The problem with Judo in MMA (and how to fix it) 

Judo is still one of the prettiest martial arts though

How to fix Judo for MMA: 1. Use clothing 2. Fight on concrete

Before 2010, you are allowed to grab legs in Judo, so when karo parisyan competed in MMA, he would have learned about singles and doubles in Judo. Even some older Judoka I've trained with their game revolved around using foot sweeps to setup ankle picks/knee taps.

As a Judoka who lives for the art/sport a big element is IJF Judoka cannot/are not permitted to compete in MMA or other professional sports while competing in the IJF. Nvm many counties pay them much better than MMA athletes at the world-class level. Judo pays crap in the States so you may see crossover there sometimes. But worldwide it doesn't make sense for most professional Judoka to come over. And after retirement they are probably pretty content with the life of beatings they have already gone through.

The main two problems with Judo in MMA are: 1) You don't wear enough clothes to get the kind of leverage that would make throws more effective. 2) The ground is too soft, so a throw or takedown simply doesn't do enough damage.

I agree with your point about judo for mma. But Judo is its own thing, Most judo people could not care less or know about mma.

I keep saying, judo needs a “freestyle Judo” style event. Something like Karate Combat, but for judo players

Old Judo, before it became an Olympic sport, was absolutely deadly. The original Judo had not only throws, punches, low kicks, elbow and knee strikes, leg and ankle locks, knee bars, all kinds of chokes, all kinds of arm and wrist locks. Remember Helio Gracie lost to a Judo fighter. Judo was a complete fighting system until the Olympics changed the rules.

The Olympics ruined Judo. There used to be takedowns, but they were removed because it was too similar to wrestling. It used to have a lot of grappling but that was removed in favor of more exciting throws. There were so many things that used to be in Judo that were removed. Judo has the strictest rules among dojos. Talk to any Judo sensei. They are the most stubborn people on earth. They shun anyone who practices judo in any setting other than a formal setting.

I respectfully disagree with much of what is in this video. There are many legal joint locks in judo outside juji/armbar. Also, you don’t see many high level judoka in MMA because the IJF prevents them from competing in other martial arts. Judo is a more competitive sport than wrestling or jitz and there is much more participation in it at an international level as Khabib said. I think a lot of high level judoka have less of an interest in MMA, but it’s really hard to argue the ones who did just got completely rocked. You can find various examples of high level judo in MMA beyond what you mentioned i.e. Kayla Harrison and Fedor Emelianenko. It is true the rule set prevents a lot of moves that could be useful for MMA. But don’t be so sure that it necessarily always has the devastating impact you are describing. When you shut one door, another door opens. If someone spent all their time trying to become a leg lock and open guard specialist can you seriously tell me they are better prepared for MMA than literally any judoka? Upper body clinches and throws are super OP, look at how many greco roman wrestlers went on to have success in MMA. No one complains about them not being able to touch the legs the way they do with judo. There are also some very aggressive scrambles to submissions in judo. The slow moving, chess match style of going for submissions found in jitz translates worse to MMA imo and also wrestlers may be better at scrambling but they aren’t thinking of subs while doing it. I am not saying I agree with the rule set. I definitely don’t. You should be able to guillotine, maybe get a little more time on the ground, touch the legs. However, I find it annoying when people point out you can’t leglock or some shit when it barely even works in MMA as is. And an increasingly leglock focused no gi jitz is not gonna help jiu jitsu players transition to MMA better. I think you need to consider the 80/20 rule and what judo spends its time on.. upright posture (translates better to MMA), upper body throws (lower risk than double to single), throwing to a pin (passing a guard effortlessly and instantly to a dominant position), armbar, kimura, and they can iron out a rear naked choke or guillotine quite easily as pretty much everyone already knows it and they are some of the easiest submissions to learn. Also if there was a gi MMA video you may find an equivalent of this video but for how wrestlers don’t use a gi. Undoubtedly wrestling is better for takedowns. Jiu jitsu is better for submissions. But I do think the things judo hones in on are highly relevant for MMA overall (often more so than wrestling or jitz).

I'm a judo Black belt and i have trained it since i was 6 (so 14 years of practice), i've i placed 11th at nationals last year and 12th this year. Just an observation, Judo has some sides that i don't think you covered 1) is that most judokas have absolutley not interest in MMA both at amateur lvl and professional the ijf (international judo federation) also doesn't permit professionals judokas to go in other sports while they are still competing. The point is that very few people tried the mma route 2) Judo is a gi based martial art and is also a martial art thought entirelly for self defence the ways you would adapt judo in a no-gi self defence situation and in an MMA fight are way differents 3) Other than Ronda there are other amazing fighters that have a judo base that did well in mma, Yushin Okami,Shinya Aoki, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Dong Hyun Kim and the list go on, judo had very few title holders but it had amazing fighters, considering how few judokas enter in the mma world i'd say that the sport is actually performing "well", there are far more sambo practitioners and wrestlers that trie mma compared to judokas, our lack of title holders seems justified to me 4) we just throw people because the idea behind the martial art is that slamming someone on concrete isn't pleasant, we are "nerfed" in the cage (i know this is a shitty argument 'cause all graplers have this problem but still) Last thing, english is not my first language so if i seemed upset or offensive i apologize it was not the intention, i'm wide open to a conversation if anyone thinks i said bullshit :)

Wrestling is the better base for MMA. But if you`re able to put judo into your game especially around the fence and clinches its extremely good. Same with freestyle wrestling. I came from a long judo backround and im able to regularly hit judo throws in MMA and freestyle wrestling. The biggest problem with judo are the guys who do the rules. they change it not to benefit the athletes and styles but to make it look different from other grappling sports wich backfires in 9 out of 10 cases. Great video!

Real Japanese Judokas get paid too much in Japan I've heard to ever consider getting punched. Olympic Judo is not real Judo.

I don't think you should overlook the ethic of judo going back to Kano sensei's original founding principles and strictures. Besides the "Maximum Efficiency" and "Mutual Benefit and Welfare" maxims, Kano was vehemently against prize-fighting. This wasn't so much a Japanese cultural thing, as boxing was hugely popular in Japan when it was introduced. It was largely because Kano saw Judo as a means to the perfection of the human spirit, and prize-fighting was seen as by him as a negative influence to developing one's ethical self. This is the reason the Gracie's created Jiujitsu and not "Jiudo," because Maeda had to use Jujitsu to describe his fighting style, so-as not to anger Kano Sensei. There are many reasons why judoka may not transfer well to MMA, but the ethic in judo, ingrained in everything we teach and do (if your school is traditional) is designed to support Kano's ethic, and not fostering prize-fighting success. As a godan in judo, I obviously love it, but, I encourage cross-training to anyone who might have aspirations for combat sport. I personally recommend boxing and Muay Thai/kickboxing. I'd recommend BJJ, but I teach old-school judo grappling and jujitsu (and occasionally sambo), so I cover a lot more grappling than most "traditional" judo clubs/schools might cover if they're doing only IJF rules. I love teaching BJJ people, so it's not like I turn them away. I don't mind that they generally come to "just work on their takedowns," because they usually keep training judo because they're having a lot of fun. I've even consulted a couple of times for amateur MMA fighters; it's fun helping them where I can. Also, one of the things not mentioned in your video is the role that serious judo has in balance development for MMA fighters. The reason Ronda could toss people was because she spent her life dedicated to the understanding and weaponization of balance. That kind of skill comes only with years of defending serious attempts to throw you. It's honestly one of the most important skills that judo has to offer to MMA.

I started in Judo and got a brown belt in it, then transitioned into wrestling and now I do bjj, I agree the judo itself is very limited but mix it with these three. I feel very confident standing against any pure bjj or any wrestler. Judo gives you a great advantage but no sport is best on its own, a mix will be ur best option

The reason you will rarely see a pure judoka be successful in mma is because sport judo is only a fraction of what judo actualy is.

Do you know that judo didn't used to be like that 10 years ago?

Love the mention of Khabib and Islam, especially the part where they don’t come from a base in Judo but use it as a tool in their arsenal. More fighters should do this. Man, imagine what Ronda could’ve been if she had a good wrestling, and striking coach and did legitimate training in those arts.

Judo used to have everything wrestling and bjj have,from the takedowns to the submissions. Autentic,Kodokan Judo is the science of wrestling,and in the Kosen rules competition,the science of grappling as well. The Olympic Judo we see today is but a simulacrum of what Judo was ,it removed many things in order to make it visually different from wrestling.

