an adversarial relationship it's not uh they're not your friends right you're you're useful to them because you're going to make them money the moment you're not you're going to get thrown off the side of the road so just the Loyalty doesn't go any further than that as long as you understand that then I think you'll be fine and you can Traverse that terrain as necessary I would also say make sure that you do take advantage of the benefits that the UFC would offer you which is that massive amount of exposure don't expect that they're going to do all the work for you and that they're going to Market you and they're going to get you you know sponsorship deals that you can actually make money from uh that they're going to grow your other businesses for you if you have them you're going to have to do a lot of lifting all right you want to make sure that you have people in place that if you're not that type of your business stabby entrepreneur that you have somebody that can maximize your potential with this big exposure this is kind of like if you're going to go in The Joe Rogan podcast and you had nothing to promote you wasted a massive opportunity there right of course you're excited about you know being on a big platform and being able to talk to somebody that you know is talk to all some of the most amazing people on the planet and that in itself is a treat but it's also a big opportunity to put out a message right so if you just came to have a fun conversation and that was it you've kind of wasted the biggest megaphone on the on the planet and the UFC provides that type of opportunity as well as a fighter you get to display yourself in the biggest light possible so you want to make sure that you make it very well known the other things that people who enjoy your fighting can follow you through right and try to capitalize it as much as you can because as you should know your athletic career is relatively short compared to your life I would hope so at least maybe you're going to be at the top for 10 15 years which is a long career so your life is probably going to last by life expectancy in the US to your 70s so you need backup plans and hopefully that athletic career your time at the top there can fuel other endeavors that you have so that once you decide to step off from fighting other parts of your life are booming so just make sure you have those things in place right everybody at this point if you're in the fight game should have a social media account that you're posting to you should have websites so people can buy merch from they can you know invest in courses that you have um you know they can you know book events with you seminars like all these things should be in place right like you want to be ready for uh what type of that type of mass exposure should be and even if you're not there yet you should you should be ready because if you're pursuing a career in the martial arts ultimately you want to be at that level so if you're not ready for that you know you're kind of setting yourself up for failure in my opinion so I mean those are my takes there uh as far as UFC moving into to the grappling space uh like I said I will stay in the optimistic side that I hope that it only grows a sport more without tearing it apart and you know monopolizing it I think that it's going to be difficult for the UFC to do that more difficult to do in grappling than it was in MMA when the UFC basically started MMA right at least in the Western in North America and it was the first real uh MMA in the USA of course Japan was doing stuff Brazil was obviously doing mudo but it didn't have a global impact like UFC did so they were essentially the first to Market and they were able to continue that so they had that advantage that they were able and they were able to adapt and shift to the the political climate as regulations came in so they were able to keep that First Market Advantage kind of like how you know in the cryptocurrency space Bitcoin has remained on top the entire time despite there being like thousands and thousands of different coins that have newer technology it's just like Bitcoin got in there first and they managed to adapt and stay on brand UFC is not the first to grappling they're going to be like probably one of the last to get into grappling all right uh there's like ibjjf cbjf right you know you have ACC you know you have your nangas your grapplings your who's number one so there are lots of events that already have a lot more history and they also have their fingers in lots of pies already you know globally so for the UFC to be able to monopolize grappling is going to be more difficult there's also lots of different types of grappling right as far as rooll sets you have the Eddie brael style of of you know no score sudden death periods you have ibf Point space with advantages you have ADCC with no score than scoring right uh and then you have the team style events so there's lots of different styles so it becomes harder I mean it's like Niche niches within niches right so I think that grappling has that going for it where it's going to be hard for you see to be able just to swallow up all that because certain competitors only compete in certain types of events as well so unless they plan on holding all the different rules sets uh it's going to be difficult so I think on the optimistic side that the you see essentially is going to have their brand of grappling with their role sets that they like and that they think is the most entertaining for their viewers and it's going to become probably one of the stronger