The UFC and MMA promotions in general love to throw around credentials, titles, and awards won by their fighters. When it comes to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Submission Grappling it is easy to get lost in all the acronyms: IBJJF, CBJJ, NAGA, ADCC… it just seems to go on and on. And then doesn’t even address belt colors, degrees on belts, and systems that don’t have belts.
So the BJJ and Submission Grappling version of the Fact Grinder will look at a few key aspects before delivering a final conclusion. The first aspect considered is the Lineage of the fighter. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu does place an emphasis on lineage of a teacher, and while a big name coach is most certainly not a guarantee of success, but a quality coach is worth mentioning. After that Competition Success will be examined, not just the collecting of medals will be considered but also the quality of competitions won. Finally the Grappling Style of the fighter in question and how well he or she has applied it in MMA.
Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza is a 34-year-old MMA fighter with a 20 – 3 (1 NC) record, and grew up in extreme poverty in the slums of Vila Velha, Brazil. He moved to Manaus as a teenager after his best friend was gunned down in gang violence. There he found jiu jitsu, which became his escape.
Lineage
Jacare’s entire grappling career came under Henrique Machado, no relation to the famed Machado brothers. Machado runs the “Associação Sensei de Lutas Esportivas” (Sensei Fighting Sports Association) or ASLE gym. Machado started out in Karate, in which he holds a black belt, and then began training Judo. His judo instructor didn’t focus much on ground work, but many jiu jitsu players came to the gym to work on their standing grappling, including Mario Sperry and Wallid Ismail. Machado, wishing to improve his ground game, went to one of the top jiu jitsu instructors in the world, Osvaldo Alves.
Jacare is a double black belt under Machado in both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo, both awarded in 2003. It is important to note that Jacare was not looking to compete in Judo, but his belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was awarded while he was focused on competing in grappling. Belts awarded to grappling competitors tend to be more slowly earned than their counterparts in MMA, the goal being to make sure a competitor is ready to content when they reach black belt and are not overwhelmed by the veteran competitors, some of whom have a decade or more of experience at the black belt level.
Competition Success
Despite always being short on funds, Jacare was a very active competitor. His primary success was in the two of the more prestigious grappling tournaments. One of them is the International Brazil Jiu Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) World Championships, largely considered the most prestigious and talent rich gi jiu jitsu tournament in the world. The rules limit leg locks and deemphasize takedowns, but in terms of ground grappling it is likely the most difficult tournament in the world.
In 2004, Jacare won his first black belt IBJJF World Championship in the Absolute, or Openweight, Division by defeating Roger Gracie on points, despite getting his arm broken in the match. In his career with the IBJJF, Jacare also would win a championship at Medium-Heavyweight, in addition to another Absolute title.
Jacare also has competed at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Wrestling World Championships, considered the most difficult no gi competition in the world. The ADCCs have a far more open rule set concerning submissions and push competitors to fight for takedowns. In 2005 Jacare won his weightclass, defeating Dennis Hallman in the semi-finals and Demian Maia in the final match. He also took silver in the Absolutes, submitting jiu jitsu great Marcelo Garcia before losing to Roger Grace by submission.
Jacare would return to the ADCCs to beat Robert Drysdale in a Superfight in 2009, and then again in 2013 where he lost a Superfight to Braulio Estima. In a smaller promotion Jacare also defeated Fabricio Werdum, and in a Submission Only event drew with Randy Couture.
Grappling Style
When most MMA fans hear Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, most think of a patient guard player content to work for submissions from the bottom. But for every guard player in BJJ, there is a top player to match, and Jacare Souza is an elite top player. This isn’t to say he cannot play guard, but his guard tends to be more of a back up plan and more focused on sweeping than throwing up submissions. His takedown game in the gi includes a fair number of footsweeps, trips, turning hip throws, and shot takedowns, but in MMA he has paired it down to a few trips and his double leg shot.
Once on the ground Jacare is a master guard passer, having navigated some of the best guards in the grappling world. Once around the guard, Jacare has a flowing game that transitions between dominant positions in a search for submissions. And as evident by his 14 career submission wins, this style has transferred very well to MMA.
Conclusions
In the jiu jitsu world success in and out of the gi is a prerequisite to enter into the discussion of grappling greatness. Jacare’s repeated success at the IBJJFs and at the ADCCs makes it obvious he was one of the elite grapplers of his generation in jiu jitsu, but it his success against the other elites of his time that sets him apart. In his grappling career Jacare defeated Roger Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, Roberty Drysdale, Demian Maia, Braulio Estima, and Fabricio Werdum.
Jacare is considered among the best of his generation, his name mentioned in the same way as that of Roger Gracie and Marcelo Garcia. In MMA it takes a very good grappler that can play for survival and stand back up without getting into a technique for technique grappling exchange against Jacare and really the only fighter to make that game-plan work has been Luke Rockhold. Jacare has solid takedowns but he can be stalemated in the takedown game and force him to used a great deal of energy in a clinch fight, but that has become less of an issue as his boxing has improved.
As the cross over between sport jiu jitsu and MMA athletes continues to wane, it really looks like Jacare will go down as the single most successful major sport jiu jitsu champion in MMA.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (via Shogun98)
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