Braulio Estima, last year's under 88kg and Absolute ADCC Champion is set to meet Rick Hawn at Shine Fights III sometime this year, most likely in April or May.
This is a fight that few keen grapplers will want to miss when the ADCC and BJJ World Champion will meet one of the most exciting MMA prospects in Rick Hawn who himself has a background in Olympic Judo.
Rick Hawn is far more experienced in MMA, having already three MMA wins and no losses under his belt, finishing all his opponents by TKO despite the grappling background. His next opponent in Braulio Estima will surely prove a vastly tougher match and if Estima is allowed to take advantage of his incredible submission skills, this should be a short affair.
Many submission grapplers and BJJ fighters have entered the MMA arena recently but with mixed success. On the one hand there is Demian Maia and Jacare Souza who have shown that they are also willing to learn the striking game in order to compete at the elite level. They have used their incredible submission skills to get great MMA records and are fighting now top fighters in the world. Anderson Silva will face Demian Maia at UFC112 while Ronaldo Jacare is to fight for the Middleweight belt at Strikeforce against either Dan Henderson or Jake Shields. Roger Gracie, Andre Galvao and Xande Ribeiro are also exciting prospects but they have not fought at the top yet.
There are however many cases when Judo and jiu jitsu fighters have failed to make a name for themselves in MMA. Everyone remembers how Marcelo Garcia struggled in his debut despite securing a rear naked choke early on in the first round. Fabio Gurgel lost in UFC 11 likewise, Saulo Ribeiro struggled and really even Royler had a hard time in his own weight division which you would expect he would dominate.
There are of course naturals like Shinya Aoki on the other hand who managed great success without much striking prowess, relying instead on incredible Judo and BJJ. Set to debut this April in Strikeforce, the phenomenon seems to defy the logic that all-rounded fighter skills are crucial to success in the sport.
Too many other factors come in to play in MMA that are not important in grappling. One of these is the ability to take a punch. Something that can't be taught and plays no part in BJJ, Judo or grappling matches becomes very important. The old saying goes that "if you punch a bjj blackbelt once, he becomes a brown belt, punch him twice, he becomes a purple belt...". Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro proved this saying during his amazing career in mixed martial arts. This is something that we see over and over again whether it is Sakuraba losing to Melvin Manhoef or Renato Sobral getting KOed by the talented striker Gegard Mousasi.
Some people are not giving Braulio a chance and this is a very tough first fight for him but you can never discount one of the best grapplers in the world today.
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