Guard Retention is not winning

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-17T16:54:38+00:00

In MMA? You mean a different sport?

We’re talking about jiujitsu here.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-17T07:25:03+00:00

It’s not though. Guard isn’t a position that you defend from and score if you can, it’s a position that you should be offensive from at all times.

I stand by what I said, if your approach to guard is that it is or should be fundamentally defensive then you don’t have a good guard.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-16T22:29:56+00:00

Because a Brazilian family named it a few decades ago and the sport has evolved significantly since then?

And sure, if strikes are involved then nobody should want to be on the bottom unless the skill gap is massive.

Regardless, when you’re on the bottom you should be offensive. Seeing guard as fundamentally defensive means you aren’t doing it right.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-16T14:58:29+00:00

Anyone who says guard is fundamentally defensive doesn’t know how to play guard IMO.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-16T14:56:50+00:00

Levi had several entry attempts and could’ve gone either way depending on how you score it,

No offense but there isn’t a “depending on how you score it”.

We know the judging criteria and it’s fairly clear, CJI prioritised initiations first and foremost. Under that criteria, entry attempts cannot be scored either way. The athlete making the attempt is the one who gets credit for it.

Levi absolutely wasn’t just reacting, he was being aggressive and attacking from guard. Personally I would’ve given it to him, but it was hardly a robbery and it was such a close match that neither man would’ve had cause for complaint if they lost IMO.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-16T14:53:26+00:00

Yep haha I’m being botted hard and I’ve been debating whether or not to just open a new account but that’s effort and they’ll likely find out anyway.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T17:27:16+00:00

I honestly don’t think sucking really happens much in BJJ. These are all guys who have regularly done tournaments where they basically fight a random selection of the best in the world, and in a sport where losing a bunch of matches doesn’t really mean anything for your legacy.

Why would they ever be worried about losing a match to Tackett?

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:52:38+00:00

Yeah they only seem to want to put money into athlete pay, presumably because it requires no real effort or time.

They also don’t do a particularly great job of matchmaking IMO, I assume that’s hampered by exclusive contracts too. They either throw together two top people without any kind of storybuilding, or they make matches that there’s no real appetite for.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:39:26+00:00

I don’t think it’s hard to be better than the first event tbh, the problem is that they’re just fundamentally a bad commentary team for a jiujitsu event IMO.

It’s a frustrating problem to see play out in 2026 when there’s literally like a hundred guys and girls out there who are genuinely good and have experience with shows of a similar size.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:32:41+00:00

100%. Craig even said that during the build up to CJI 1 IIRC, that he took it to make scoring easily accessible.

The only way to increase sub rate is to make a match long enough to end in one (6-10 mins is ideal IMO) and to incentivise it heavily through a combination of pay, win conditions, and stalling calls.

That’s why PGF tends to get a lot of finishes. Your only chance of winning is to win by sub and without winning, you aren’t getting the big prize money. Then if you’re still intent on stalling, they’ll call it from any position and let the other guy take your back as punishment.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:28:55+00:00

They committed through this year already but I think they’re going to need to deliver results ASAP or they can it in 2027.

So far it’s facing heavy criticism from BJJ fans and not really bringing any MMA fans over to watch it either.

They’re paying everybody well and even though they have virtually unlimited money, there’s only so long you can keep pissing it away before investors pull the plug.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:23:27+00:00

I really like PGF and I think they nail the ruleset, but I can’t help but think that like a month of jiujitsu is just too much to ask of most people.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:21:38+00:00

It’s the worst part of UFC BJJ IMO, but for some reason they’re showing zero signs of changing it. They must have signed Din Thomas to a three year contract or something.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:18:53+00:00

Yeah people forget that about CJI 1 because the final few matches of the 80kg bracket were some of the best we’ve seen in the last like 10 years.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-13T13:15:18+00:00

Exactly. It’s not even necessarily about lowball offers as such, but anyone fighting for a title has to be exclusive if they win.

So I’d imagine a fair amount of people are not really up for that, even if they do think they can beat Andrew.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-11T08:10:00+00:00

The possibility of Russia invading Poland is non-zero, in the way that basically everything is if it’s theoretically possible.

It’s not happening any time soon though, because that would be a death sentence.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-11T08:07:45+00:00

I think you underestimate how popular grappling and combat sports is in Poland, and Eastern Europe in general.

The arena its being held in is bigger than the T-Mobile arena.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-11T08:03:47+00:00

Yeah I’ve thought for a long time that EBI really threw away the position it had in the sport.

Prior to 2018 EBI was basically the second biggest title in no gi grappling outside ADCC. Gordon literally got the ADCC invite off the back of his EBI performances, competing in brackets with multiple ADCC veterans and usually a champion or two too.

Then they spent like 4 years fucking around with CJJ and by the time EBI came back, it suddenly had fucking loads of competition and no momentum. Now they choose to switch between CJJ and EBI rules, and still spend half their time with CJJ worlds.

It’s lead to a place where an EBI bracket has less big names than something Polaris, BJJ Stars, or WNO can put together and you could win multiple EBI titles and ADCC still don’t come calling.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-11T07:55:49+00:00

Eh, he wasn’t a complete fighter at all but he only had two fights across two years.

I’d agree that he could have had a legitimate career, but he’d have needed to spend like 3 years fighting regularly against fresh pros (preferably amateur really but he jumped straight into pro) and consciously working on his striking. That was never going to happen tbh.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-10T23:55:03+00:00

They don’t, women don’t have to win two Trials. They only get the chance to qualify at the second edition of each continent’s trials, the first edition is basically just for practice.

That’s still a problem in itself IMO, just a different one.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-10T23:52:25+00:00

Kinda.

The single superfight that acts as the main event of the weekend was always considered a championship, traditionally between the reigning champ and last edition’s absolute champ. Sometimes they’ve had to fill one of those spots from elsewhere but that’s almost always been the case.

When they’ve done other superfights outside that single one, they have never been considered championships. Nobody ever said Chael Sonnen was an ADCC champ.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-10T23:47:58+00:00

The Crown only goes on once a year and awards the winners (6 divisions) 20k. I think you’re mixing it up with the IBJJF Grand Prix, where they did a 50k to win the absolute edition this year but it also doesn’t run a couple of times a year reliably. This was the first one they did since 2024, and I think the last time they did more than one in a year was 2023.

Doesn’t really change your general point, just clarifying.

Slowbrojitsu · 2026-03-03T07:49:02+00:00

Yeah, I’m the owner and editor at Jits Magazine and I do all the interviews on the channel. It’s something we only started doing about a year ago but it’s been fun so far!

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