Eddie Bravo thinks BJJ competition could one day be as big the UFC, but he doesn’t think the gi will help.
I spoke with Eddie in an exclusive Jiu-Jitsu Times interview over the phone on Friday night about EBI 12, heel hooks, and drug testing. However, I was particularly curious to know if Professor Bravo thought BJJ would ever have MMA’s popularity.
“I don’t see point jiu-jitsu or gi jiu-jitsu getting that popular,” Bravo told me. “It’s just too slow. It’s got to be no-gi; it’s got to be sub-only, in my opinion. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be doing it. The reason I’m doing what I’m doing is I think it’s the only way we’re going to get jiu-jitsu to the mainstream.”
Eddie continued, “The gi is like chess. Chess is a cerebral game. Very prestigious. Intelligent people play it, but it’s never going to be on Saturday Night Chess Championships on Fox…Even jiu-jitsu players don’t want to watch it…like Jean-Jacques. He’s a legend of jiu-jitsu. He barely even watches it. He’s not trying to watch it. He thinks it’s boring, you know what I mean? When you’ve got masters … when you got black belt masters saying it’s boring, you know there’s no shot.”
Check out my full interview with Professor Eddie Bravo on SoundCloud:
