Out Jiu Jitsu-ing the Jiu Jitsu Guy

The grappling world is currently atwitter with some recently released pictures of Georges St.-Pierre training a little jits with current world champion Roger Gracie and fellow demigod Braulio Estima (photos liberated from Bloodyelbow.com, thanks guys!)





As we all know, GSP is a karate expert, first and foremost. I'm sure he got his black belt just like every 8-year-old, at some McDojo in Montreal. Except he didn’t stop there. He actually put that sucker to use, and has laid waste to some guys in the octagon with an impressive array of spinning kicks and flashy forms (for the record, I don’t know shit about karate).

Anyone who’s ever had a one-on-one conversation with Zane Frazier knows that karate alone just doesn’t cut it. So at some point, little Georgie started working on other aspects of his game. Wrestling comes to mind. Sure, it’s pretty useful in getting a fight to the ground and allowing you to control a guy there – for God’s sake, look at Jon Fitch’s success.

There’s all kinds of analysis about wrestling being the be-all-end-all martial base for a complete MMA fighter. And there’s tons of merit to that, I can’t deny it. So when you match a karateka against an NCAA Division I wrestler who’s been wrestling for virtually his entire life, the outcome is pretty predictable, right?

Ask Jon Fitch.




He got HANDLED by a guy who speaks French, and who obviously isn’t an NCAA anything.

But okay, you’re saying, Fitch was the team captain at Purdue, but he doesn’t have NEAR the credentials of his buddy Josh Koscheck, who was a 4-time All-American AND Division I champ.

Yeah, BOTH those fights saw Koscheck taken down almost at will by the same NCAA nobody. The same guy that people were speculating might try out for the Canadian Olympic wrestling squad.

At any rate, here’s my point. This guy learned wrestling AS AN ADULT. He didn’t start when he was 4, like Fitch or Koscheck. But he learned it so well he destroyed them.

And that’s why I think we’re going to see GSP out-jiu-jitsu Jake Shields at UFC 129. GSP very obviously knows a little jits. Ask Dan Hardy, who almost had his gumby-like arm broken in half by the man.

Yeah, anyone can train with anyone. Roger Gracie trains white belts, too. But I don’t get the impression that Roger is showing Georges St. Pierre basic mount defense so he can just hang on against Shields.

With Shields, you know where the fight is going to go. GSP has made a career out of going the least intuitive route and striking with theoretically (well, debatably, anyway) better strikers and wrestling with (theoretically) better wrestlers. I am CONFIDENT we’re going to see him out-grapple the grappler. Mark my words.