If BJJ and Muay Thai became Olympic Sports… it would be dumb beyond belief

If BJJ and Muay Thai became Olympic sports, would Brazilians and Thais dominate the Olympics?
No? Well why not???
---
Ramsey Dewey is a retired pro fighter, combat sports coach, referee, and fight commentator… and occasional musician based in Shanghai, China.
----
Thanks to my channel sponsor:
Xmartial: catering to all kinds of combat sports athletes from BJJ, MMA, Muay Thai etc. find rash guards, fight shorts, grappling spats, boxing gloves and other training gear. Use my code RAMSEY10 for a 10% discount on everything at
www.xmartial.c...
This video features original music by Ramsey Dewey
Follow me on Instagram at: / ramseydewey
---
I fought professionally in Mixed Martial arts, Sanda, Muay Thai, K1 and American kickboxing from 2004-2011 when I was forced to retire due to a broken skull and being blinded in one eye. I hold a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Black belts in multiple traditional martial arts, including Taekwondo and kyokushin karate. I also train in catch wrestling, sambo, taijiquan, judo, and boxing.
I currently coach at the Animal MMA gym, the Extreme Fight Lab, and the Mordor Fight Club, all in Shanghai, China.

[@christophervelez1561]

You missed how karate’s gold medalist won by being knocked out haha.

[@mikekempf1456]

BJJ being an Olympic sport would be hilarious. It’d be too similar to judo and wrestling so they’d probably remove techniques from all three

[@RamseyDewey]

Most likely

[@tillburr6799]

You start on the ground, cant stand up, butt scooting only

[@louisedwards3496]

Why would you just repeat exactly what the presenter just said? Why would 90 people scroll to the comments and give a thumbs up to the one comment that adds absolutely nothing to the discussion?

[@Xzontyr]

That is the sad story of what happened to curling. It started off as a full contact sport, basically mma on ice where 2 teams went and battled each other weilding brooms to move their clans rock to the other side and get it in position for points. Now look at it. All they kept was the yelling.

[@Nobody-kp5nc]

Sadly this seems to be a joke :/

[@thuglaza4728]

You serious? Curling used to be like that?

[@Xzontyr]

@thuglaza4728 Absolutely. HEMA would of had an entire category set aside for it if it thrived to this day. The bloodthirsty sport of broom fighting on ice until your team successfully placed its rock in its placement on the other side. It was a game of strategy, sending your wrestlers to pin down their offense, while sending out the pugilistic hounds to swing and punch their way to victory!

[@Xzontyr]

@thuglaza4728 I'm just kidding. It may have been the Swdish version at one time. Who knows. My grandmother always proclaimed that the Scott's took the idea from a few swedes and popularized it.

[@Xzontyr]

@thuglaza4728 I still think with our modern technology they should give curling an upgrade. Have a winding and long ice track where two teams chase after 1 rock at a time, equipped in pads and helmet, but also with electric polishers and chippers. The team with the polishers tries to keep the rock going by smoothing the ice infront of it, while the chippers try to make it stop. Wherever the rock stops, it's than judged by distance. If it makes it to the end, than they get more points. The only rule being that no one can touch the rock. Everything apart from that allows mma on ice, just no hitting withe the polishers or chippers. They can be set aside.

[@MissingTheMark]

I love the idea that Olympic Muay Thai would become so neutered that it becomes competitive weighing-in (extrapolating a bit from what you said).

[@kaizenproductions00]

It would be point karate with clinches

[@Annokh]

​@@kaizenproductions00 but wouldn't that be to similar to Olympic tkd?

[@kaizenproductions00]

@@Annokh I revised my statement in another statement. It would be leg kicks only with clinches

[@AngryGrape1337]

Muay Thai: “Why did we get so watered down in the Olympics?” TKD: “First time?”

[@echofoxtrotwhiskey1595]

Yup. The Olympics tend to ruin martial arts.

[@RamseyDewey]

And here’s why they ruin martial arts 👆

[@beenright5115]

As a taichi practitioner, this would be terrible! We do not want any incursions into the field of competitive dance fighting! This is our turf!

[@kevinjung6130]

Olympic Pankration with rules similar to current mainstream mma competitions would be pretty neat to watch, as long as the sport miraculously didn't get watered down or neutered.

