I'm amused — and, in some ways, delighted — by the comments that still get posted on YouTube regarding the 1987 matchup of Rickson Gracie and me. Judo enthusiasts say they're proud I was able to upend Gracie a couple of times. Any advantage I received, however, disappeared as soon as we hit the ground and I was caught in an armbar. So judoka say judo won, while Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylists insist their art won. It's a true win-win situation for the martial arts.

When asked about the aesthetics of a certain martial arts bout, Helio Gracie  once replied gruffly, “A fight is a fight.” It wasn’t that he didn’t see beauty in the art of jiu-jitsu. He merely thought it was imperative to emphasize that fighting is a serious affair with potentially dire consequences for the loser — and sometimes for his or her family. Judging whether a martial art is good is very different from judging whether a dance or a painting is good. Dancing and painti