Recently there has been a bit of controversy over whether or not a BJJ grappling match is a match or a fight.
UFC color commentator and BJJ black belt Joe Rogan once said it was almost insulting to call a BJJ match “a fight.”
To wit:
So, you’ve got a jiu-jitsu match, for sure. Not really a fight because you can’t get leg kicked, you can’t get elbowed in the face, you’re not going to get kneed into a coma, it’s a totally different experience than a fight, and it’s almost disrespectful, in some ways, to call a jiu-jitsu match a fight. But other people like to refer to it as a fight. There’s nothing wrong with that.
In the video below, another famous BJJ personality — second degree black belt Nick “Chewy” Albin — also weighed in on the issue.
Chewy disagreed with Rogan’s claim that “fighting” necessitates hitting. After all, we can say “I fought with my spouse” without implying that we hit our significant others.
However, he did say he doesn’t like to call BJJ matches “fights” because he is a competitor and wants to have mutual respect for his opponent when he competes against him.
Check out Nick “Chewy” Albin’s video below to hear his full explanation.
