Mikey Musumeci, the current holder of the title of ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Champion, recently addressed the criticism that is being leveled against jiu-jitsu.
However, the narrative seems to be that critics are pointing out that the majority of jiu-jitsu fighters voluntarily choose to go on their backs, which is regarded to be unrealistic in a real-life fighting scenario.
‘Darth Rigatoni’ responded to this criticism by posting a video outburst on Instagram with the caption:
The post that is being criticized is titled “BUTT SCOOTING AND PULLING GUARD.” MIKEY RANT OF THE DAY 😂😂😂😂 Tell me your thoughts 🍿😂🦻🏻”
This is what Mikey Musumeci says in the video:
As a practitioner of jiu-jitsu, I am sick and tired of hearing people complain about pulling guard and butt-scooting. I’m going to begin by stating that this is a sport version of jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu is a sport that does not involve any striking. Obviously, you are not going to pull guard in the middle of a real battle, which takes place on the street and on the pavement, right? The objective of sport jiu-jitsu, on the other hand, is to gain the ability to submit the opponent as quickly as possible.
Continuing, Mikey Musumeci stated:
Consequently, this brings me to the following issue, which is wrestling in jiu-jitsu. Whenever you watch jiu-jitsu, you will almost always see two guys wrestling, and let’s be honest: jiu-jitsu practitioners are terrible at wrestling. Is it true that the majority of jiu-jitsu competitors in wrestling will be defeated by any D1 wrestler? Therefore, you see two individuals who are both terrified of being executed by guillotine, and because of this, nobody is shooting and they only fight each other by hand, right? So, what exactly are you doing in that location? You are merely engaging in hand-to-hand combat. It’s a complete waste of your time. Who would be interested in seeing that?
Mikey Musumeci explains why it’s more efficient to pull guard in sport jiu-jitsu
After describing why it is a waste of time for the majority of jiu-jitsu players in sport jiu-jitsu to attempt to wrestle, Mikey Musumeci went on to explain why it is important to pull guard if that is the approach that you are most proficient in:
The purpose of the sport of jiu-jitsu is to submit the opponent as quickly as possible, and guard-pull is your attempt to get to submissions, which is the goal of the sport. However, I would like to ask you another question: you don’t want us to pull guard, you don’t want us to butt-scoot, that’s OK, take us down, but where do we finish up? As if we had pulled guard, we find ourselves at the bottom of the heap.
He went on to say:
I am perplexed at this point. The difference between someone taking me down and I ending up on the bottom and my pulling guard is something that you need to explain to me. As far as efficiency goes, one is superior to the other, right? I am able to submit the individual as quickly as I can, which means that I waste less time.
At the end of the day, competition in sport jiu-jitsu is not about gaining points through takedowns or passes. Getting your opponent to submit in the shortest and most effective way possible is the goal of this action. It is argued that if pulling guard is the only way to get there, then this should be the case.