uh leagues but it won't be able to swallow up everybody at least that's what I I hope and if it could become a viable competitor then perhaps it can start bumping pay raises for everybody and all the different associations you know and it'll be interesting to see what happens with uh CGI cji uh CJ it's F my brother had told me that I was saying CGI a lot and I I denied that I did and I just did it right now so cji if they decide to do another event which they said they are how it's going to fit into that space with uh the UFC ADCC ijf uh great time to be in grappling that's all I can say right you have lots of opportunity right now I wish I was an active Grappler right now because so much you can do here now last thing I'll talk about that I mentioned I think on this past Wednesday and on the fitness tip but I was talking to people who were asking be a my made Fitness routine and they were somewhat enlightened by this information so I feel like I can expand it a bit more which is for I was talking about it in a weightlifting context but essentially it works on any type of exercise or Fitness whether it's martial arts training sprinting Jiu-Jitsu whatever we're used to thinking of routines and your schedule based off a calendar right in a calendar the most common unit that's repeatable is a week right there's always the same seven days in a week There's weeks you know four and the third weeks in a month so normally we don't set up our training schedule on a month we set it up on a week and it repeats right and depending on the type of routine you might Advance the the routine depending on the week that you're in but the basic unit of organization is a week which consists of seven days now you will you might say okay if we're doing weightlifting I'm going to lift Monday Wednesday Friday or if I'm doing jiu-jitsu I do you know about martial arts I grapples on Monday Wednesday Friday I do wrestling Tuesdays I do kickboxing on Thursdays and then Saturday open m Sunday I chill and you might have some type of thing like that and it repeats so you have this very cyclical pattern that works very neatly in two weeks when you're a younger person that works great and the reason being normally you can organize your workouts in such a way that you can have a good frequency of activity and you recover quick enough that it makes sense now I'm 43 a 7 day week does not work for me if I try to lift three times a week within seven days it doesn't work I could do it once and then performance starts to degrade and it's simply because I'm not getting enough recovery between my exercises have my workouts so what I started doing recently is going into what I call a nday week right where rather than try to fit my ex my workout routine in seven days I'm going to fit it in nine days for example for the strength training program I'm doing which i t about mad cow 5x5 I lift this week I lifted on Monday I lifted I had two days rest then I lifted on Thursday I rested Friday rested Saturday and then I lift on Sunday right so I'm giving two days rest between my lifts that gives me enough time to recover from that previous uh lift so that I can be optimal on that next day now as a consequence that you might say well that sounds that that reads like seven days but you have to read because look I LIF on day one two days rest lift on day four two days rest lift on day seven so it's but the problem is it doesn't repeat right away it needs two more days right so that's where you get your ninth uh day basically so as a consequence you don't get a clean weekly schedule by the calendar because my lifting days are always going to be different right for example I lift on Sunday the third which would Complete the quote unquote nday week so now my next lit is going to be on Wednesday right and then after that it's going to be Saturday and and Tuesday right so it's always going to be rotating so not ideal right especially you know if you have a particular shift or whatnot that you're only available certain days to do this is not going to be great for you right but if you have a little bit of flexibility then it's going to help a lot at least for me it's been a lot easier to lift thinking of a 9 days cycle versus a 7-Day cycle right because the nine days for me is optimal the my lips are better each time and I imagine at some point it might become a 10day cycle right as the recovery goes downhill uh and that's fine just I I think the importance is understanding that recovery is very important and if you're not getting enough recovery you're not going to be able to bound as well as you want so the performance on that that workout routine is not going to be great especially when it comes to lifting recovery to me is far more important than frequency because your lifting is only going to produce a strong signal for growth and strength if you're lifting optimally if you're lifting and you're getting bad lifts because because you're not well rested you're not getting a strong signal for growth because you're not able to achieve that Peak output so you're actually doing yourself harm like you're not going to move up if anything you might move back because maybe you injure yourself right so especially for for Lifting for strength or for power production we want to make sure we have full capacity so there needs to be as close to 100% recovery as you can get this can also also translate into your grappling and your Martial Arts and your kickboxing striking all your different uh things there because you might find that you're not able to train four or five times a week