Popular UFC bantamweight veteran ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley recently opened up about the benefits of BJJ competition for both athletes and hobbyists alike. He isn’t alone either, as a huge number of professional grapplers and MMA fighters have spoken about the how beneficial competing can be for the development of your Jiu-Jitsu. It might seem surprising coming from O’Malley in particular though seeing as he has been known primarily for his striking ability throughout his MMA career, but he’s also a BJJ brown belt. In fact, O’Malley has been focusing almost exclusively on grappling in order to prepare for his upcoming title-shot and competing can even help with that:
“I think that it’s important for athletes who are trying to compete, for sure, to do it. But even for people who aren’t, you know, trying to become world champs, just to do it. To put themselves out there, get out of their comfort zone, Feel those nerves you get when you compete.”
Of course, it’s not possible to win every BJJ competition that you enter and even Sean O’Malley is well aware of that. The last time he was seen stepping on the mats was at a Grappling Industries tournament where he was submitted by Robert Degle. While the experience of losing can certainly be intimidating for people who have never competed before, O’Malley also has some wise words about that too:
“Like, losing at a Jiu-Jitsu tournament is not the end of the world. You go out there, you lose, and you realize: “Oh, that was fun! I had a good time. No one is pointing at me or laughing at me because I lost a Jiu-Jitsu tournament.” So, I think it’s important, you know, for the average Joe that comes in and trains 3 days per week, 2 days per week, to just go out there and try, and just feel those nerves. Because you’re not going to feel them anywhere else and you might as well go out there and experience it.”
The interview with Sean O’Malley where he talks about the benefits of BJJ competition was uploaded in a post to the official Instagram account of Grappling Industries:
