THE CANADIAN PRESS
Robert Drysdale’s list of Brazilian jiu-jitsu accomplishments is 95 items long. The six-time world champion is the jiu-jitsu ace in the pocket for mixed martial arts stars like Frank Mir and Forrest Griffin.
And yet now looking to advance his own MMA career, the 29-year-old decorated black belt is savouring life as a fledgling fighter.
"It’s good having that feeling of being a white belt again, just starting all over again and relearning," Drysdale explained from Las Vegas. "It’s new. When I box, it’s like new stuff. ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know that.’
"It’s like a great feeling to have to be learning stuff all over again."
Drysdale (1-0) takes the second step of his MMA journey on Saturday night in Victoria when he meets light-heavyweight Clay Davidson (5-1) of Kelowna, B.C., on the AFC 4: Revelation card at the Bear Mountain Arena.
Drysdale won his debut at AFC 3 in July, stopping Dutch opponent Bastien Huveneers by arm triangle in just 72 seconds.
The Brazilian-American had long planned to pursue his own MMA career. It just took a while to clear the way.
"I’m the kind of guy that once I accomplish one thing, I get bored of that one thing, I want to move on to something else," he said. "MMA is something I’ve always wanted to do. I got into watching UFC in ’98, when I was like 16, 17 and I thought it was awesome. I thought it was incredible.
"I just got caught up with jiu-jitsu because I got obsessed with jiu-jitsu for the longest time. I just wanted to see how far I could go with that. Now that I feel that I’ve accomplished the things I wanted to accomplish in jiu-jitsu, I just felt like I wanted a new challenge, I wanted to move on to something else."
While Drysdale looks to test his MMA mettle, he continues to be indelibly connected to jiu-jitsu. He runs a successful gym in Las Vegas, where he teaches everyone from former champions to amateurs and kids.
Surviving in a city which is home to a string of gyms thanks to the UFC and the explosion of MMA, Robert Drysdale Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has flourished and now has affiliates around the world including Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Poland and Canada (Musashi Martial Arts in Barrie, Ont.).
Drysdale’s background is unique: born in Provo, Utah, to a Brazilian mother and American father.
His father was a Mormon missionary and his mother a world-class swimmer who won a scholarship to BYU. Because he did his mission in Brazil, Drysdale’s father was one of the few Portuguese-speaking people on campus. That’s how they met.
Robert Drysdale moved to Brazil when he was six. English was his first language but as soon as he learned Portuguese, he refused to speak English "because nobody spoke English in Brazil so I didn’t understand why my parents would want to speak English."
He is still caught in the middle these days, his perfect English tinged with a dash of Portuguese inflection.
"I’m probably more Brazilian than I am American," he said. "But I still understand American culture reasonably well and understand the differences as well. I guess you could say I’m both.
"The funny thing is in Brazil, I’m considered to be American, I was called an American my whole life. In Brazil, I’m not Brazilian. And over here, it’s the same thing, I’m Brazilian not American. So no matter where I go I’m a gringo."
Drysdale’s plan after high school had always been to go to the U.S. and study. He was 17, about six or seven months into studying jiu-jitsu.
"My first class, I fell in love with it, like this is the coolest thing ever. But I didn’t expect much of myself to be honest," he said. "I knew I was never going to stop training … but I didn’t expect anything out of it."
He came to Vegas in 1998, joining the Lewis-Pederneiras school of jiu-jitsu. The first year he split his time between training and working part-time jobs before going to community college the second year.
He had started competing weeks into his training — and it hadn’t gone well.
"I started competing here and there and I didn’t do too well at the beginning to be honest," he recalled. "To the point where I thought I’m just not made for this. The first few competitions were a disaster… . It was just like a painful process.
"I got better, man. I started getting better and better."
He moved back to Brazil in 2000 and kept training, eventually opening his own academy in the town of Itu, outside of Sao Paulo.
He says he began to realize he had a future in the sport after he got his purple belt.
"One of my best friend in Brazil said ‘Bro you should win the worlds one day.’ And I’m like ‘Bro no way, that’s never going to happen.’ And he said ‘Bro, I think you will.’
"And I remember that was kind of like the moment when I started thinking about it, ‘Wow maybe one day I can be a world champion at this.’ That was the day where the idea got in my head but before that it wasn’t there.
"And it just grew. I started doing better and better and believing in myself more and more. It’s been a learning process, I’ve certainly changed a lot since then. I believe it myself a lot more than I used to in the past."
Teaching jiu-jitsu in Brazil is a hard road, however. He reckons there were perhaps 20 gyms in the small town where he lived.
"It wasn’t the most financially successful business venture but it was fun. I got to learn a lot, it kept me training, it was enough to pay for my training. And jiu-jitsu for me was pretty much an investment. I put a lot of time and whatever little money I made into the sport.
"Fortunately things turned out my way."
Drysdale, who got his black belt from Leo Viera in 2004, returned to Las Vegas in 2008.
His family on his father’s side was there. And he wanted to work with MMA fighters and open a gym.
"I graduated college in 2007 and wanted a change. If I stay in the same place for too long, I get a little bored. I felt like I needed a change, I felt like I had enough of Brazil, although I love Brazil and Brazilian culture in general."
He came to learn how to fight. But coaching was hard to give up, especially when fighters came to him for advice.
"I kind of did the thing backwards, I became a coach before becoming a fighter. But I’m happy, I still do it, I’m still coaching my guys. They help me out as well, a lot of them are very, very experienced MMA fighters they give me a lot of advice and help so it’s a good trade."
He has been with Mir for the former champion’s last five camps. And he has spent even more time with Griffin. He counts both as friends.
Drysdale, who stands between 6-2 and 6-3 and walks around at 220 pounds, says he knows there are high expectations for him in MMA circles given his pedigree.
"There is pressure, I think that a lot of people expect you to be successful. And there’s a lot of haters out there who don’t want you to be successful …
"But to be honest with you, I don’t pay attention to what people say… there certainly is a lot of pressure, but it’s mostly the pressure I put on myself to be pressure. But honestly I don’t care that much what people say or think about me."
Drysdale marches to his own tune. While he loves his sport, he is happy to opt it aside when he comes home.
"As much as I love jiu-jitsu, I value other things, I don’t think jiu-jitsu is the only thing in life.
"I don’t want to watch the UFC when I get home. I do this all day, I want to watch a comedy, I want to read a book, I want to play video games, I want to do something else.
"I don’t ever get bored of fighting, I love it, but that doesn’t mean that’s what I want to talk about it in my free time."
He’s happy to talk about the AFC and Victoria, however.
"Just a beautiful, beautiful city. I really enjoyed it," he said of his AFC 3 visit
And he is equally complimentary towards AFC co-owner Jason Heit, who is also fighting on Saturday’s card.
"I only have great things to say about AFC, they’ve all been really cool to me," said Drysdale. "That’s one of the reasons why I signed with them. I liked Jason from the beginning and we got along really well. I’m happy to be with them."