[@RamseyDewey]

But it would. The ancient sport of "all skill" would quickly become a sport of "marginal amounts of oddly specific skill"

[@brangrydave]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIeqeIOfbZmjaLssi=H4ijSP9cFz-I_mBP

[@brangrydave]

Pankration has already been added to the world combat games, it looks a bit like sports jujutsu

[@TheNadohs]

People are citing boxing as a counter example, but remember thst professional boxing is significantly more influential than Olympic boxing. So the Olympic commission has limited soft power to redefine the sport through neutered rulesets. This wasn't true for TKD and Judo, and it wouldn't be for Muay Thai or most certainly not BJJ.

[@RamseyDewey]

Olympic boxing ruined Olympic taekwondo.

[@GuitarsRockForever]

And no one cares about Olympic boxing. Pro boxing rules boxing.

[@fireeaglefitnessmartialart935]

But olympics is basically the highest amateur level.

[@ΓιάννηςΧαμαϊλίδης]

@@fireeaglefitnessmartialart935 It's so funny that olympic boxing is so underestimated. Olympic level boxers would propably beat 99.9% of pro boxers. The remaining 0.1% percent is just world champions, that propably were olympic gold medalists in the past.

[@MissingTheMark]

"Next. When is curling on?" Oh man, that got me.

[@K.R_Mony]

They haven't seen how Olympics massacre Taekwondo and Karate enough

[@Soupisgood357]

Olympic BJJ would just be No-gi cuddling

[@MrSwantonDude]

Couldn't agree more! I've had this conversation with different teammates at multiple gyms. As somebody who practices both BJJ and Muay Thai this conversation has came up up a fair amount from both other practitioners as well as friends of mine. I pretty much tell them the same thing as what you say in this video. As much as I'd love to see the art that eo passionately love on the grandest stage, it wouldn't be worth the cost of it being butchered to fit to Olympic specifications.

[@MissingTheMark]

Oh man, olympic brazilian jiu-jitsu as competitive hand-shaking is even better than olympic muay thai!

[@aexndr387]

If lethwei was added it would probably turn to headbutting only lmao! AND AS ALWAYS WE LOVE YOU RAMSEY

[@ajshiro3957]

LOL, your idea of Olympic Muay Thai sounds so ridiculous. I can see it now. Two big, buff dudes in boxer shorts, arm and leg wraps, and looking ready to kill... then the music hits. Dance battle!

[@jamesconnor7417]

I demand Ramsey Dewey dojostorm a Curling class.

[@u.s.sdeadass8703]

Hey Ramsey just wanted to say as a person who has just gotten an interest in martial arts I love your channel, I'm still contemplating if I actually want to do a combat sport and I appreciate your content for helping me weigh up that decision, the way you explain things is very concise and somewhat easy to understand as someone who just got into it

[@hendrikmoons8218]

As a Judoka, who started in 1979 till about 1992 - 1 year this hits home. Do not let them make your martial art an Olympic discipline. It will CASTRATE your martial art. I'm glad they still taught me the Judo that Jigoro Kano would find peace in. Don't get me wrong, the Olympics is a big posterboy, promoting your martial art, but you should learn REAL JUDO at your school, not the Olympic dance.

[@danielhance3325]

When does curling come on? This is a meme template waiting to happen 😂

[@ClayHales]

The last summer Olympics had Karate (as a new Olympic sport, I think?) and one of the guys KOed the other guy and got disqualified for it. It is mind boggling for a martial arts competition being so invested in its weird rules that being successful at martial arts means you lose.

[@BWater-yq3jx]

It baffles me that people would not only want to take up Curling recreationally, but then choose to absolutely dedicate themselves to it so as to compete at Olympic level. 🤔

[@paddyr1568]

My daughter’s a skateboarder, one of her friends was so irritated by it being in the Olympics he printed hoddies “Skateboarding is a crime, not an Olympic sport”

[@Tetragon123]

1:01 the 2 videos were "Keep MMA out of the Olympics!" and "Muay Thai in the Olympics? How about NO." How I remember that off the top of my head I don't know.

