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Originally Posted by mape00  Sherdog wrote about UFC 91 proving that jiu jitsu in MMA is not dead. But after watching UFC 92 I don't know what to believe. It was a sad day for a jiu jitsu practitioner. Sure, Nogueira most likely wanted to wear down Mir for two rounds before going for the kill, and except for him, there were no high level bjj guys... but it didn't look good.
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MMA has always been an evolutionary sport but likewise I haven't seen anything monumental growth in any spectrum of the sport thus far besides fighters like Machida, Le and Parisyan since those two have mixed it up with their base styles. You have many fighters now trying their best to be well rounded like Florian, Sherk, and Griffin even though the latter two have great backgrounds already in wrestling.
Then again this year has had a wealth of BJJ monsters transitioning to MMA but it'll be a while before they're viable top contenders.
Damian Maia has rolled off four impressive submissions but his clinch, striking, and cardio is very questionable. Of course if he takes you to the ground it's his world and even a very game BJJ-based fighter in MacDonald got submitted.
Rousimar Palhares is another promising aspect that's risen to prominence. He lost against Decision Dan but looked very good being able to take heavy shots to the chin and being a constant threat on the ground with his affinity of leglocks. His cardio looked good but has to improve in his clinch game before he becomes a 185 pound hybrid of Arona and Barnett. Setting up takedowns besides loopy kicks looked pretty questionable too.
Dustin Hazelett is also becoming a monster himself earning a BJJ black belt in 6 years from Jorge Gurgel, a star in the BJJ community himself. He looked very game against Koscheck and his last two submissions is the stuff that highlight reels are made of.
Then you got really green guys like Jacare, Garcia, Roger Gracie, Xande Ribiero and Galvao joining the mix but it'll be at least two or three years before any of them reach promience.
