I just started reading it yesterday and can't put it down. It's fascinating how this version of history differs from what we hear at BJJ schools today.
But it begs the question even more, if Carlos and Helio never trained with Maeda and only trained a little with Donato Pires dos Reis who was basically doing Judo, where did what we call BJJ, come from?
And after reading that Carlos and Helio fought in basically a dozen submission grappling matches ala Metamoris against questionably skilled opponents, it really impresses upon me what second gen fighters like Rickson and Royce did fighting NHB against true behemoths like Zulu, Shamrock and Severn. They are the real legends of the Gracie line.
And if the "old is new again," why aren't there Indian, Chinese and Japanese out there who can out jiu jitsu (jujutsu) the Brazilians? Instead they are studying BJJ like everyone else.
Another thing this all makes me curious about is about early fighters like Marcus Ruas. He was supposed to be a Luta Livre (catch) fighter back in early UFC days. Where did he come from?
I hope he actually does volume two of the book talking about 1950-1999.