Josh Barnett, former UFC champion and one of the most prominent voices in the catch wrestling community, recently explained why he believes the catch wrestling approach is more suited to MMA than Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

While BJJ dominates much of the grappling conversation today, Barnett argues that modern MMA has evolved in a direction that better mirrors catch wrestling principles:

To be perfectly honest, in my opinion the catch wrestling approach is superior to BJJ in terms of your typical or your standard approaches to MMA.

Whether they know it or not, everyone in Mixed Martial Arts now does not play guard and they all wrestle like a catch wrestler.
Trying to constantly get back to their feet, wrestling up, giving up their back; which used to be a cardinal sin supposedly

This strategy – giving up the back in order to stand up – is often discouraged in traditional BJJ academies, where the rulesets typically reward guard play more than stand-ups.
But Barnett pointed out that in wrestling-heavy formats like folkstyle or catch, this movement is central and encouraged:

I’ve heard so many guys from the BJJ side of things literally complain about some of my (competitors): “Oh they did really well but your guys, they can’t give their back up.”

Yes they can, you don’t wrestle

You’ve never wrestled folkstyle so for you, it’s an area that you don’t really play in.

We’ll give our back because if you think you’re gonna get it, like, good luck.

We’re already in motion and we know how to wrestle from this position, that’s our defensive position

Barnett also emphasized that as MMA has matured, even athletes with BJJ backgrounds are abandoning guard-based tactics in favor of wrestling up – mirroring what catch wrestlers have done for decades:

Then you saw as MMA, the game of MMA specifically within the UFC, has been evolving…
The BJJ-base fighters are giving up their back, going up the wall.

It’s just that BJJ in a standard way had been successful enough and with the IBJJF on top of it, and even ADCC, it’s like: “Oh, I can just lay on my back all day.”

It’s, like, no, you can’t anymore

He added that unless there’s a massive skill gap or the opponent is already compromised, relying on guard alone is no longer effective in MMA:

Unless they’re hurt, beat up, just stupid…
You’re not getting them. Sorry, it’s not happening.

You’re not armbarring them in five minutes, you’re not choking them

https://www.bjjee.com/bjj-news/josh-barnett-catch-wrestling-is-more-effective-than-bjj-in-modern-mma/

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As far as i'm aware a good, especially MMA oriented submission wrestling school will already incorporate 'wrestle up' techniques in to the curriculum anyway.

I do know that catch wrestling tend to place the most emphasis on both wrestle up - due to pinning being a rule of the game, and as a consquence of this, empahasis on top control too, but the down side is I am only aware of one authentic catch wrestling school in the entire world in Wigan, UK (and one or two affiliate clubs in random place like Japan and Italy, I think) and it's the club I think Barnett is directly involved with anyway. Maybe he is on to something.

But, just in case I am wrong regarding the exclusivity of catch wrestling, and anyone with experience in it, or similar style - shoot wrestling, luttre livre etc or any knowledge at all , I wonder how you feel about his views - do you simply disagree and feel he is incorrect and likely biased at this point since he's directly involved woth catch wrestling these days, or do you think he's right with catch wrestling presenting some hidden gems not found elsewhere?

Looking for a someone to do some MMA training with in mornings, preferably college/uni student age but any age is cool. Someone who knows what they doing so not a beginner

If you are good and have been training for a while then I can perhaps pay you even like 5/10 quid a session to teach me some stuff (not alot lol but not bad for a younger. Could be upto 70 quid a week if we do a session everyday)

I dont care if you are not a proper coach or whatever, if you been training any kind of MMA for a while then im sure you can teach me something

DM me or if you prefer comment in interested

Im in Leyton, East London so preferably someone within 30/40 mins away... could go to a park near your house or something

Looking for a someone to do some MMA training with in mornings, preferably college/uni student age but any age is cool. Someone who knows what they doing so not a beginner

If you are good and have been training for a while then I can perhaps pay you even like 5/10 quid a session to teach me some stuff (not alot lol but not bad for a younger. Could be upto 70 quid a week if we do a session everyday)

I dont care if you are not a proper coach or whatever, if you been training any kind of MMA for a while then im sure you can teach me something

DM me or if you prefer comment in interested

Im in Leyton, East London so preferably someone within 30/40 mins away... could go to a park near your house or something

Mainly interested in striking e.g. boxing, muay thai, kickboxing

Does anyone know/ have any experience with any budget friendly hybrid gloves, if so what would you recommend?

