If Jennum had won UFC1 would you all be training Ninjitsu now?

Welcome to our Community
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Feel free to Sign Up today.
Sign up

shimora

First 100
First 100
Jan 18, 2015
40
84
When the style of BJJ narrowly defeated Savate in UFC1 it set off a chain reaction around the Martial arts world.

Suddenly, people were saying that striking skills were useless, BJJ schools started opening up on every street corner, and the masses all flocked like sheep.

The myth of BJJ's superiority was further supported when BJJ pulled out a narrow win over kickboxing in UFC2,

Parents were suddenly pulling their children out of strip mall Karate dojos, and paying twice as much to enroll them in strip mall BJJ schools. Many good and hard working Karate men went broke during this period and ended their lives with honor by committing Seppuku. All because of the BJJ myth.

Come UFC3 and we see the BJJ stylist beaten down and almost taken out of the tournament by an untrained brawler in Kimo, but the BJJ man somehow made it into the finals. The other man who made it to the finals was a man-monster in Harold Howard, a Karate and Ju-Jitsu world champion and a living mountain. When the BJJ fighter saw Howard standing in the cage, his corner quickly threw in the towel.

One man stepped up to fight the Mountain, that man was a Ninja, that man was Steve Jennum.

Jennum quickly took control of the fight, taking his much larger opponent down and submitting him with brutal strikes. Ninjitsu was the second style to win a UFC tournament, and in far more devastating fashion than any of the BJJ fighters victories.

When Jennum returned in UFC4 he was put against the toughest fighter in the hope that he'd be taken out of the tournament. A Mike Tyson clone named Melton Bowen, a boxing champion. Jennum made quick work of Bowen using text book Ancient Ninjitsu techniques to get the win.

So why now I ask you, do we not see Ninjitsu dojos on every corner, and every UFC fighther cross-training in Ninjitsu?

It is probably due to racism, but I prefer to believe that it is simply because most people are ignorant fools.
 
Last edited:

so long

Posting Machine
Dec 16, 2015
1,282
2,035
Spot on analysis! :D

I would say it's a combination of people being mindless fools and cunning propaganda that turned Jennum's (grade school judo yellow belt exam level) Ninja Armbars into a 'submission hold like the gracies have'. Thus putting the move as a submission. Let's face it, he got the pressure point techniques that enabled this move off so quickly and secretly that they are hard to spot for the untrained eye und thusly went unnoticed.

Also with thet GnP against Howard, we have to also remember that lethal techniques were barred from the event.
So of course, the gentleman that he is, and that basically every Ninjitsu practitioner should strive to be, put outcome before honor and applied more ineffective techniques, thus simultaneously masking his true capabilities, as any true Ninja should.

Jennum hid his true ninja-techniques so well that it appeared on the surface as if he were pioneering a solid versatile MMA like gameplan. He was probably only using about 1% of his true power. That is why most people didn't really register it as the sweet Ninja Art back then.
The only person smart enough to notice the effectiveness of Ninjitsu was Gary Goodridge later: with the black Gi and actually trying a lethal technique only to be interfered by the ref...


I myself do in fact quite often wonder a similar question:

>> if Teila Tuli hadn't slipped in that first match, could we all be fat Sumo guys today? <<
 

Hwoarang

TMMAC Addict
Oct 22, 2015
3,994
6,080
Short answer... no.
He only won ufc 3 coz he got a free ride to the final.
If that happened in ufc 1, he would've been beaten (and ninjitsu exposed as inferior to bjj) in ufc 2 and forever onwards.
 
Last edited:

ender852

Posting Machine
Jan 31, 2015
4,769
4,840
Short answer... no.
He only won ufc 3 coz he got a free ride to the final.
If that happened in ufc 1, he would've been beaten, and ninjitsu exposed as inferior to bjj in ufc 2 (and forever onwards).
Came here to say this, he only won cause he was fresh and had no fights. In ufc 4 they enacted "The Steve Jennum Rule": alternates had to fight matches the same day too, and kept the Steve Jennum rule every show afterwards.
The brass and everyone knows he shouldn't have won that tournament .
Also Howard got gifted his semifinal fight by Royce trotting down to the ring to quit, Howard should have had to fight an alternate. The final could have been 2 alternates.
 

shimora

First 100
First 100
Jan 18, 2015
40
84
Jennum fought by the rules at the time, he won fairly and squarely. As mentioned previously, he then went on to destroy a champion Pro-Boxer and had epic battles with Tank Abbott and Marco Ruas, only losing because the rules outlawed a lot of his techniques. I think most people would agree that outside of the cage, Jennum would have defeated both of them.

Steve Jennum, is a part of UFC history that has been swept under the rug by the BJJ propaganda merchants and snake oil salesmen.

Did I mention that he was also a full-time cop? Cop by day, Fighter by night, Ninja 24/7.
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
he tapped to a Tank Abbot neck-crank.

Royce would have prison-raped Steve Jennum.
 

Rambo John J

Eats things that would make a Billy Goat Puke
First 100
Jan 17, 2015
71,541
71,465
I trained Ninjitsu in my youth

Had 3 throwing stars and a butterfly knife taken by the Nun early in my 4th grade year...was showing my butterfly skills to the ladies, Nun took all my shit and put them in her desk
She said I can have them back when I bring my parents in to "talk about it"

Last day of school she finally leaves room and I steal my Ninja tools from the desk and go home for summer...She never even told my parents

Same nun also beat me with my own shoe a couple times LOL
 

Enock-O-Lypse Now!

Underneath Denver International Airport
Jun 19, 2016
11,737
19,619
Jennum fought by the rules at the time, he won fairly and squarely. As mentioned previously, he then went on to destroy a champion Pro-Boxer and had epic battles with Tank Abbott and Marco Ruas, only losing because the rules outlawed a lot of his techniques. I think most people would agree that outside of the cage, Jennum would have defeated both of them.

Steve Jennum, is a part of UFC history that has been swept under the rug by the BJJ propaganda merchants and snake oil salesmen.

Did I mention that he was also a full-time cop? Cop by day, Fighter by night, Ninja 24/7.
Nebraska Boy too...

War JENNUM!!!!
 

shimora

First 100
First 100
Jan 18, 2015
40
84
Royce Gracie was allowed to wear his Gi and use it as a weapon. Jennum should have been allowed to use Shuriken and a Tanto blade. I would also have liked to see how effective a smoke bomb would have been in the Octagon. The rules were skewed by Rorion Gracie to favor Bjj.
 

so long

Posting Machine
Dec 16, 2015
1,282
2,035
I trained Ninjitsu in my youth

Had 3 throwing stars and a butterfly knife taken by the Nun early in my 4th grade year...was showing my butterfly skills to the ladies, Nun took all my shit and put them in her desk
She said I can have them back when I bring my parents in to "talk about it"

Last day of school she finally leaves room and I steal my Ninja tools from the desk and go home for summer...She never even told my parents

Same nun also beat me with my own shoe a couple times LOL
Good for you, man!
Me and my friends we had the ninjaturtles plastic stars and the little sword
(yep, we 3 had to share the same 1 set...)