Combat Jiu Jitsu featured a KO finish

Benny A. King

Jiu jitu is also referred to as the gentle art – but this is due to the concept of using leverage to one’s own advantage. Joe Rogan’s best friend Eddie Bravo went into holding events wanting to bring jiu jitsu back to it’s roots so he ushered in a new phase with an event called Combat jiu jitsu. CJJ is meant to mimic something the old school jiu jitsu guys used to call Taparia – where they would slap at each other in hopes of promoting movement and advancing their own position. It’s suffice to say it was in the ‘self defense’ spirit of early jiu jitsu.

But Bravo’s vision also wanted to include upkicks at one point – in the spirit of self defense as well. This was welcomed but it never really went through due to the fact that that kind of striking demands a different type of licensing. Instead Bravo stuck to open palm striking and transformed the Eddie Bravo invitational into a whole new beast with CJJ.

Nevertheless CJJ struggles to market itself – it’s neither for MMA fans as it’s too soft nor is it for people who train jiu jitsu because the majority of people today have no interest in ‘self defense’ and are more focused on specializing in rule subsets.

Prior to Damien Anderson, resident BJJ bad boy Vagner Rocha produced the first slap tko at a CJJ event.

Recently Ethan Crelinsten won a CJJ event and he did so in a memorable fashion.