[@FreebyrdFayelanx]

I was thinking about how Muay Thai could go like old TaeKwonDo (which I love) - only low-kicks only and points. Ironically, in Kickboxing back in the 70's you weren't allowed to low-kick, BUT you could Judo throw. Furthermore, Karate and Boxing were paired together, or Kung-Fu, TaeKwonDo, and these martial arts ruled with guys like Benny The Jet.

[@martinflood8595]

Hear me out, Summer Olympics, no gi styles only. Winter rocks round and then Gi styles only!! Perfect solution

[@blockmasterscott]

Oh man, heck no. I saw what happened to boxing and TKD. Those two were watered down to patty cake sports.

[@emperortime4380]

So this might be a hot take but I think Olympified Muay Thai could work. My thinking is elbow and knee pads to avoid the sharp bones, and then basically the score card is king. Iirc in traditional Muay Thai scoring is 1 point for a punch, and 3 for knees and elbows. I think just the distinction of striking with elbow and knee pads will distinguish it for the casual viewer.

[@happyguy69able]

Hello ramsey I have two topic for you and are similar too: Judo: Who would win A judoka that knows 80 techniques vs or judoka that knows 10 techniques and he’s really good at them, who would win? Striker karate, boxing, kickboxing, tkd, Maui Thai, JKD ect you name it: Who would win a striker that know all the techniques vs a striker that knows 10 to 15 strikes and does them good, who would win?

[@ajshiro3957]

TKD: you too huh? BJJ: *crying in corner* why?! If Muay Thai was in the Olympics, it would just be Olympic TKD but with elbows and knees, no kicks except for the teep, and punches only to the body.

[@faithalone5081]

I doubt they would add elbows and knees. Too many 1st world idiots who watch bullshido practioners break 1000 boards with elbows. Which is why 12-6 elbows are banned in the ufc

[@theironforce3000]

Good points !

[@user-bt8vn3dj6o]

Love the presentation. Very true!

[@bligh1156]

Well, it was dumb beyond belief when Karate became an Olympic Sport, so the title of the video checks out. I have been in Kyokushin karate for many years, and I don't recognize the 'karate' in the Olympics.

[@geoffreyguestion2843]

Even boxing looks extremely different in the Olympics versus professional boxing (something to do with the scoring being more favored towards shots landed and accuracy instead of KOs, I think?), that's why it's rare for Olympic boxers to easily transition into pro boxing, it's just two different sports.

[@adammo9520]

the video quality is crisp.

[@FrozenLemur]

lol got a lot of laughs out of this one, back to curling!

[@Annokh]

Some things surely do get to Ramsey 😁

[@MC-sf4ht]

Regarding what you said about old and new judo, I can relate. When I was a kid there wasn't any judo near me, but I found an aikido school with some eclectic instructors-- 1 was a cop who had competed in boxing, wrestling, and judo as a teen, and he would integrate judo into our classes...he always referred to his skills as 'old school judo'

[@ahwhite2022]

That was quite the Thai-rade.

[@jaydlytning]

Who is this Kung Fu guy talking about fighting? Boo, when is curling on? Ha ha, just kidding. This was one of your funniest videos, Ramsey!

[@bene_eins1308]

Is Chess-Boxing Olympic? That woild be cool to see.

[@NaatClark]

Considering how the Olympics turned TKD in to fucking foot fencing I'm gonna say it's a great thing for BJJ and Muay Thai aren't in the Olympics

[@Vinnay94]

Savate: Hey, we're the Foot Fencers!

[@kanucks9]

I always found curling to be one of the most entertaining sports in the Olympics. There's strategy, there's tension, there's yelling. As an audience member you can try to guess what shot they'll try next. Whereas many Olympic sports are just time trials. You'd think biathlon (skiing and shooting) would be cool, but most of the race is just the camera alternating between target shooting, and people jogging.

[@Max-ki6df]

I disagree with you on BJJ, in essence it is just submission grappling, which is it's own sport and deserves to be olympic. I don't care if it's GI no GI, they can even start kneeing. Pinning someone is just a radically different goal then submitting, there is less difference between Greco, freestyle and judo then between those and bjj.

[@MaaveMaave]

Calling it "submission grappling" would go a long way. Wrestling is the pinning grapple, judo is the throwing grapple, BJJ is the submission grapple Still ... That's a lot of wrestling until curling begins

[@austinearle4698]

I came to watch curling, why is this guy talking about karate?

[@BobbyBronco]

"When does curling come on...?" Great line, Ramsey.

[@Pawn007can]

Curling is good fun... if you have the chance to try its a strong recommend.

[@markb6679]

I called myself MarkB and KZbin added the numbers, which I don't really understand. I wish they hadn't.

[@lilbearbjj]

They think wrestling and judo are two similar but they have both volleyball and beach volleyball.

[@jefffong1155]

100% putting either BJJ or MT in the olympics would be dumb. However, the way the Olympics have treated Judo doesn't have anything to do with its degree of similarity to freestyle. Judo was in the Olympics for ~50 years before the prohibition of leg attacks. What the olympics are optimizing for is -- which @ramsey /does/ call out -- is being spectator friendly (which is to say ratings, because ad revenue). Because of the scoring system, shooting a leg attack was low risk, but also led to a lot of negative Judo. There's no score for a takedown as defined by getting top position on a grounded opponent, you have to expose* the opponent's back in the course of a throw. So, the meta started to trend toward making a low level (i.e. shooting) leg attack to avoid a stalling call, getting stuffed, standing back up, and rinse / repeat till someone get's lucky or is forced into more penalties. Pretty boring, esp for non-competitors. So the prohibition on leg attacks (and various other gripping rules) are part of a long line of tweaks meant to force competitors in more aggressive, higher-risk styles of play where someone's gonna get bombed. Whether any specific rule update or the incentive structure that drives them are good or not is a whole diff discussion, but that's descriptively what's going on. *Not exactly in the freestyle sense of the word, but close enough

[@Vinnay94]

Damn, you hit me with the reality check. I was expecting Olympic Muay Thai to be similar to Olympic TKD but with Checks. Oh, and Point Kickboxing is a thing btw, but it still resembles Full Contact. Icy Mike fought in one.

[@mesa577]

imagine if they made muay thai just clinching, pure clinch work.

[@prehistoricwatergun0136]

I think more realistically Muay Thai would just end up being K-1 kickboxing in Muay Thai Shorts.

[@jeffandchristinebuchold4782]

Muay Thai is going to be a demo sport in the summer olympics this year if I'm not mistaken.

[@mishad11]

Muay-Thai already has olympic funding, and it already has an affect on the rules of amature competitions, for example scoring a fight

[@baoxidiaoyu]

Wouldn't mind the committee replacing epee with longsword

[@iwantagoodnameplease]

Curling is great!

[@K.R_Mony]

If your favourite martial arts get into Olympics, those would be no longer martial arts. Those will become harmless kids games

[@piotrd7355]

Muay Thai as the summer olympics equivalent of figure skating on ice. 😆

[@jackodriscoll5233]

i will never forgive the Olympic commission for what they did to judo, literally cant do the favorite throw of the founder

[@adamclark1972uk]

Kata guruma?

[@jackodriscoll5233]

@@adamclark1972uk yeah we cant do big traditional kata gurumas anymore, shame

[@mister-amazing]

Good one coach😆

[@MzuMzu-nx1em]

You should enter the Olympics Committee

[@louisedwards3496]

The ancient Greeks understood that in order to keep their combat sports pure, they had to completely ban women from participating in any form (including spectation)

[@SamiiYou]

Well, considering that they've dropped Karate for Break Dancin. I dont see them adding BJJ or Muay Thai any time soon.

[@BMO_Creative]

But they really didn't let the "average person" see the Martial arts in their original form. They only let us see Olympic style Judo. So sad...

[@LupeJustinian]

"boo, boo... when does curling come on?!" 😂😂😂

[@BWater-yq3jx]

I dunno, Sport BJJ being on the world stage might lead to the disappearance of some things like butt-scooting. 😎👍

[@RamseyDewey]

It’s not the stage, it’s the scoring system. When a takedown and a sweep are both worth equal points, there is no motivation for a grappler who spends close to 100% of his training time on the ground to risk losing 2 points in the standup portion of the match when there is no penalty for a guard pull.

