Claudia Gadelha has a clear message for any grappler eyeing a spot on the UFC BJJ roster, guard pulling will get you nowhere. The UFC BJJ executive was blunt about what the organization expects from its athletes.
“You can’t be dragging your butt around inside the bowl. We don’t want to see butt scooting. We want to see action, a lot of action inside the bowl.
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For Gadelha, the issue goes beyond personal preference. She told Paula Sack:
“This is a different sport, a completely different sport that truly gives athletes an opportunity to shine in front of almost a billion people, which is the number of people who watch the UFC.”
*editors note: UFC ratings are publicly available since they’ve transitioned to Paramount/CBS and roughly 3 million Americans tuned in to watch the main event. Â
“The BJJ audience is smaller, and obviously we love the BJJ audience, but this is a different sport, one that is shaping itself to develop on the entertainment side. The UFC is a media and entertainment company, and we need to deliver that responsibility to the people who are paying to watch the athletes.”
Gadelha acknowledged that even decorated world champions from other organizations have arrived and fallen short of those expectations.
“We already understand that sometimes we’ll bring athletes here who are world champions in other organizations, but they won’t work for us, because they can’t perform the way we want. We want to see takedowns, we want to see guard passing, we want to see back takes, we don’t want to see athletes trying to compete for an advantage.”
Her frustration with athletes who still haven’t adapted to the format was evident.
“Some athletes still haven’t understood that the strategy is to step inside the bowl and compete as if it were (MMA), except there are no punches, kicks, no strikes. But you have to compete, people, you have to compete.”
In a previous interview Gadelha revealed UFC BJJ was debating introducing penalties for guard pulling.
“What we need are aggressive people, technical people with willpower,” she explained in Mundo da luta appearance. “We are even discussing punishments, If you take two steps back, you’re not engaging.”
