Over the years, we interviewed over 100 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts. Many of these are known for their influence in the game, whether that’s due to winning prestigious medals, or being known for their coaching prowess. In short, we picked the mind of a large sample size, which offers a diverse number of nationalities, ages, BJJ styles and viewpoints.
During these questions, we asked “Who had the biggest influence on your BJJ?” of which there was one resounding answer. Out of all the answers, one name kept cropping up, again and again. That name was Marcelo Garcia.
Marcelo Garcia is highly regarded for a number of reasons. Firstly, he was unrelenting in terms of his style and would happily go against far bigger and stronger opponent’s. Interestingly, Marcelo Garcia isn’t quite as small as some make out, and often competed at just under 82KG. Nonetheless, his ability to rack up medals in the gi and nogi, against some of the worlds best put him in real contention of the GOAT status.
Not only does his medal haul speak for itself, but his style and legacy changed the sport forever. In short, he revolutionized the nogi game and developed a system that could be used by many. This system involved playing Butterfly guard, and then X-guard and Single leg X guard if the opponent stood up. In terms of submissions, he was often reliant on Guillotines and the North south choke.
It turns out that just over 8% of those asked, said that Marcelo Garcia had the biggest influence on their game. In terms of percentages, this is quite a large portion and shows how his style lives on. From a coaching perspective, he also produced Champions such as Bernardo Faria and Mateusz Diniz who also came from his academy.
So, who else made the list?
There’s a number of people that were named just once, but after Garcia, there are a few other standouts. Those are the Mendes brothers and Ryan Hall. It’s no secret that these three also changed the game forever, having great effect in the way students across the globe approached Berimbolo’s and 50/50 guard.
Next on the list was Garry Tonon, who is probably more popular with younger grapplers due to being under age 30 himself. After this, a few of the usual big names also feature that you would expect.
Interestingly, the likes of Renzo and Roger Gracie do not feature on this list which is quite amazing. Considering Roger’s competition run and affinity with the Cross collar choke, his absence is bizarre. Elsewhere, Renzo Gracie had a big impact on BJJ in the USA and is known for being a big character in the scene. Also, the likes of Gordon Ryan’s influence may grow as he gets older and further stamps his authority on the nogi circuit.
