Most people know how BJJ was created, why, by whom, who influenced it, etc… In this article we will look at the history of BJJ from a different angle. We will look at 10 events/changing points that took place in the history of BJJ and that shocked the community for better or for worse.

Online Promotions

Although BJJ is growing, there still are places where you don’t have access to a proper school to train. In order to combat this problem, while also giving people a way to study BJJ at home, Rener and Ryron Gracie created the Gracie Online University, a place that gave users on demand videos with technique and technical breakdowns. While that in itself was a brilliant idea with literally no downsides, it came with another feature. It allowed users to get their blue belt without having to actually roll with their instructors, they would get it based on videos they would send with themselves performing the techniques in a drilling environment. Even though this was later revised, requiring users to come to a live assessment in Torrance, California, it’s still the cause for major controversy, a lot of people believing that the blue belt should only come if the user puts the blood, sweat and tears on the mat, in a academy.

Further controversy came when Roy Harris announced that, through his online system, people would be able to get up to a brown belt:

Roy Harris Promotes Online BJJ Students By Email Up To Brown Belt

Lloyd Irvin Scandal

Lloyd Irvin is the head coach of Lloyd Irvin Team, a successful American BJJ School which produced fighters like: JT Torres, Mike Fowler and Ryan Hall.
In 2013, after two of his students got accused of r*ping a team mate, it emerged that Lloyd himself got accused of gang r*pe, in a case that dated back to 1990.
To counter these allegations, Lloyd started a big and aggressive marketing campaign. He started r*pe prevention seminars as well as press releases and even buying a domain named Lloydirvinr*pe.com in order to catch the google listing keywords “Lloyd Irvin R*pe”.
Furthermore, in March of 2013, Jordon Shultz (TLI competitor) revealed that one of the students came to him and explained that Lloyd tried to sexu*lly molest her by using phrases such as “how bad do you want to be a world champion”.
The scandals had a huge negative influence over Lloyd Irvin’s academy and caused a mass exodus of students including JT Torres, Keenan Cornelius and Schultz.

Eddie Bravo submits Royler Gracie

ADCC 2003, Eddie Bravo still a brown belt. Eddie gets pitted against Royler Gracie. At that point, Royler was a 4 time World Jiu Jitsu Champion and a 3 time ADCC Champion. No one would even consider giving Eddie Bravo a chance. The only support Eddie had was from Joe Rogan. Eddie managed to catch Royler with a triangle and make him tap out, making Eddie’s popularity skyrocket.

Belt Demotions

A new practice that has emerged is belt demotion. Higher belts dropping their current belt and taking a lower one. The main reason this happens is because the user took a big time off Jiu Jitsu and has returned, feeling he is no longer worth the belt he is currently having, as such demoting himself until he feels he is back at that level. It has also been seen that the instructors demote someone because they no longer feel the student is worth the belt. Although this practice hasn’t been encouraged by the old school authorities in Jiu Jitsu, it is taking place and with a increasing frequency. The biggest problem this creates is the phenomenon of sand bagging. If the user who got demoted is allowed to compete, then he should compete at the belt he was initially at. If he is allowed to compete after he was demoted (and compete at a lower experience category) that gives him an unfair advantage over all the competitors over there, big break or not. As such, belt demotions is generally looked bad upon and not encouraged.

BJ Penn wins Mundial Gold at Black Belt.

BJ Penn is an American mixed martial artist with a record of 16-11, with big achievements in the UFC. However, long before he was making waves in the UFC, BJ Penn was the first to achieve something that seemed impossible at the time. BJ Penn managed to win gold at the BJJ World Championships in 2000, hosted in Rio de Janeiro, at black belt level. The feat remains impressive to this day, BJ Penn being the first of four (Drysdale, Lovato and Mikey Musumeci being the other two) americans to get gold at black belt level at the Mundials.

MacKenzie defeats Gabi Garcia

Gabi vs Mackenzie Dern

Gabi Garcia was, for a long time, the sole leader of the +74 and Open Weight Female divisions. Her huge weight (+110 kg) and strength allowed her to dominate the female scene for a long period of time, winning 9 World Championships, the last being in 2014. But the 2015 World Pro’s came and MacKenzie and Garcia had to face off again. This time, the unbelievable occurred. MacKenzie Dern managed to win against Garcia, in spite of very unfavorable odds, and win the world pro.

Fake Belts

Obviously with the rise in popularity, a lot of people also realized the business opportunity that came along. BJJ gyms are hugely successful in the states and in Europe, however, besides the money required to start the business, you also need one other critical thing. To have put the work in and be at least a colored belt. Some people only had the money and thought of a way to circumvent the second criteria. This is how fake belts came to be. People would put a brown/black belt around their waist with no actual skills to back it up (not coming even close) and would start advertising their gyms as a gym where you can learn from a black belt. But the BJJ Community did not stay idle and let this happen. Members of the community who were practicing BJJ in places where such fake belts appeared have often went to the respective gym and exposed the fake belts on video and published it online, doing a service for everyone and being considered part of the fictional but cool “BJJ Police”.

Comprido’s Toe Hold

The toe hold, now a common technique, wasn’t always so common. Back in the day, footlocks were frowned upon. Although the toe hold is a submission originating from Judo’s ashi dori garami, meaning entangled leg dislocation, it has been made popular by Comprido when he defeated Roberto “Roleta” Magalhaes. Although footlocks weren’t completely new back then, Roleta stated in a later interview that he had never seen that position before. “It was the first time I ever taped to a footlock, we had never seen that position before, Comprido was the first to do it. (…) I saw he had it on, but I didn’t recognise the position, I didn’t know where he was going with it, first it was a bit loose and he let go, but the second time when he got it again it was really deep. It popped my foot and really hurt it, I had to tap “