The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and businessman Viktor Dória recently shared his thoughts on the evolution of fighters’ physiques on the “Connect Cast” podcast.
Viktor Dória has been a black belt since 1999. In 2020, he began managing fighters, and now has around 16 athletes, including major names like Roberto Cyborg, Mica Galvão, and Gutemberg Pereira. As a competitor, Dória was a six-time world master champion. His last accomplishment was a bronze medal at the ADCC South American tryouts.
He said that while technique used to be the main focus, having a strong body now makes a huge difference if two fighters have similar skills. Whoever has more physical strength tends to beat their opponent.
Viktor explained, “People say Jiu-Jitsu was designed for smaller fighters to beat bigger ones. But that only works when smaller fighters know how to fight and bigger ones don’t. If both have skills, the bigger fighter usually wins. Hélio beat guys who didn’t know Jiu-Jitsu, and so did Royce. I’m not taking away from their accomplishments, but once opponents got skilled up, it became harder.
Royce Gracie dominated the early UFC’s but struggled once he fought skilled grapplers. Royce was easily defetaed by Matt Hughes in 2006.
Huhes stated:
“It just seemed like I was a step ahead of him. I was really surprised. I was [also] surprised by the strength difference, and especially when I was on the ground with him. Wherever I wanted his hand, I put it there. I really shouldn’t be able to do that with somebody as talented as Royce…”
Gracie answered by saying that Jiu-Jitsu had won since Hughes had won by using Jiu-Jitsu…
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