in a 7-Day period but if you stretch out the time maybe on a n day you could do four times a week or five times a week and I I find that to be a lot more useful and I think with martial arts training since the goals are different we're not trying to build strength when we're doing martial arts ideally we're trying to build technique and of course there's going to be some strength Ed and some speed but really what we want to try to get out of martialart training is technique and timing right being able to recognize the cues that the opponent gives you to be able to counter or to hit a move right like the signal to fire so those don't require Max exertion all the time right so it's possible to get a lot more martial arts training in without exacting as much of a physical toll as long as you balance it properly so this past week for example I lifted well it's going to be three lifts right from Monday Wednesday I mean Monday Thursday and then Sunday uh and I also trained martial arts five times because I did Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 5 days in a row but these five days in a row that I did weren't heavy days they were all in fact lighter days not necessarily by Design but it's just the way it it played out uh I didn't have really tough rounds they were all kind of chill you know maybe one or two rounds that were tough in each day but that was about it so it allowed me to work on things that I wanted to work on uh and build those skills more without getting very sore and like some of the classes I was was just drilling the entire time and when I did rounds they were just flow rounds so very easy to recover from it to me it's almost like a very small recovery cost to be paid there versus doing you know eight five minute rounds of hard rolling that exacts a big for me that's probably the biggest cost of recovery there that and a heavy lifting session are pretty close right uh so you can find ways to kind of balance those things out a bit if you you vary the intensity but in my opinion for weightlifting intensity is always going to be high by Design which is why I think in that structure thinking longer term n day window 10day window even for Recovery is going to put you in a much better position to be able to bounce back versus grappling where the intensity level of a training session can vary we can go very light we we can go medium we can go heavy so this past week it was basically all light for me some medium but I I would call it more light than anything so I can do that and I was lifting on days that I was training martial arts as well right uh so I got to mix them up and that's another thing I've talked about this before but just in case you know don't try to spread all the workouts even ly throughout the training cycle right and that's something that's tempting to do which is I'm going to this evenly butter the bread right like I'm going to spread it all out so like the amount of physical exertion each day is the same that's not good either because your body never really gets rest it's always being uh exercise and fatigued at a similar level every day so there's no rest day it's instead better to have a very heavy day for example uh I train marshal arts and then I lifted weights that day and you know did my Biometrics and yoga so I did a lot of physical activity in one day and then the next day I go light maybe I just did a drilling session and then a day I go medium right so that way you do put in some recovery so there's a where your body can actually just go back okay I can just chill today not a lot going on right and I get to actually bounce back more maybe get a massage that day or go for a walk or a nice soak in a hot bath or a sauna right now uh avoid that temptation of try to spread your workload out evenly your body needs to be able to recover so if you never really give it that opportunity you're just going to slowly fatigue yourself and grind yourself down to to to dust right so make sure you do have a mix of you know hard days to light days you know and then medium intensity days uh these are again different strategies like for me if I just lifted weights on a day that would be what I would consider a medium day it's a high-intensity activity but it's only it's by itself right and maybe I walk that day or do something else but again very light whereas a high intensity day would be a lift and a martial arts training session particularly one that was more strenuous maybe more wrestling oriented or whatnot so that would be a high-intensity day right so I wouldn't want to put those days back to back and the like a middle training day you know might be uh a weightlifting session that's not particularly too heavy with a grappling session as well or maybe a grappling session with something type of uh cardiovascular training afterwards right so you know you can kind of get what I'm saying here right don't try to make every day heavy don't try to make all the days the same every day should have a different level of intensity that way your body can recover between those exercises and those activities and especially for the days that you do want to go heavy you want to try to go into those heavy days strong right you want to feel great stepping into those days anyhow I hope that information is useful right I know I tend to cater to an older crowd so hopefully uh that helped some of you guys be able to get through the the the training week without being too battered and beaten and hopefully getting better as you go along right um thanks for tuning in and I will catch you guys next week