Jose Mariscal recently shared some details of his lethal judo game.
A lifelong mixed martial artist, Mariscal boasts a suffocating grappling skillset with a combination of judo and jiu jitsu. Mariscal owns a black belt under Bob Schirmer in what he labels “hood judo” based on its Chicago origin. Mariscal revealed that it was that judo skillset which mostly got him out of physical altercations unscathed.
“I call it ‘hood judo’ because it’s from Chicago,” Mariscal recently told MMAjunkie.com. “Nobody really knows where I got my black belt from… It was under Bob Schirmer, the Combat-Do team. I never got into a street fight because I threw people before they even tried to punch me or try to do anything. So when I toss them, someone will lose the air out of their stomach. Someone will be kind of concussed. I’m glad I never got caught up on that.”
While Mariscal admired watching judo being translated into MMA by the likes of Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones, “Machine Gun” always considered himself better in that aspect.
“I loved GSP’s judo when he was there, Jon Jones when he did like silly little throws,” Mariscal said. “There’s a lot of guys with that kind of stuff and to be honest, I always looked at their judo and I was like, ‘Man, my judo is better.’ Because when I was 6 years old I was just consistently throwing.”
Even now during sparring Mariscal claims to have tossed around the likes of Cory Sandhagen, Justin Gaethje and T.J. Dillashaw. According to Mariscal, he has even been asked to not utilize his judo while helping others in certain camps.
“Justin Gaethje, we were literally throwing hooks at each other and I threw an underhook and he went heavy on it— I just tossed him over. And it’s not like one time. I throw these guys a couple of times,” Mariscal said. “Not to be cocky or whatever, but my judo is there. I have all the film. I have a bunch of stuff that could get me famous. Like I’ve thrown T.J. Dillashaw; I’ve thrown Cory Sandhagen; I have thrown so many people, dude…They were obviously pissed…If I had a list, it would do wonders. I had to even help other fighters in fight camps and not use my judo.”
Undefeated in three UFC appearances, Mariscal is coming off a “Fight of the Night” split-decision win over Morgan Charriere from this past April. While he was supposed to meet Dan Ige at a UFC Fight Night in July, Ige ended up accepting a UFC 303 clash against Diego Lopes on four hours’ notice. “Chepe” is now slated to trade leather against veteran Damon Jackson at UFC on ESPN 61 at the promotion’s Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday.
