The next Art of War event, titled "Worlds Collide", is scheduled for September 22nd. The theme this time is international battles, as "24 Warriors from China, Russia, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Indonesia, will be facing each other". Let's hope the foreign fighters provide competitive match ups this time.
Here is a cool trailer for the MMA Beijing academy that I talked about some times ago. As you can see they use a lot of catch/japanese-style submission wrestling moves.
For those of you living in France, Fightsport (the number one MMA magazine here) has a great article on Art of War. I had the pleasure to contribute to it, too !
Here is a translation from my small interview:
Sacha Greif: "it's very hard to get permission [to hold an MMA event] in China "
He trains jujitsu at the Sankuno when he's in France, but he's been living in China for almost one year. Over there, he discovered fresh and almost unexplored grounds for MMA and grappling. He follows the local scene through his blog, ChinaCombat.
Why did you come to China ?
I originally studied Computer Science, but I also studied Chinese for 4 years. I graduated last year, and I decided to spend this year living in China to put my language skills to use. I spent 4 months in Guangzhou before coming back home and then coming to Beijing to work as a web designer.
What's martial arts and MMA like in China ?
MMA and combat sports are not that developed in China, so it's easy to quickly meet a lot of the scene's main figures .
How do you see MMA's chances of developing in China ?
Frankly speaking, a lot of people are doubting that MMA will explode here anytime soon, because it's hard to change the mentalities. Add to that the fact that in order to hold any kind of event in China, you need to go through a long (and costly) process to obtain the necessary authorisations.
How woud you describe the current MMA scene ?
Andy Pi is probably the only one who really got his name out. The Sanda fighters that he trained in jujitsu are starting to have a pretty decent understanding of MMA. And Art of War events may not possess a very high level of competition, but they're still fun to watch.
Chet Quint is the BJJ instructor at Gracie China, and currently the only BJJ black belt in China. He also has an academy in Shanghai and an affiliate school in Hong Kong. As a key figure in China's rapidily developing BJJ community, I asked him to answer questions on topics ranging from his own personal background to his insights on China's young MMA scene.
You are the first Brazilian Jujitsu black belt in China. Before we talk about what made you come here, can you talk about your background ?
How and why did you start BJJ, and did you study other arts ? Who did you learn BJJ with ?
I first heard about Jiu Jitsu back in 1989 when Rorion Gracie produced the "Gracie in Action" video. There. for the first time I got to see real footage of martial artists fighting each other. At the time I was boxing and was training Muay Thai and Kali. I also had black belts in Taewondo and Goju Ryu. My Goju Ryu teacher was heavily influenced by judo and Japanese Jiujitsu so I had a lot of exposure to those styles as well. I guess I was sort of a martial arts junkie, because I trained anything I found interesting. Like many of us, I was very interested in Bruce Lee and his philosophies about martial culture. Along with TKD and Goju Ryu I have a Black Belts in, of course, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Chinese Shuai Jiao and I am a Full-Instructor in Muay Thai. I didn't get a chance to actually experience Gracie Jiu Jitsu until 1996 when I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and met Pedro Sauer, my teacher. Pedro was 65 kilos and despite the fact that I was already an accomplished fighter and was 40 kilos heavier and 10 years younger he tapped me out like I was a child. I couldn't believe it. I signed up that day and haven't stoped training since.
What got you interested in China ? How did you decide to come here, and what made you think at that time that there was a future for BJJ in China ?
When I was living in Brazil I trained with Rilion Gracie at night and with Rolker Gracie during the afternoon. It was at the Gracie Academy in Centro, Rio de Janeiro that I met an Australian guy named Aaron Gardiner. He told be about the BJJ club he trained at and explained that they only had a blue belt there. They were pretty much trying to figure out things on there own.
I just came across this article in That's Beijing about Andy and MMA in China. It says pretty much the same thing Andy told me in his interview, but it's still a good read.
