The gi versus no-gi debate has been a fixture of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu discourse for decades, but when Renzo Gracie himself acknowledges that some of his own black belts have never developed meaningful competency with the gi, it adds a striking dimension to the conversation.
“I have athletes, black belts, that don’t train with the gi,” Gracie stated in a conversation. “I have very good guys who don’t not even train. They not even know how to manage a gi situation, and they are very good black belts.”
Coming from a member of the Gracie family that built BJJ into a global phenomenon, the admission is notable. It reflects just how dramatically the competitive landscape has shifted, and how fully the no-gi path has matured into its own complete discipline.
In an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Ryan dismantled one of the gi community’s oldest talking points with characteristic bluntness:
“The best one now is, ‘You’re only good at no-gi because you spend all your time training no-gi.’ But what did everyone tell us coming up through the ranks? If you want to be good at no-gi, you have to train the gi. You’ve got to train in the gi. So where did that argument go? It’s a dumb argument. Where did that argument go? That argument is gone. If you want to be good at wrestling, you don’t train judo. If you want to be good at judo, you don’t train wrestling. If you want to be good at no-gi, train no-gi jiu-jitsu. And in jiu-jitsu, of course I’m going to be better than the rest of the guys, because I specialize in it.”
Ryan’s dominance over competitors who split their time between gi and no-gi has served as a live demonstration of his argument.
Most Brazilian competitors, rooted in the IBJJF system, still divide their training between both formats. Ryan and his teammates did not. The results speak for themselves.
Not everyone in elite BJJ has drawn the same conclusions. Felipe Pena has pushed back against what he sees as a simplistic dismissal of gi jiu-jitsu.
“I’ve seen several messages from people criticizing gi jiu-jitsu in relation to nogi,” Pena wrote in a detailed post. “Despite being the same sport, they became very different modalities. I find nothing to do with these criticisms.”
Pena argues that the technical demands of the gi are distinct and genuine.
“The gi has its beauty and tradition. Perhaps nogi is easier for someone who doesn’t practice assisting, but assisting a tight guard pass, with sidecontrol stabilization, a collar choke, like Roger Gracie used to apply in mount or a bow-arrow choke from the back is very cool.”
He also offered a sharp observation about where much of the anti-gi sentiment originates:
“Most critics of the gi are athletes who tried to compete for years but never managed to stand out and chose to focus on nogi.”
Pena acknowledges the financial reality frankly.
“For professional athletes, black belts, the financial return on nogi has been greater, due to the number of events in this modality.”
But he maintains that in terms of overall participation and the grassroots health of the sport, the gi remains dominant, and he called on the IBJJF to pay finalists of major competitions if they want professional gi BJJ to keep pace with the growth of grappling.
Keenan Cornelius put his own provocative spin on the debate in a viral clip he’s since been forced to take down due to backlash.
“Even though no-gi is a simplified version of gi for people with less brain power, I appreciate the simplicity. It’s so simple. You actually have to underthink. You need to think less energy than you have to think in the gi. And that can be liberating.”
