Jiu-jitsu fighter practicing for mixed martial arts debut

Heather Cory

Mixed martial arts trainer Skip Kelp, left, works with Robert Drysdale at JSECT Modern Martial Arts on Sept. 22. A Brazilian-American jiu-jitsu black belt, Drysdale is has won a dozen of jiu-jitsu world championships.

By Sean Ammerman

Friday, Oct. 3, 2008 | midnight

Robert Drysdale

Launch slideshow »

Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Robert Drysdale defended against several chokes, submission moves and escapes to capture the 2007 Abu-Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championship.

Winning the title meant taking every kind of punishment except for one — a blow to the face.

When Drysdale makes his mixed martial arts debut Oct. 17, he will be guarding against a punch for the first time.

"You are going to get hit," said Drysdale, a northwest Las Vegas resident. "But you just have to keep going and not think about it. It's something you're going to have to get used to."

Drysdale, 26, is already considered one of the top ground fighters for his background in Brazilian jiu-jitsu — a fighting style that focuses on take-downs and wrestling.

But he knows it will take more to have success against the diverse fighters in mixed martial arts.

His daily trips to Xtreme Couture on Russell and Sunset Roads, where he trains with former UNLV boxing coach Skip Kelp, are more focused on his kicks and punches.

"He can completely dominate a fight going to the ground, but he's not just resting on the grappling," Kelp said. "It will make his striking more effective because people are more concerned with his ground game."

As much as Drysdale learns of other styles, his bread and butter will always be his mastery of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He is one of the few local competitors to have learned the art mostly from the country of its origin.

Drysdale lived in a small town outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, for 12 years before returning to America in 1998 to attend UNLV.

"He was a lanky, teenage boy," Kelp said. "He was choking out grown men then, but we thought he would never want to be a fighter."

Drysdale moved back to Brazil in 2000 to teach jiu-jitsu and focus on competing.

He said his experience living in the poorer sections of Brazil helped shape him as a fighter.

"You don't think about how privileged you are when you live in America," he said. "Going over there and seeing all of those things, it affects your mind a lot. In a way it was good for me. It made me value things more."

His major wins included wins in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu Black Belt World Championship in 2005 and 2006.

In search of a new challenge, Drysdale moved back to Las Vegas this year to make the jump to mixed martial arts.

In-between his own training, he has worked as a jui-jitsu instructor for Frank Mir at Striking Unlimited and Xtreme Couture.

"When I started jiu-jitsu I had very low expectations for myself," he said. "I was having so much fun. I liked it so much I couldn't stop training. It's never been like a job for me."

Sean Ammerman can be reached at 990-2661 or sean.ammerman@hbcpub.com.