Luke Rockhold won a UFC middleweight title with some of the best offensive jiu-jitsu in MMA history. He won a blue belt silver medal at Pan Ams and a purple belt gold at Worlds before he ever stepped in the cage. He competed at the Craig Jones Invitational.
So naturally, he went on the JAXXON Podcast last week and declared that none of modern BJJ works in MMA.
"None of the new jiu-jitsu works in MMA," Rockhold told co-hosts Frank Shamrock, Andre Fili, and Khalil Rountree. "None of that butterfly stuff. Stop trying to do X guards and butterfly guards and butt scoots. Fck off with that sht. None of it works."
All of it. Useless. Every position developed in the last decade. According to the man who built his career on a submission game.
Fili wasn't having it. He pointed out that Alexander Volkanovski has been using Craig Jones's anti-Dagestani wrestling system — the cross-butterfly hooks, the frame sequences, the entire "Anti-Wrestling Equation" that Jones developed and Volk drilled extensively before fighting Islam Makhachev.
"If none of it works," Fili asked, "then what did Volk use to get up when Islam took him down?"
Rockhold's response was magnificent in its simplicity: "What did Volk use to get out of Brian Ortega's guillotine? His goddamn guts and his balls."
Guts and balls. That's the technical analysis. A former champion who won a world-level BJJ tournament at purple belt looked at one of the most studied grappling exchanges in recent UFC history and concluded the answer was testicles.
He wasn't done. "Jiu-jitsu is not fighting and everyone thinks they're a fighter these days," he added. "This leg lock game is just annoying. There's a reason why you don't see leg locks in fighting — because you get punched in the face. The vulnerability of modern day jiu-jitsu is pathetic to me."
Frank Shamrock, who has been around longer than most of these positions have existed, offered what might be the only honest take anyone's ever given on this subject: "Everything works and nothing works for long."
That's actually true. The meta shifts. Wrestlers figured out leg locks. Grapplers figured out cage work. Somebody always adapts. But Rockhold's argument isn't that the meta shifted — it's that an entire discipline's evolution over the past decade produced nothing of value. Butterfly guard, the position that Charles Oliveira uses to sweep people in title fights, doesn't work. X guard, which Demian Maia used to take backs in the UFC for a decade, doesn't work. The cross-butterfly system that Volk drilled with Craig Jones and then demonstrably used against the best wrestler in MMA — doesn't work.
It's the confidence that gets you. Not "modern BJJ has limitations in MMA." Not "some sport positions transfer better than others." Just: none of it works. Said by a man who used it. On a podcast hosted by a jewelry company.
Meanwhile, Tatsuro Taira is about to challenge for a UFC title by doing exactly the things Rockhold says don't work. Mikey Musumeci just got booked against the UFC's number two lightweight. And Craig Jones's anti-wrestling techniques are being taught in MMA gyms from Austin to Auckland.
But sure. Guts and balls.
Related Stories
Sources
- BJJEE — Luke Rockhold Slams Modern BJJ: None Of It Works In MMA
- BJJEE — Luke Rockhold Blasts Modern BJJ: The Vulnerability Of Jiu-Jitsu Is Pathetic To Me
- BJJDoc — Luke Rockhold Dismisses Modern BJJ Techniques
- Bloody Elbow — Volkanovski training with Craig Jones to prep for Makhachev
This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked above. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.