Fake Black Belts are Offensive

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFgXP0V7TJQ]

By now I’m sure everyone in the BJJ community has seen the video I listed above. In the video you see a guy claiming to be a black belt who can’t even recount his lineage or previous instructor. Anyone who is a black belt can rattle off their instructor’s name without a second thought, and if they know their lineage as they should, they can go all the way down the line back to Mitsuyo Maeda.

Faking a belt is incredibly offensive, especially a black belt. I find it so offensive because I know what I’ve personally had to deal with, as well as others, in order to receive the right to wear the rank. The training for me was the easy part. I love training. It is all the other things that have constantly gotten in the way or created obstacles, obstacles that tested my dedication to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Not least of them have been all the injuries. I look at someone faking a black belt and get angry. I imagine a similar reaction would be cause if someone wearing a military uniform with insignias that was never actually in the military was spotted by a former military man or woman. It means something very dear to them to wear the patches and the uniform, and for someone to just fake it is completely unacceptable.

I’m happy that this guy posted a video bringing attention to this faker. As our sport grows it is only inevitable that more fakers will pop up. Even worse, some legitimate black belt with their eyes on the dollar and not the preservation of our sport / martial art will begin to give belts away to undeserving recipients.

It’s important for us as Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioners, teachers and students to uphold the tradition that we were brought into and keep it alive. It’s a tougher journey and many won’t have the “stuff” to make it, but it will keep our art strong. Like the saying goes, “the cream rises to the top.”

5 replies
  1. Katie
    Katie says:

    I agree, fake black belts are definitely offensive, but I imagine every sport/martial art has their share of fakers and charlatans. However I like to think out of all of them, we have a fairly low percentage out there in the world, partially because this is not a sport that’s easy to fake and because the jiu jitsu community in general is pretty active when it comes to self-regulation. For example, there used to be a guy at our academy who went to India, I think for a yoga seminar or something, and happened to have his gi with him. Someone convinced him to put the gi on (with our team patch) and take a photo with a black belt on and put it on a website somewhere- I’m pretty sure he was a purple belt at the time. A day later, if even, my coach got a call from another BJJ guy in the community asking when this guy got his black belt. My coach contacted the student in India and had him take the photo down. Again, there will always be people trying to get away with these sorts of shenanigans, but for the most part the jiu jitsu community has a particularly low tolerance for it and will certainly expect people to back up their claims.

  2. Chewy
    Chewy says:

    Agreed, the self-regulation aspect is something that definitely stands out in BJJ.

    Did the guy from India ever come back to your gym?

    • Katie
      Katie says:

      He did, but only for a brief of time I think. I trained with him now and again, but he usually took class at a different time than I did, and when we separated from our former affiliation and instructor, he was one of the guys that went with the other school.

  3. Thomas
    Thomas says:

    There are a fair amount of undeserving black belts already. I question Lesnar’s belt, because he attained it in a fairly quick time span from what I hear.

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