[@BWater-yq3jx]

​@@RamseyDewey I was referring more to shame and embarrassment. 😁

[@pp00xyzzy]

ground game was reduced long before judo was olympic sport. But to stay in olympics it has to draw audience at least some degree. Also BJJ with its doping issues would need couple of decades sorting that out before event thinking about olympics

[@emperortime4380]

This is the most amazing rant because of the nebulous context. I definitely have to see that agriculture tirade. I’m an ovo-lacto vegetarian so it shouldn’t offend me.

[@darylfields]

The Olympic organization absolutely ruin bjj and Muay thai look at what happened to judo

[@kaizenproductions00]

Olympic BJJ: No takedowns allowed, you have to start from knees, and you can only win from positional points 😂

[@kaizenproductions00]

I wrote this before I saw the full video and I was partially correct on what you would would say hahahaha

[@Sbv-25]

What if we put street fighting in the olympics? I bet it’s competitive “hit them in the groin” and “poke him in the eye”

[@KeyserSoze23]

Muay Thai being an Olympic sport would be hilarious. It’d be too similar to Karate and Taekwondo so they’d probably remove techniques from all three

[@alc3781]

We need cross over like in celeb boxing but Olympics dudes just compete. Michael phelps vs usain bolt in a bjj match😂

[@TrayCaddyyy]

I think BJJ as an Olympic sport would just have the top ADCC guys smashing everyone. So basically it would be the same top performers as we have today.

[@RadicalTrivia]

8:42 - It's already happening in nogi BJJ competition with everyone tickling each others' feet. Just a bunch of cobblers on the mats.🙄

[@SeRadoful]

It would be different if you do mma

[@ashtraydekay6624]

You have said so many times about how you dont want your favorite martial arts in the Olympics (yes I know you talk about this at the beginning) But besides that other video you talk about, I swear you have said this phrase "you dont want your" in a few videos, lol!!!!! Also in Canadian, so your talking about curling, had me bust a gut laughing ♡ I agree curling, lol....hahahahh

[@SteveJuszczak-dx3gz]

As you have stated NO bad idea, look what happened to TKD

[@bluefog1]

Muay Thai : after one hit, Player must shout ' Oo Weii' and running around on the ring. BJJ: If you don't do the self guard, you get yellow card. it is disrespect to BJJ.

[@SeigenMizu]

Ramsey: "Unless you're a vegan in which case you aren't going to like what I have to say about agriculture" oh now I have to watch this, I suspect I'd have many of the same things to say. Will be visiting that video right after :)

[@yogsothoth-tz2bu]

The worst thing that can happen to a martial art is to become an Olympic sport. IBJJ already ruined the art , Olympic rules would make it worse than IBJJ.

[@matheusalves5160]

Your sport having amateur competitions is pretty neat, i love amateur boxing, slecially because they're allowing more and more the clinching and good ol' dirty boxing. But man, Olympic boxing is so... I don't even know what to say. The Olympic comission was threatening to take away boxing from the next Olympic Games because it was "too violent"...

[@SurriSama]

Why curling gotta be catching all these strays 😭😂

[@kingbyrd.1512]

What if Krav Maga were an olympic sport?

[@GuitarsRockForever]

Anything martial art that olympic touches, would be completely ruined. Thanks god no one takes olympic boxing seriousely.

[@dragenn]

Eventually the Olympics will dilute itself to a competitive haiku.

[@Xzontyr]

Lol! Competitive haiku you say. I think we need a water haiku for this one. "Cut the drain pipe and the water still falls. It's purpose eternal. It's most enjoyed when it's a puddle. For if the ocean wasnt a puddle, it would not be loved, only questioned and avoided....yet amazingly, it still falls from the sky." long haiku, but it works.

[@dragenn]

@@Xzontyr GOLD!

[@maxbattleman]

I had a question. You proposed a "What-if" scenario of "if martial arts were added to the olympics, what would happen". My question is: what should be done to fix the existing state of olympic martial arts? Judo sounds very interesting (at least from a pre-olympic perspective). I would like to see improvements to martial arts in the olympics (or sports with martial applications) but do not know how they can or should improve.

