Robopencil

They're sort of the same animal. They utilize the same techniques more or less, it's just the emphasis that they put on each skill set. I trained BJJ for about 8 months before the club dissolved. I recently found out that there's a Judo club in my town, went down, checked it out. I'm very interested. I'm sure Judo will really round out my grappling skills, as well as continue to build them (8 months really isn't all that impressive). I'll probably get thrown all over the place for a month or so, but I'm looking forward to grappling. From what I saw I think I can compete with a lot of the students on the ground. There's a wrestler who showed up the same day I did to check it out as well, grappling with him should be interesting. :P I respect both arts and all in all I'm really looking forward to training there.

joppp

In MMA, you could also argue that both BJJ and especially Judo needs to be modified for sweaty, No-Gi action, so what we see in MMA is not the original martial arts. At the start of this thread, I was thinking of going "BJJ rulez da worlddd!!!", but now that I think of it several outstanding MMA fighters are primary Judo practitioners. But I still think even more fighters have BJJ background, statistically speaking.

But for instance Aoki is a BJJ fighter as well as a Judo fighter. And Fedor's style is obviously Sambo (but since the throws are similar he has been able to compete in Judo as well). I think that since Judo and BJJ are so similar, a good fighter needs to learn both.

But there's one difference: If say, a striker needs to learn how to not get killed on the ground, he wouldn't exactly go to a judo dojo and start to learn all throws and defenses with a gi. He'd start doing more wrestling and no-gi jiu jutsu. With that I mean people with Judo backgrounds seem to kick serious ass in MMA, it's perhaps not the best style to use to complete your game. At least not as far as I know.

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rayrod

you guys do know that bjj comes from judo?

BobbyCooper

Yes! It was derived from the Japanese martial art of Kodokan Judo in the early 20th century, which was itself then a recently-developed system (founded in 1882), based on multiple schools (or Ryu) of Japanese jujutsu.

COORS

If Judo and Brazilian JJ are seperate forms of a martial art where does Japanese JJ come in? It's still taught as seperate martial art in my school.

mybackhurts

I have done both Judo and BJJ for years. I started with Judo before everyone on this forum was born LOL. I find that Judo guys are much stronger at the top game both on the ground and standing up. There is a base and strength guys develop practicing a sport where you throw each other's bodies as hard as you can while the other guy is trying to do the same to you. Judo guys are hard to move and physically the sport is faster and more violent than BJJ. There is no stalling in Judo. If you stall you get penalized. It might be fun if MMA had this rule.

BJJ guys are WAY better from their back. Judo guys always underestimate how good even blue belts are from the guard because Judo guys just do not work this position as much. So they get caught in triangles and armbars sometimes by making this mistake. (Fedor?) Also leglocks are not allowed in Judo and sometimes they get caught.(Pawel Nastula)
I love that in BJJ you fight until someone is submitted. In Judo I always complained that they do not let the fight go long enough on the ground. It drives me crazy that BJJ guys always pull guard and jump to their backs. I think BJJ schools should incorporate more stand up grappling. This is a huge weakness of BJJ. Plus stand up grappling is fun!

I will say that trying to get a BJJ guy to practice any type of stand up grappling is like trying to give a cat a bath. They just do not want to stand up. I can't get them to do it. Where a good judo black belt has probably blue to purple belt level jiu jitsu type skills because a lot of time is spent in practice on the ground in Judo clubs.

Bottom line. You really should know both. If you want a great example of Judo in MMA check out former Cuban Judo champ and BJJ blackblet Hector Lombard. He is incredible.

Kapitein Koek

Well first off all I would like to say that I did both. I'm a black belt in Judo and a blue belt in BJJ.

What mostly the difference is of the two is the primary goal. A BJJ fighter mostly comes from a defensive position, when a bjj blackbelt is taken down he can work of his back and is even more dangerous then when he has top position.

But Judo is different, Judo focusses more on taking your enemy down, secure dominant position and submit him. But since Judoka's are used to other guys trying that with them it useally provides them with great takedown and submission defence, but not so much with attacking of their backs, which is what BJJ guys are specialised in.

I think as an MMA fighter you should know both, since you want to be dangerous of your back, but also have those great takedowns and takedown defence, I mean, with a well executed hip or shoulder throw you can seriously hurt an enemy.