A More Complex Story

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While the common version of the history of BJJ simplifies the timeline and consolidates the story around a few key players, it is important to understand that the complete history is more nuanced, contains many contributors and is filled with its own ups and downs.

This section will attempt to highlight some of the key contributors and incidents in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu history that are not known to many practitioners today. Recently, with BJJ expanding globally, more students have been performing scholarly work, pouring through newspaper archives, court documents, business ledgers and real estate records to provide a more complete and unbiased view as to the origins and development of our art.