Jiu Jitsu Black Belt To Compete For Catch Wrestling Heavy Weight Title
Exploring the bout...
Josh Leduc, a Jiu Jitsu black belt under Rob Khan is scheduled to face Brandon “The Strangler” Ruiz for the Catch Wrestling World Heavyweight title Saturday January 19th.
Submissionwrestlingart.com defines Catch Wrestling as, “Catch Wrestling is a combat sport and submission martial art mainly developed in England during the second half of the 19th century. It’s also known as CATCH AS CATCH CAN, that can be translated as ‘By whatever means or in any way possible’.
Powerful take downs, neck cranks, leg locks and punishing rides, are all common in the practice of Catch Wrestling, an art that employs the principles of leverage and body mechanics, along with superior physical conditioning.
There are several Catch Wrestling based styles like SAW, CSW, Shoot Wrestling, and Luta Livre among others.
In the words of Billy Robinson, (Santa Monica, March 29, 2007):
‘I’m trying to give you an insight of what Catch As Catch Can Wrestling really was, not what has become today, but what it was, and if somewhat we can get together and make it blossom and grow again, it would be the greatest thing in my life to keep this sport going, because without a doubt, Catch As Catch Can Wrestling is the greatest sport in the world, and certainly the number one martial art.’”
Josh Barnett is one example of a modern Catch wrestler. In addition to his many other impressive grappling accomplishments, Josh holds the distinction as being the first person to defeat Dean Lister via submission in 16 years.
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The choice to have a Jiu Jitsu black belt compete for the Catch title is interesting. On paper it makes a lot of sense. Josh is a promoter for Sapateiro, a submission only tournaments held in Florida. He has a strong social media presence stemming from a variety of technique based videos. Those two factors are a testament to his ability to promote a fight. Josh is also a legit grappler with expertise is both Catch and Jiu Jitsu techniques. However, some would argue that someone with a stronger history in Catch would make more sense to the title. Others would argue tournaments are the better option to determine who should fight for the title.
Politics aside, it should be a fun night of grappling. Certainly, there are techniques and strategies that the Jiu Jitsu practitioner can glean from other styles of submission grappling like Catch. That coupled with larger than life personalities make it fun event. Beyond that, Catch wrestling guys have been competition in Nogi Jiu Jitsu tournaments for years. Maybe this is an example of turn about being fair play.
Neil Melanson is one of the toughest, well-rounder grapplers in the world. It's not "Jiu-Jitsu" to Neil, it's just grappling. Neil has a background in Catch Wrestling, but is oddly enough known for his deadly guard attacks. His guard system is designed for aggressive no gi submission wrestling and MMA. To learn his Guard System and Methodology check out his 4 DVD Series Called Advanced Guard Systems.
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