[@ryanhouk3560]

Not that the Olympics ever asked my opinion, but i think all combat sports need to be dropped in the olympics and be replaced with three: boxing, wrestling and pancration. Boxing would be a softer form of kickboxing and would invite all striking styles Wrestling would be basically "submit or pin him" and invite all grappling styles Pancration would be basically mma without dirty boxing or ground and pound, would remove knees and elbows, and have a victory condition to mount. It would invite everyone. This would invite martial artists representing their national styles, be sissy enough for the olympics, and eventually just devolve into its own martial arts Olympic boxing, olympic wrestling and pancration

[@vantaa3534]

I thought they banned leg attacks in judo because competitors were just stalling and playing too defensively. Its a disservice to think the olympics water stuff down because casuals are "stupid" or whatever. Like theres a lot of sports that are very similar to each other in the olympics

[@Skalias]

Ramsey i saw this news report recently about how this jiujitsu black belt got into a fight with a kangaroo (it was attempting to drown his dog as they tend to do to predators) and while it may be no surprise that the bloke got flogged i expected it to be more even considering the guy looked pretty strong and kangaroos are bipedal grapplers themselves. The guy said it was like trying to wrestle a fridge, super interesting

[@Skalias]

The kangaroo being in the water wouldn't have helped either lmao

[@RamseyDewey]

Kangaroos are beasts. Literal and figurative beasts.

[@arisnomidisbrazas326]

Hello Ramsey, I have two questions. How can I increase explosive strength while not having a lot of weights? Also, as an art school graduate and now aspiring wushu and sanda coach, how do you think art and physical exercise counterbalance each other? Ancient Greeks put a lot of emphasis on both musical knowledge and physical prowess, so much so that they didn't consider a man educated unless he was proficient at both. However, it does seem quite naive to think anyone to be fully developed just based on the skills they possess. Proven by the Athenians ostracizing all of their genius leaders and generals in fear of them getting too much power, let alone sentencing Socrates to death, it doesn't seem like their education helped them in the face of fear in the end. Sorry for the long question, greetings from Greece.

[@tomsheppard378]

To be fair it did take the IOC about 50 years to ruin judo. Leg grabs werent completely removed until 2012. But agree keep BJJ and Muay Thai out of the Olympics, don't let them ruin anymore sports i love. In modern times the IOC work a lot quicker at ruining sports

[@gmkgoat]

In a perfect world, there would be one combat sport in the Olympics. It’d be two people in the nude beating the life out of each other. But the Olympics are run by advertising companies so that’ll never happen.

[@GrinningNimbus]

I don't see bjj ever becoming an olympic martial art. Bjj is boring to watch. Even judo's a little boring to watch and I say this as someone who practices judo as their primary martial art. Bjj is boring judo. No one will want to watch it except Joe Rogan and Jon Danaher and that's only if it maintains it's form.

[@BWater-yq3jx]

It is something of an issue with most combat sports that being very evenly matched leads to a lot of nullifying of eachothers techniques. A black vs white belt division and no weight classes would solve this. Would be truly spectacular. 😏

[@tillburr6799]

Bjj would become competitive butt scooting

[@perryBJJ]

Agree 100%... From what I understand, current "sport BJJ" has no pathway to the olympics, BUT "Gi Grappling" using the United World Wrestling format, does have a shot. The biggest BJJ organization in the world, the IBJJF, is for-profit and therefore does not count as a "legit" amature sports organization in the eyes of the Olympic Committee. There is a smaller international BJJ organization, the SJJIF, who is working to get sport BJJ into the Olympics, but from what I understand, it's United World Wrestling that really has the know-how to make both "Gi Grappling" & "No gi grappling" Olympic sports. However, most Bjj practitioners, don't have any connection whatsoever with the United World Wrestling organization. There's a massive disconnect between the wrestling world and the BJJ world. Most top gi competitors are strictly focused on the IBJJF events. But again, the IBJJF is a non-starter when it comes to potential Olympic involvement. [Personally, I have no urge to see BJJ in the Olympics.]

[@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y]

They need to bring Karate to its roots, and have athletes compete in traditional Okinawan underwear 😁 (That's how they trained)

[@Groteskfull]

2:51 I feel the same way - confused, wondering how is curling even in tge Olympics 🥌

[@Groteskfull]

*The, not tge

[@2024_R_I_S_I_N_G_]

Just look at what the Olympics did to Karate. As if point-fighting wasn't weak enough, the dude who won his match was declared the "loser" because he knocked out his opponent! Sumo, Thai boxing, and BJJ should stay where the money is.