Judo is wrestling in a gi, historic judo techniques are literally no different than what they’re doing in bjj

I don’t know why people make comments like this, that judoka have far more work to do in an mma context. If you’re a pure striker you don’t think you have as much work to do? Do pure wrestlers know how to strike or even submission? Do pure BJJ know how to strike or even do a takedown? Buddy, everyone has work to put in coming from another sport. It’s all relative. A judoka already knows how to grapple, takedown, pin, ride and submit. It’s just working to translate grip fighting to hand fighting. It’s not that big of a stretch. It’s also easier for any grappler to pick up striking than it is for a striker to pick up grappling, so there’s that.

The thing is that to be a high level Judoka you need to focus entirely on being a high level Judoka just because on the insane level of competition. So to transition from such a high level of judo to anything else, though not impossible, it first requires someone to change the whole mindset of the high level judo competition that was required to reach the skill gap to be one of the best. I'm not saying that this doesn't apply to other martial arts but judo has developed as an Olympic sport for so many years that inevitably it became insanely hard at the high level.

What you described at the end is just NoGi JiuJitsu. Just start standing. All grappling technique and grappling styles are allowed in NoGi. It really is the most complete grappling style currently. All takedowns allowed, all control is allowed, all submissions allowed

Fedor, Karo and Manny Parisian, Sexyama, Shinya Aoki, Satoshi Ishii, Kayla Harrison, Nakamura, are some with Judo background besides Rhonda. Plus Judo used to allow double legs etc.

At last the trilogy is complete

I actually think international level judokas do better in MMA than similar levels of jiu jitsu players do in MMA. I can name 15+ ADCC champs who didnt do very well in MMA but almost all high-level judokas who entered MMA actually did fairly well. You also forgot Kayla Harrison, Hector Lombard and even Fedor I believe was a national level judoka. And you mentioned Jacare who actually was also a black belt in judo just like Werdum, Maia. roger and most known jiu jitsu guys who did well in MMA. And from what I understand Khabib never was given a kodokan black belt, he just trained under his dad in judo. The point you made about Sambo is a great one, the people who love old school judo should really embrace Sambo and combat Sambo.

You are also forgetting Don Frye he was also a Judoka that dominated and was a champ. I believe he was a second dan. He was the reason why I chose Judo to supplement my Muay Thai. Which Judo has even helped my clinch in my Muay Thai fights, obviously I can't do any hip throws but belly to belly throws and pinning their legs in I can.

no gi judo is essentially graeco-roman wrestling. the difference is that you can't trip and no subs, ofc

Also no hate but you can't technically pull guard in judo. Also, as a grappling base I think judo teaches intensity, top pressure, power, and takedowns better than BJJ while having pins alongside submissions which wrestling does not have. Throw in a good striking art and it's very well rounded. It doesn't take a decade to learn how to sprawl. Judo for MMA would just involve bringing back the leg attacks and more open submissions which is very doable. They are already in the syllabus. Not unlike BJJ when you train it for MMA it's very different than BJJ for gi IBJJF or ADCC for example.

I think that the answer from a grappling standpoint for Judo is that it needs to be closely tied to Greco-Roman wrestling because the ruleset is so similar. Look at the countries who have the most medals in Greco-Roman wrestling and Judo. Russia, other parts of eastern europe and the former Soviet Bloc like Georgia. Cuba also comes to mind. Randy Couture was a greco-roman guy and I think the posture of greco-roman wrestlers does really well in MMA.

Judo is one of the best bases' for medieval armored combat. When youre wearing 60-80 lbs of armor shooting for a blast double leg is next to impossible and very risky. Which makes sense cus judo comes from jiu jitsu which comes from armored samurai combat

There's absolutely no problem with judo in MMA. The issue is, we just don't see a lot of judoka go into MMA, and many who do are often overlooked as judoka (lumped in with sambo, wrestling, etc.). What sets judo apart from BJJ, boxing, wresting, etc. is that judo is not just a sport, and it's one of the few, highly competitive martial arts left (i.e., you still practice your skills competitively against unwilling opponents). However, when BJJ players break from class, they go to the bar, watch UFC fights, and dream of being a professional fighter by rounding out their skills and training in other disciplines. When judoka break class, they clean up the community center or church, volunteer with the kids, set up local tournaments, participate in fund raisers, etc. It's just not the same thing. And when you're done competing in judo, you're very likely already a high-functioning member of your community with a full-time job, family, etc. The idea of then parlaying a competitive judo career into a fighting career just isn't a thing most judoka think about. As for translating judo skills into MMA, that's going to be completely dependent on the practitioner, but the techniques are far more effective than you're giving them credit for. Khabib is probably the best example of this (and yes, his base was actually judo that he trained directly under his father). 90% of the times Khabib completely owned his opponents, he was using very basic, fundamental judo techniques that most white belts in most dojos could demonstrate for you. In terms of Karo, those "wrestling" techniques were legal judo techniques at the time, and some judoka still train them in the dojo to this day. The reason Ronda won so many fights is because her opponents were clueless about the most basic skill judoka learn (how to fall safely while not leaving yourself open to attacks), but Ronda also trained under a very bad MMA coach who was likely the primary reason she fought Holm so poorly. In terms of takedowns, you seem to lack a fundamental understanding of the variety of judo takedowns, many of which are overlooked as simple "trips" or even "slips" by the opponent. There's an entire subset of takedowns referred to as "ashiwaza" (foot techniques) that work across a number of disciplines. I suggest watching Condit versus Miura just to get a taste of the different takedowns that are possible without a gi, a clinch, or shooting a double, which is a judo technique anyway (morote gari). Though it doesn't get talked about enough, Fedor is another great example judo sweeps and trips fused into striking. You're also completely underestimating the ground game of many judoka (cross training in BJJ during newaza has become far more common), and many judoka aggressively pursue submissions on the ground (yes, you can do more than just armbars and blood chokes). Further, it's quite common to see even high-level BJJ players and wrestlers get stifled during judo newaza sessions because even judoka who don't actively pursue submissions are trained to hold dominate position while smothering their opponents. In fact, judoka are typically even better at that than wrestlers (wrestlers only need pin/falls while judoka need to hold their opponent in a compromised position for 20 to 30 seconds... a very long time to be pinned to the ground). Basically, I think that most of this is correlation, not causation, and you're applying a little too much confirmation bias to your theory. Let me guess: Your base is probably wrestling.

Good video, thank you I agree that Judo is not ideally suited as a base for MMA, primarily because of the gi/nogi situation The judo ruleset is somewhat limiting that is true but that's not the main problem. That's like saying you don't learn to wrestle from Boxing, or you don't learn submissions from Muay Thai. You will always have to cross-train if you go towards MMA Small correction 6:02, the armbar (juji gatame) is NOT the only allowed joint submission (by far). You can do most of the joint submissions popular in BJJ: americana, kimura (both ude garami), ude gatame, omoplata, ...

The advantage Ronda had was that she focused on newaza, thus the reason her submissions were so smooth. She wasn't just a "stand-up" judo player.

Great video. A lot a thought has been put into this and it is much appreciated - thank you 🙂

I've found judo clubs vary a lot in how much focus they place on ne-waza vs standing. At some it's more of an after thought but others (particularly ones that aren't competition focused) might spend the majority of class on ground work drilling guard passes and gaining position.

The big reason you don't see a lot of judoka making the move to MMA... They don't need to. Many countries take care of their judoka and top level judoka make a healthy living and are set up to move into other fields after they move out of judo. Hell, in some countries they have become senators and even the president in the case of Mongolia... So ya.. that's why...

These drawbacks are all true, not to mention the fact that while it’s perfectly possible to execute most of the strong and useful throws, it’s much harder when they don’t have a collar and sleeves. It’s also true that while judoka can and have beaten even high level bjj guys in ground fights, bjj just has better and more varied submissions. I’m biased as I am a judoka but I think judo can be a very powerful discipline even in mma, though it requires mental flexibility to forget the rules of judo, and to have at least decent level striking to cope until you can get a throw in.

This is a criminally underrated channel

Gawd damn that throw by Islam at 3:52 was crazy

This video is great it inspires me to get better at my judo and change my judo game to make it work even more

Love your content man keep it up

You need to separate tournament (competition) judo from the way a judaka would fight outside of those rules. Judo players practice lots of single and double leg take downs plus the amount of time you practice grappling is much longer and in some cases more intense at your practice facility than in competition because of very restrictive competion rules. The most used and effective throws in judo tend to be hip techniques not foot tecniques. You will probably find that a high level judoka is on the same level in grappling as BJJ players and definitely wrestlets. Judo also allows for controlling and opponent in a throw or take down and encourages a tremendous amount of throw to hold/choke/arm lock transitions.

Here is the fact...Because of a Judo guy went to Brazil (Maeda) today you got BJJ and that's a fact. Without Judo and Maeda in Brazil there is no BJJ let that sink in. All the way into the 70's BJJ looked pretty much like judo if you look the footage of the time. Then transition into a newaza only based martial art was later in the mid 70's and morphed in what it is today.

Leg bars get rarely used and judo has a big arsenal of shoulder ellbow attacks and neck chokes as a judoka from my experience i never had problems with submiting bjj guys. I also train at a judo dojo that teaches traditional judo including leg takedowns annd more ground grappling

Rule sets for many combat systems are all over the place. For example, I studied one current karate system that said the hook punch was not allowed. Back in the day, when I began my karate training, I just added the hook on my own because it worked. PS Catch wrestling is also great. The Gracies couldn't beat it.

As a judoka who started to cross train and transitioning in 2020 you are pretty much correct on all points although I would like to add that I think have learned the other elements of fighting much faster than I would've if I didn't come from a judo background due to the athletesism and understanding of balance I got from judo.

The closest thing we have to that ruleset is no gi submission wrestling. Sambo still has a gi jacket and has its own limitations.

It's because high judo guys generally don't go to mma

judo shouldnt change for mma, its not a stepping stone to mma, and should only make changes that benefit itself, and nothing else, same with all sports and martial arts, mma doesnt get to tell everything else how they should be

6:01 a small correction. Joint submissions in judo are allowed only on the elbow. There are other types of joint submissions than Ronda's favorite (which is juji-gatame or "cross joint lock" iirc). One of the other joint submissions that is allowed in judo is the Kimura for example (which was made famous by the legendary Judoka named Kimura).

The difference between you and other mma youtubers is that it sounds like you've actually trained in martial arts. The John Danaher joke in the begining was way to specific for someone whose just an mma fan

You didn’t mention how Ronda beat a silver medal Olympian wrestler Sara McMann. Straight Judo will beat straight wrestling most times. Khabib himself said Judo is the best single martial. And let’s not forget Fedor and Kayla.

Main thing is the gi. Second is the olympic rule set. Third is its loss of roots and fourth because of the stances. They havent been adapted to the mma blue print on a feasible scale yet

Ronda Rhousey, Karo Parisyan, Don Frye, Vitor Belfort, Youshihiro Akiyama were all successful Judo players I would root for in MMA.

I train at a nogi BJJ gym that has a nogi Judo class. We also embrace wrestling. Excellent breakdown btw

Interesting video ! I kinda agree with most of what you say . My project is that i go to all the countries of the world to teach judo for free . And the thing is sometimes I go to MMA or BJJ to teach and as you said , mostly I'd work on the takedown and swipe! Tho also in judo we have a way or understanding the body and movements in an all martial way that I rarely see in other disciplines. Which make it way easier for us to transfer to other disciplines I suppose

Karo Parisyan did a great job adapting no gi Judo to MMA, it was beautiful to see him fight, but his personal drama and arrogance got in the way of what should've been a better MMA career. It was a similar drama with Rousey (coincidentally both trained by Judo Lebell) who had a great one-pony career but didn't grow and the game left her behind. Judo needs better ambassadors who can innovate and adapt more nogi Judo into MMA. Remember that many fighters have Judo backgrounds too (Anderson Silva is a Judo black belt) I've done MMA (mostly kickboxing mostly) for close to 20 years and just recently started Judo. I'm getting my ass kicked but loving it!

My judo friend went to the US for wrestling on his study abroad. He just used his judo and had great success

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Greco Roman wrestling. It is the wrestling style that I think most closely approximates no Gi judo , and has a high degree of translation into MMA. It is interesting how many UFC fighters have a strong Greco background.

I was obssesed with judo for a while. And I was hitting solid moves on decent guys. Then I put my striking ego to the side and started wrestling. It's so much damn easier to get a wrestling takedown than a throw from judo. But I'm happy atleast because although I'll go for the wrestling first now, atleast if I clinch I always have my judo there.

Well I agree with you that judo with a looser rule set would fit MMA. And it already exists! Judo is a subset of Japanese Jujutsu that is meant for the strengthening of the mind and the body with minimal risk. So that's why there are no knee-locks etc and the rules are limiting and constantly being revised. So to keep the Judoka safe. Jujutsu (the original Japanese jujutsu, not BJJ which stems from Judo in Brazil) contains all of the fighting techniques that ammased throughout milenias of wars in Japan. It has everything. A well trained Jujutsuka would be proficient in striking, take downs and all kinds of submissions. The problem is that it is so vast that it would take considerable time and effort to master. In classical Jujutsu (and in the beginning of judo) winning is achieved only by submission or being unable to fight.

People often forget that Judo as a martial art is not the same as Judo as a sport. Classic, old school Judo just might be one of the most efficient martial arts for MMA, as it has way more chokes and takedowns. Sport Judo was designed to look good, but old school Judo was meant for the battle field. I'm not saying a Judoka would be as efficient as a wrestler or a jiujiteiro in the octagon in grappling, but they certainly wouldn't be completely dominated.

I did Judo back before the 2000s rules rework. Back then it was about 50% standing and 50% on the ground. They gave you far longer on the ground before standing you and may Judoka didn't specialize in the "big throw", but throws and sweeps were just to get someone down for the pin or submission. I likely won 75% of my matches on the ground, most via submission. I took a break from Judo for university, but came back for fitness. I was pretty disappointed on how much it had changed. That said, a pure wrestler on the ground is an easy submission.

I have two years of judo in my shoulders, nothing of special, I had a friend who is a high level competitor in judo, so I learned something, I am not the best one using those takedowns but let me explain a special thing. I think judo is a very good base for a simple thing, in the roaster of techniques starting from punching and ending on the submission, the judo takedowns are the hardest tipe of takedowns to learn and perform, whit a good base of judo you start the mma journey (I did judo before starting mma) knowing how to do the hardest thing or something closer, and If you find a good grappling instructor is gonna be more easy to reajust the technique, judo base is underrated, but I completely agree about you, I think there is the needing to create a "no go judo" just like the no gi bjj is also maked for bjj for mma

You can also consider Kosen Judo instead of Kodokan (IJF) judo. Although it is a Team sport. So not as aggressive as the IJF, but FAAAR more tactical. You can pull guard, you have wider scope of techniques. And is more focused on ne waza (ground game). I think a no-gi version is still recquired for the full conversion. But, as is, that would be the closest we got without creating new rule sets and systems. Kosen judo has been growing and hopefully, it will dip it's toe into mma, and become a strong base focused for it.

It is sad in what they have turned Judo into today. Judo used to be a complete grappling discipline. But someone (the Japanese) didn't like the fact that they started losing to the western style Judo (wrestling, kata guruma, Te guruma, morote gari and so on..), so they changed the rules. It makes me very angry, but it is what it is, there is sambo, jiu jitsu... Maybe one day Judo will return to its original form.

I would love to see more of the judo trips in MMA. I think there's a lot of crossover in the clinch

Khabib, Rick Hawn, and Karo Parysian were excellent examples of judokas that were successful in MMA.

I really think the “judo chop” is under utilized. That English guy A. Powers used it to great success.

You’re going places, Kid. That intro was hilarious (although, I wouldn’t blame judo for danaher’s naming-he could choose to call them anything else-I’d blame Danaher/pedantics (pun))

One of the problems is that MMA fights are done without Gi (which is completely unrealistic for self-defence and not to mention immodest) so you can’t grab onto the person

Khabib hails from Sambo, not wrestling and when asked he said that Judo > Wrestling, everytime. His father was even more adamant about it.

Many judo players plan to swich to other sports at first but end up doing judo many years

So, what strikes do wrestlers learn before they compete in MMA?

