Originally Posted by pstevens

For all the fuss BJJ folks are making about other arts, there’s a lot of inconsistencies with the belt grading of BJJ. It seems belts come very fast, depending on who you know and how much money you have. That and the fact that many blackbelts get tapped by purples, browns and even blues.

Here are some examples of discrepancies:

Vitor Belfort - Purple belt with Rickson, then goes to Carlson and is immediately promoted to Black Belt. Yet, everyone knows his skills on the ground are subpar.

Royce Gracie - Yes, even legendary Royce was promoted from Blue Belt to Black Belt in 2 years! I don’t know one TKD school that would do that. The truth is, even though he’s a 6th degree blackbelt, Royce couldn’t hang with many purples or new blackbelts on the competition level. Sure, he’s a good NHB fighter, but that’s not BJJ, which he’s now a 6+ degree black belt.

Eddie Bravo - Eddie tapped out Royler, who tapped out Joe Moriera, a 5th degree black belt. Does that make Eddie a 6th degree black belt? No, he just recently received his black belt. And when he tapped Royler, Eddie was a brown belt I believe. Royce is at least a 5-6th degree blackbelt?

Look out TKD, here comes BJJ... We now have stripe and belt testing, whenever the student feels he’s ready, and has money in hand. It used to be that you were awarded stripes and belts based on your skill level and knowledge. McBJJ is not far around the corner.