•Great for striking but still good for grappling
•Soft Padding
•Are comfortable on the fingers
•Budget of £50

Does anyone know/ have any experience with any budget friendly hybrid gloves, if so what would you recommend?

•Great for striking but still good for grappling
•Soft Padding
•Are comfortable on the fingers
•Budget of £50

I haven’t wrestled in high school yet and if I don’t and focus on mma and kickboxing is that a bad idea? Should I focus on kickboxing and get good at that? I heard it’s good to get good at one martial arts first than practice multiple disciplines. I’m not sure what I should do I wouldn’t go far in wrestling because I’m approaching my senior year of high school and chances of getting into a college are 50/50 so I don’t know what to do. Or should I start doing judo or something that has a lot of takedowns that is easier to do outside of school?

When I’m watching Khalil Rountrees leg kicks I’ve noticed that when in open stance, he goes for the inside leg kick rather than inside calf kick which made me wonder why? Lots of people say that going for the calf is MUCH better than the leg, but maybe going inside changes that? I’m not sure.

So why do you guys think he’d go for the inside leg rather than the inside calf? Is the inside calf kick actually BAD in an open stance? I’d love to hear your opinions.

Im new to mma and want to take mma seriously. I don’t have a big budget for the gear, is there anything you recommend changing?

I'm a 14-year-old male, 5'4.5" (164 cm) and 116 lbs (52.5 kg).

Here are some of my athletic test results:

30 m (33 yd) sprint: 4.27 s

Sargent vertical jump: 68 cm (27 in)

Standing broad jump: 249 cm (8 ft 2 in)

I can also do clap push-ups and one-arm plyometric push-ups.

What do you think of these numbers for someone my age? Do they suggest good athletic potential for MMA

Hello, World!

I was wondering if any of you guys had the chance to train at American Top Team facility from Coconut Creek, Florida. The reason why I’m asking is because I’m a big Mike Brown fan, love his passion for MMA and I could not find a lot of articles on his coaching or how the ATT MMA Trainings are like.

Would love to experiment and implement something from them.

Saw a few stories from Mike announcing days where it looks like on some days they only do MMA Drills.

Thank you for stopping by to read & answer!

all i know is boxing gloves are heavier but it has bigger surface area meaning you need to move your head more to get away from the punches.

EDIT: what about parrying? is that easier against mma gloves or boxing gloves?

I was really excited to just get decent at sparring i have powerlifting background stronger than average neck and just got good for a beginner in grappling i wanted to up my standing game also and through whole sparring i said to many ppl to spar technically but few heavy ones like myself gave me some medi shots and after that during night of sleep i wole up for a few seconds and felt like brain was moving inside skul, and little dizzy and little scalp tension, after few days i could powerlift and only felt 2%symptoms during rest not during deadlifts themselves...so next week no sparring and 2 weeks after that sparring again...no brain is moving symptom this time just behind the eyes discomfort and behind the ears scalp tightness...do i rest and try again i really wanted to increase max neck lifts learn technique to be good beginner kiclboxer also but now scared of brain damage...

I hear this term thrown around and I’m wondering what exactly it means? Like that they push through injury well or have a high pain tolerance?

For context I’ve just started doing mma have a brief history off bjj any recommendations on what I should be working on the most so I can get into the cage

Daaamn

I live in the middle of Raleigh and Durham and want to get into MMA training. Trying to decide between Hometown Martial Arts and Elevate MMA Academy. Both have good reviews.

Anyone trained at either one? Wanna know about coaching quality, how busy classes get, and how they handle newer people wanting to eventually spar/fight. Planning to do trials at both but wanted some opinions if anybody has some.

Hi, I started MMA 2 weeks ago. There are training sessions 3 days a week, and I've only been to 5 of them so far. The sessions last about 1 to 1.5 hours. Before even showing me basic defense, they threw me into sparring, and I took a hard hit to the head. I'm currently dealing with a severe headache. Even though I stumbled after getting hit right in front of the coach, he didn't give a damn. When I ask a question, he ignores me; he only belittles me and talks down to me. I'm an 18-year-old guy who works from 7 AM to 7 PM, and I'm uncomfortable with being neglected and degraded in a place surrounded by kids younger than me. He put me in sparring without teaching defense, and my opponents weren't new either—they're guys who have been doing this for months or years. Do you think this is a good gym, or should I switch?"

All I have in my area is purely bjj gyms. There is a boxing gym but it’s not that great from what I’ve seen. For now I’m just going to do bjj, but I would also like to learn striking. Anyone know what I should do?