Dana White claims Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is ‘Pretty Damn Boring’
It’s no secret that UFC boss Dana White has a background in boxing and loves to watch MMA. However, in a throwback clip in 2013 with GracieMag, he also aired his true colors regarding Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. When asked about the prospect of grappling matches in a superfight format comparable to MMA, he responded honestly saying, “Get ready, Jiu Jitsu’s pretty damn boring. You go to a sport Jiu Jitsu match with two guys with gis. You kidding me?”
He continued further, adding, “If you’re a hardcore Jiu Jitsu guy, there’s nothing more exciting. You’re in there, you know what’s going on. But if you’re a casual fan, even when I was into Jiu Jitsu and was taking Jiu Jitsu, I’d go to some of these Jiu Jitsu matches and I’d want to look at the match over there, like that one sucks too. It’s not like you’re at a Jiu Jitsu match and you’re like “Yeah it’s the greatest time ever” high fiving each other and stuff, it’s the same in wrestling too, but some people love it.”
Interestingly in the above quote, Dana even alludes to training BJJ at one point which some people may not know about. It sounds like he never got past the white belt phase though. Since 2013, the competitive BJJ scene has grown massively, with regular shows such as Polaris and WNO now drawing in a pretty big crowd. Undoubtedly, Dana has a point though. For casual viewers, BJJ can seem boring – especially when there’s stalling involved. In fairness to Dana, he also agreed that grappling cards could be loved by hardcore fans which is a sensible comment. Watch the full video below.
