UFC veteran Chase Hooper recently made the bold claim that the level of BJJ in MMA is lower than any other discipline. Hooper is pretty well-qualified to talk on the subject, as he’s one of the best grapplers in MMA right now and he’s been using his Jiu-Jitsu to win fights for several years now. Before he ever embarked on his MMA career, he was a high level BJJ competitor as a teenager and even won the IBJJF Pan Championship as a juvenile blue belt. Winning an IBJJF major at that level is usually a good sign that someone has a bright future in Jiu-Jitsu ahead of them, but Hooper chose a more lucrative career-path.
He started fighting as an amateur while still in high school and it took him less than a year to amass a perfect 5-0 record. He quickly turned professional and continued his meteoric rise to the top, going 8-0-1 on the regional MMA circuit and earning the opportunity to make his UFC debut shortly after his 20th birthday. That’s where Hooper has been ever since and he has been a force to be reckoned with in the featherweight and lightweight divisions. He’s 15-3-1 with 8 submission wins to his name and he has even earned his BJJ black belt during this time as well.
Hooper’s recent comments came when the UFC shared a graphic that celebrated Julian Marquez as 1 of just 79 fighters with 3 different types of submission finish on his promotional record. Hooper actually has 4 different types of submission finish himself, and he was quick to point out that this achievement shouldn’t be as rare as it is:
”This proves my point for how much lower the level of Jiu-Jitsu is in MMA than any other discipline. There’s been 3,022 UFC athletes (according to UFC), so only 2.6% of the athletes in UFC history have 3 or more different subs in the promotion.”
Chase Hooper made the claim that the level of BJJ in MMA is lower than any other discipline in a recent post to his official Twitter account:
This proves my point for how much lower the level of Jiu Jitsu is in mma than any other discipline. There’s been 3022 UFC athletes (according to https://t.co/YIsG36lSmG), so only 2.6% of the athletes in UFC history have 3 or more different subs in the promotion https://t.co/oZrF7VgbTx
— Chase Hooper (@chase_hooper) March 1, 2025
