
Mackenzie Dern, the black belt who became a UFC champion
Worlds gold, ADCC gold, eight years of learning to fight, and now a belt she has defended. What Dern's run really proves about jiu-jitsu in MMA.
Training, technique, and the culture of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
119 articles

Worlds gold, ADCC gold, eight years of learning to fight, and now a belt she has defended. What Dern's run really proves about jiu-jitsu in MMA.

A traditional Humaitá academy on Fletcher Parkway, and what the lineage behind the name asks of a school that carries it.

The knee is the most injured joint in jiu-jitsu, and the back catches up with you at brown belt. What the research says, and what prevents it.

ADCC hits Kraków on September 12-13 with doubled purses, a superfight belt nobody has vacated in 17 years, and a roster missing several of its biggest names.

AOJ took the team title at the second ADCC Youth World Championship in Austin. What happened, how the kids ruleset works, and the downside worth naming.

The operator's guide to Sunday open mat: who supervises, waivers, whether to charge, and why consistency beats picking the perfect time slot.

Five light-featherweight world titles, one more than Robson Moura or his own coach. Then Pato laid his belt on the mat in Long Beach and walked off.

Keenan Cornelius won everything at purple and brown belt, invented the worm guard, then put American Jiu-Jitsu on his own sign. Inside Legion in San Diego.

The Marietta numbers get quoted everywhere. Here is what that study measured, what it didn't, and where sport BJJ turns dangerous.

Seven straight Worlds golds at 48.5 kg, 74 submissions, and not one loss by submission. A look at how Mayssa Bastos wins.

Good enough not to get smashed, not good enough to beat the belts above you, and the novelty's gone. Why purple stalls, and what restarts it.

The UFC runs its own grappling promotion now. The ruleset, the champions, where it streams free, and what those exclusive contracts are doing to the sport.

Three world titles, an ADCC double medal on his first attempt, then a wrecked shoulder and 17 months away. Meregali's career is the best test case we have.

Class ends at 9:15pm and you are not hungry. What to eat before training, whether the post-training window matters, and why salt will not fix your cramps.

A judo school opened in 1949 that never closed, now 27,000 square feet of fight gym. What you gain training jiu-jitsu there, and what you give up.

The specifics no one teaches: rolling with someone 60 lbs lighter, finishing a submission you've already won, and why the room quietly ranks you.

$10,001 to show up, $1 million to win, scheduled against ADCC on purpose. How an Australian with two silver medals became the sport's loudest problem.

Masters BJJ starts at 30 and runs past 61. Here's how the age brackets work, how to prepare on three sessions a week, and why the brackets can be tiny.

There are over 3,000 BJJ instructionals and 5,800 hours of them. Most people get worse results from buying more. Here's how to pick one and study it properly.

Four ADCC golds, five world titles, 138 black belts and a website that changed what an instructional was. Marcelo Garcia's real legacy is teaching.

Why your first match feels like a bar fight you're losing, what adrenaline is doing to your body, and the pre-comp routines that survive it.

No gis, no belts on the mat, and a guard named after rubber. What 10th Planet San Diego is really like, and why the system still splits the sport.

A viewer's map of pro grappling in 2026 — ADCC, Polaris, WNO, Fight to Win, CJI, UFC BJJ and the IBJJF's pro events, with rulesets and real numbers.

IBJJF weighs you in your gi minutes before your first match, with no chance to rehydrate. That one rule makes big weight cuts far dumber in BJJ than in MMA.