10th Planet Jiu Jitsu is a grappling experiment gone out of control. Eddie Bravo is a self professed non-athlete, musician from Orange County, California who is leading the advancement of no-gi jiu jitsu in the world.
Eddie's style of no-gi jiu jitsu is a offshoot of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He recieved his black belt from Jean Jaques Machado who helped him in the development of the style at the start.
If you don't know who Jean Jacques is he is a cousin to the Gracie family and one of five brothers who are responsible for helping to spread Brazilian Jiu Jitsu worldwide.
Jean Jacques doesn't have fingers on one of his hands so instead of grabbing the sleeve and collar of his opponent's gi he had to use overhooks and underhooks to set up his techniques and control his opponent's posture.
Jean Jacques' style greatly influenced Eddie.
After the early days of the UFC with the succes of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Eddie watched as BJJ world champions would go into the Octagon and lose to the aggressive "Ground & Pound" style of MMA fighting.
Eddie was sharp enough to see the reason for the decline of BJJ in MMA and articulate that the jiu jitsu fighters trained all the time in the Japanese Kimono or gi but when it was time to fight they were competing against opponent's that did not wear the gi. On top of that they didn't wear the gi either.
When a grappler that specializes in the gi takes it off they will easily lose 50% of their offense. From setups, to transitions and submissions the impact of taking the gi off can be seen everywhere in their game.
Eddie has been very vocal about this idea and has recieved a lot of heat as a result. So in order to put his money where his mouth was he entered the 2003 Abu Dhabi Combat Club trials.
Eddie won the North American trials so it was off to Brazil !
Eddie's first fight was against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion Gustavo Dantes. Eddie quickly took his back and choked him out.
Next Eddie faced BJJ legend and undefeated in ADCC competition Royler Gracie. Up to this point not only had Royler been undefeated but nobody had even scored a point against him in three years of ADCC competition !
It was an excellent match with a high level of technique displayed by both men. Eddie executed many of his unorthodox techniques in the match but won by Triangle Choke in the last moments using a no-gi setup that he learned from Jean Jaques.