As a Judoka, when I started training Bjj I did struggle against Bjj players, outside of takedowns. Judo has a very restrictive rule set for safety reasons but mostly because leg attacks are extremely effective and judoka in competition were not doing the big beautiful hip throws and foot sweeps that the audience wanted to see, so they banned leg grabs and the rule set was put in place to maintain viewership and appease the audience. Their are loads of leg attacks in Judo and Judo techniques outside of the rule set that are still practiced and that Bjj borrows heavily from. However, As a Judoka I have never struggled against wrestlers and i'm from the midwest. I think Judo has really great skill set to keep wrestlers from wrapping you up and their are a lot of Judo techniques that exist outside of the wrestling rules that are very effective. The issue with grappling sports is they play to their rule sets and you don't have the full range of techniques available to you. That being said the only real trouble I have with wrestlers is when they blast double or shoot a single because thats all they have available to them, however I routinely leave my lead leg out to bait a single because I have a lot of sacrifice counters from Judo I can use to counter the single. If I get hit with a blast double and I can't sprawl out, I pull them into my guard and use my jiu-jitsu. I think wrestling is great for teaching positioning, control and explosiveness and works great for developing foundational grappling skills, whenever I see a wrestler start training bjj or judo they excel really fast. But I've never seen a pure wrestler beat a Bjj practitioner or a Judoka, though I concede Judo does have a steeper learning curve than wrestling. Where I think Judo is lacking is the restrictive rule set stops some of the higher level competitors from learning the whole breadth of techniques available in the judo curriculum, because they are training and trying to win under competition rules set, so they don't develop a feel or good response to leg attacks leg entanglements. Where wrestling excels is the no-gi grips, Judoka's needs to embrace no-gi and learn grips that don't rely on fabric. Which I find no-gi grips to be far superior that relying on fabric because their is a stronger connection to uke. I think the biggest reason you don't see judoka making the transition is because the lack of striking in Judo, many Judoka don't have that technical striking background. That's why Rhonda Rousey got destroyed by Holly Holm, she picked her apart and Rhonda couldn't get in close to grapple. Judo is an effective counter to striking and can be devastating but only if you can close that distance and that can be a big if sometimes. If you watch Ryan Hall's fight he strictly uses Bjj to counter striking and its not effective because Ilia Topuria was not going to play that game. So I think if you want to be successful in MMA you have to be a great striker as well, because I don't think Judo or Bjj can make up for that.

Imagine talking this way when BJJ has the exact same thing. Name 1 current UFC champion who has won ADCC or IBJJF worlds. You can't do both your main and compete on the world stage and do MMA. There is more money and prestige in being a Judoka and you dont have to get punched in the face once every 6 months. For $12/12k You also conveniently forgot about Kayla Harrison who is FAR more accomplished in MMA and in Judo over Rhonda that has almost a perfect record in MMA. Judo is exactly where it needs to be right now which believe it or be ignorant is bigger than the UFC and has MILLIONS of black belts and high level competitors and does exactly what its designed to do and is a massive part of Japan's policing/military/prisons because its extremely effective and teaches a better mindset for combat than BJJ does. for the love of god how about you go step on the mat and try an art before talking about it with Wikipedia articles. Ok ill bite on your Judo v BJJ v Wrestling. Do it on Concrete. Do it on LITTERLY any surface that isn't padded and see what happens. Also Sumo beats all 3 but ya'll aren't ready for that conversation yet

Also, guys that are elite at judo make more than most MMA fighters, which is another reason why less elites transition. Teddy Riner is super loaded. I agree with these points though

The final point in this video is exactly on the money, but it does seem that the older and alternative to the IJF rulesets (yes it does exist) are still out there, and most clubs will respect training the original gokyo which includes all your single and double leg takedowns, all your joint locks. End of the day BJJ is a refinement of Judo, not of traditional JuJutsu like so many seem to claim.

I don’t think judo needs fixing for MMA specifically. Gi grappling is different, it has its place in terms of real world applicability, and there’s nothing wrong with covering that. The problem is it arguably doesn’t even do *that* job all that well anymore due to rules changes. Judo as Kano intended would basically be MMA in a gi. Judo technically has strikes - they’re just restricted to kata which hardly anyone practices because Kano couldn’t think of a safe practice method.

In judo it’s not only armbars, shoulder submissions are also allowed btw

Rousy came out of.the same school as Karo.. tbeir instructor has a Sambo background so they trained no gi as well as Gi.... You should look at Hayoto Sakurai, Megumi Fujii, Satoko Shinishi and Shinya Aoki as examples... some schools in Japan emphasize the ground aspect which Gracie Jiu Jitsu came out of a lot more

I agree with all of his points except for more time on the ground. I’m judo, there isn’t actually a set time limit on the ground; there is only a limit to having no progress. This prevents fighters from spending more than half of their matches sitting on their asses trying to catch their breath.

While judo at a competition level is very limited in a street situation combined with striking its very effective. Especially in a colder climate jackets work very well as gi. Without jackets its much more difficult

I train judo primarily and suppliment it with muay thai, bjj, and mma classes. I'm not good at getting submissions but I am good at throws and pins and if I can pin you I can hit you. I think judo+muay thai with some no gi practice and learning to spawl is enough but mma training corrects the biggest judo mistake which is turtling

Wrestling: win by pinning; no submissions BJJ: win by submissions; pinning means nothing Judo: that in-between realm, where you can win by pinning or by (some) submissions You can turtle-up to defend against pins - but that puts you in danger of getting backmounted and attacked with choke or armbar

Alot of people forget Fedor Emelianenko has a judo base, and he was an absolute animal in mma

As a judoka I agree withe you saying that you have to mix grappling styles in order to just stick to one, but you guys have to understand that we still know the old judo techniques ( well not every body know but a lot do ) and submissions also we know how to fight withe nogi it's not too hard , it's almost like goin to a gi bjj fighter and saying hey you can't choke me without a gi , not just because the rules of the sport changes it means we lost the art

Tbf on the point of rarely seeing high level judokas in mma, you literally never see world class boxers in mma

traditional judo is played at arms length distance where you are grabbing the gi and there is space to turn for a throw, in a striking context you wold be punching instead of lookign for a throw in that scenario. Soviet/mongolian judo style could be better suited since in has more of a close distance fight

Khabib said it himself, Wrestling is good but Judo is another level. To win Judo WC is a high level. They are a whole new level. But my base is Judo, I think Judo is a good base to learn any grappling arts. If you are from Pre 2006 where IJF banned the leg grab. You are good to face off BJJ Fighter since we did Newaza about 30% of our daily training. But the different is that Judo Newaza is designed to be fast and powerfull in execution while BJJ tend to be slow mo while setting up traps. Most of high level Judokas including me an awful yet love Judo never go into MMA. 1. It is expensive to train MMA in my country 2. BJJ and MMA School exist in 2020 near my hometown 3. MMA Gym or the people I have met are generally like cocky, I once got challenge from them while debating online. If it was in 2004-2005 while I still fully active in Judo, I will gladly accept the challenge, under Judo Ruleset. One Ippon Win. Lol Anyway most Gracies are Judo Blackbelt and most of BJJ Top Tier also a Judo Blackbelt.

The greatest criticism is Judo is a sport about getting someone on their back with no regard to what occurs after and many of the techniques Judo employs puts the torii in bottom position if he were to continue on the ground.

people might not think about it but if you DO NOT know how to fall after you get thrown by a judoka you will lose your breath completely due to the damage on your diaphragm of the fall. If you land good throws on people who don’t know how to fall specially in a street fight or even MMA you get an advantage due to that.

You can blame the Olympics for the nurturing of judo. Old judo is different

There are videos of 90’s judo people againist Olympic wrestlers in old mma, when they had like no gloves, judo has double legs, single legs, and chokeholds, it was only after later on they removed the suplex and stuff when there was some takedown moves that weren’t counterable

We've never seen a judo throw in modern mma. In judo you can only throw using atleast one gi grip. And sambo too is nowhere nearly as good as people make it out to be. It's almost the same as judo. In both sports you can be at the absolute highest level in the world without any ground grappling. They stand you up so quickly that you only need to stall for a bit and no one has a problem with stalling on the ground in these sports. Just in standup

Karo never used pure wrestling takedowns, he used pure Judo. You have to remember that the rules of Judo have changed in the last 10-15 years.

Aside from throws and footsweeps the Judoka is way better versed in transitioning from standing to the ground. Although in Olympic judo there is not much room for submissions due to time (not skills since pretty much any choke and any armbar/kimura you have in Go BJJ is allowed to execute during competition) there are some schools that really focus on groundwork. There are multiple videos on YT where high level Ne-Waza fighters show off their skills during competition.

The average professional judoka is making more than the average MMA fighter (UFC or otherwise), that's why they're not trying to flood the UFC.

Judo was made for actual combat. Get thrown on the street and all your BJJ goes out the window when you cant breath. Judo and boxing is undoubtedly the best combination for self defence.