There aren't a lot of jiu jitsu black belts, compared to karate black belts, because karate schools churn out black belts quickly and they are generally about 10 years old. A jiu jitsu black belt has been working at it for 10 years, is not a child, and is extremely expert.

What is jiu jitsu, you say? It is a lot like sex. You roll around on the floor with someone, close enough to kiss, close enough to get pregnant, and you play dominance submission games.

Oh and one more thing, as introduction. A jiu jitsu black belt can beat the snot out of a karate black belt.

So I was watching a rare contest, two professional fighters, and both of them were genuine jiu jitsu black belts. Usually a professional fighter is bragging that he is a jiu jitsu purple belt or something. And this particular contest was to decide a WEC world middleweight championship, in a weight class that had no champion at the time. The WEC had invited these two guys to compete for their world championship.

The underdog was from Canada. His name, Joe "Dirt" Doerksen. He's been around, I knew the name. The favorite was from Brazil, home of Gracie Jiu Jitsu (now called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). He was more of a newcomer to MMA, but a very heralded one, having won national jiu jitsu championships, considered the best jiu jitsu artist in the world. His name, Paulo Filho, pronounced Pow-lo Feel-yo.

The pre-fight talk was that Filho would win because Brazilian jiu jitsu must, almost by definition, be far superior to Canadian jiu jitsu. More pre-fight talk was that if Doerksen could keep the fight on its feet he might win because he had more experience as a stand-up striker, and Filho spent his life rolling around on the mat with a gi on.

Interestingly, the whole Canadian vs. Brazilian thing turned out to be nothing. Interestingly, the highly touted Filho, the best jiu jitsu artist in the world, was unable to win himself an advantage on the ground. Doerksen had an answer for everything he did.

Also, Doerksen's supposed advantage in striking turned out to be nothing. The fight was soon won by Filho by giving up on the whole jiu jitsu game and just punching the crap out of Doerksen. Sort of like if pitcher Roger Clemens won a game by hitting a homerun.

I found it interesting that every single word of pre-fight analysis and argument turned out to be meaningless, how the two black belts nullified each other, there was no national supremacy, and while the favorite did eventually win, he did it in such a way that all the analysts looked like dopes.