Boar,
Stop winding everyone up. Royler is very good at what he does but was badly outmatched in that fight. What he was doing was useless and just a method to try and stall and hold on until the end of the fight so he could say he was never beaten (if he made it to the end it counts as a draw). It is some crazy Gracie thing where they like to claim to be unbeaten.
He is still one one of the best grapplers in the world and has beaten many people from many styles in many different types of competition.
JFG,
In general someone who has a high belt ranking in BJJ will have earned it and will be at a high standard but this is not always the case. There are greedy people in BJJ like every other style. The difference is that it is harder to pull it off because BJJ people like to roll with senior people so they are usually exposed very quickly.
I have also been at a Gracie seminar where a big bunch of blue belts were handed out at the end without any proper testing (and a refusal to provide any certification). I have also seen an article on a website for a UK magazine where a member of the Gracie family had contacted a number of people and offered to sell them a black belt for $5000.
I have also been in clubs other than BJJ where it was incredibly difficult to grade.
Many styles (Vale Tudo, boxing, wrestling, and many others) have no belt system but produce many great fighters.
Forget the belts. Just enjoy the training and see where it leads you.
Cam |