The Most Influential Athletes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Many years ago, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was a small combat sport, mainly practised in its home country of Brazil since the 1920's. Nowadays, BJJ is practised all over the world: Brazil, Mexico, United States, United Kingdom and other places in Europe. This is because BJJ is now a huge aspect of modern day mixed martial arts, and in order to remain ahead of the curve, people are cranking up their training in the grappling department all over the world. 

Traditionally, you train BJJ in a gi, but as the sport has modernised with popularity, no-gi is now just as popular, especially for MMA fighters.

If it wasn't for early influencers of BJJ then MMA fighters such as Charles Oliveira wouldn't be as skilled as they are inside the UFC octagon.

Here are some of the most influential athletes in the history of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. 

7. Gordon Ryan

Benefitting from the growing popularity of BJJ, Gordon Ryan is considered one of the greatest grapplers in the modern era having won several ADCC tournaments on the no-gi BJJ scene. 

Ryan is practically known as the king of BJJ thanks to his speciality move, leglocks. But, once upon a time, leglocks were seen as a “no go zone” in the sport because of the damage they can cause if done with the correct technique and force. However, the sport has moved on and now leglocks are a common submission in BJJ tournaments.

6. Eddie Bravo

Eddie Bravo, owner of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, has played a huge part in helping the sport modernise. Bravo's gym was one of the first BJJ gyms to exclusively focus on no-gi training, and he has been praised by members of the Gracie family for evolving the sport. He defeated Royler Gracie in the ADCC tournament in 2003 using his signature rubber guard. 

Bravo has helped train several MMA fighters, he particularly helped Tony Ferguson with his grappling. The legend of the lightweight division once went on a 12-fight win streak where several of his wins consisted of D'arce chokes and the usage of Eddie Bravo's rubber guard, where “El Cucuy” could land his signature elbow strikes to slice open his opponents. Of course, we can't forget about the Imanari roll.

4. Marcelo Garcia

One of the most influential grapplers in history is undoubtedly Marcelo Garcia. Garcia mastered the butterfly guard, and that has since become a huge weapon in grappling matches as well as MMA bouts. 

Garcia proved to people that with great BJJ skills, you can control a much larger and more powerful opponent just with pure technique on the mat. Additionally, he was known for his super-tight guillotine chokes which helped him win multiple tournaments. 

3. Rickson Gracie

Arguably the greatest BJJ practitioner of all time, Rickson Gracie has over 400 victories on his resume and has legitimately never lost a competitive grappling match, which is extremely rare.

Rickson was very much a different breed of grapplers. During his competing days, he would extensively meditate and live a clean life around his training and competing in the sport, and this evidently helped him perform the way he did. 

2. Carlos Gracie Jr

Carlos Gracie Jr founded the International Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation back in 1994, but it didn't hold its first championship until two years later. Nowadays, the IBJJF is one of the most prestigious grappling tournaments in the world, and thanks to Carlos, the sport is now exposed to the world, which has only helped grow the popularity of this type of grappling.