Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhães is a sixth-degree black belt under the legendary founder of Gracie Barra, Carlos Gracie Jr., and also a coach of many world champions.
He has seen a lot of things in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu over the decades, including its evolution… Which, in many things, has been a positive one.
Draculino emphasized that the growth of BJJ is a great thing, especially for those who started training in a time when BJJ was marginalized:
Jiu-Jitsu grew way bigger, got way more organized and is spread world-wide nowadays because of it. And that is a great thing.
I really think that we will keep on growing. You can see whole countries where Jiu-Jitsu is a mandatory discipline in schools and universities…And for us, coming from a time when BJJ was almost marginalized – when people used to think that we were thugs, that we had a gang mentality, that we were bad guys and when the only press we received was negative press… To witness this is really amazing, and I am very proud to be a part of that.
One other thing that Draculino is happy about when it comes to BJJ’s evolution is how athletes now don’t have to transition to MMA in order to make money:
The sport’s evolution made it possible for a lot of kids to make a living completely out of competing solely in BJJ… There’s some kids that really live off of competitions in grappling and Jiu-Jitsu events.
They didn’t need to make a transition to MMA, which was the case before… And, of course, this is still the case nowadays as well; but what’s different today is that you see a lot of professional competitors putting 100% of their efforts into grappling and Jiu-Jitsu.And I think that is a really good thing. I also think that the more money there is in events like that, the better it will be for the sport.
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Read our full interview with Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhães on the following link.
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