Brandan Schaub is a retired football player, former UFC fighter and American podcaster. He is known to the grappling community through his tenure in the UFC, being featured in Metamoris in what many call a shameful performance against Roberto Cyborg Abreu and as a frequent guest on the Joe Rogan Podcast.
But in spite of his reluctance to go toe to toe with Cyborg he is, or shall we say was, a brown belt under Amal Easton a Renzo Gracie black belt.
However on the last fight companion he revealed he was demoted to a white belt at Gracie Academy:
“That happened to me when I first got to Gracie Academy. They made me wear a white belt for a long time. I got a brown belt from someone else, I was a white belt for a while. ”
when further prompted by Joe Rogan:
“Wait a second Amal Easton gave you a brown belt and you had to wear a white belt? That is insane”
Amal Easton pictured alongside some huge names in the sport (source:bjjheroes.com):
Schaub revealed:
” Yo it was like just for the first few weeks, just to see where my level was at. ”
Rogan wouldn’t let it go since he’s obviously familiar with the quality of Amal Easton:
“But you’re an Amal Easton belt that’s very very legit. That’s not like Freddie Mercury, some f**king dude from the Midwest…”
Schaub added: “When I trained in Brazil too they made me wear a white belt.”
Rogan went on to call that happening disrespectful: “That’s so disrespectful!”
Schaub claims he was not jaded about the experience:
“I had no issue with it. I literally didn’t care but I would tell guys I’m not a white belt like- I’m not a white belt I know what I’m doing brother. “
UPDATE:
Official statement from Brendan Schaub:
On the most recent Fight Companion podcast, I mentioned that I wore a white belt at the Gracie Academy for a few weeks when I first arrived, even though I was already a brown belt in BJJ. My miscommunication on the issue caused some people, including Joe Rogan and Bryan Callen, to think I was demoted by my instructors, Ryron and Rener Gracie, and it’s not true. When I moved from Colorado to Los Angeles, we trained mostly no-gi, so when we rolled in the gi occasionally to mix up the training and sharpen my defense/escapes, I would wear a loaner gi and a white belt that came with the gi (since they didn’t have loaner brown belts). After several weeks I began bringing my brown belt on gi days and I’ve worn it ever since. I have never seen Ryron or Rener demote anyone, and I have nothing but respect for them and everything they’ve done for jiu-jitsu. -Brendan Schaub
And just in case you were wondering this was While Schaub was in the UFC!
You can listen to that part of the Fight companion cued in below:
