The very first time I saw Marcus Almeida, known simply as “Buchecha,” compete was at the 2010 IBJJF World Championship in California. That year was no different than the last 10 years of watching jiu-jitsu in California, as my goal was always to watch and seek out the future stars of our sport, and I […]
Continue readingI consider myself a late bloomer. When I was a kid, I was more of a nerd than I was athletic and did not participate in team sports like my friends. After I graduated with my Masters degree in my early 20s, I decided to do something for myself. So I started kickboxing to get […]
Continue readingWhile it is not common, but has been happening more often lately, the exposure of “fake” black belts via social media has us going through a mix of emotions – mad, entertained, and even embarrassed. Most legitimate black belts wouldn’t give this topic the time of day… and we really shouldn’t either. The reason is […]
Continue readingOn Sunday, a thread on Edwin Najmi’s Facebook post about the Brasileiro escalated pretty quickly when black belt Abraham Marte made a comment about how wild the crowd goes when “douchebags” fight. Namely Aj Agazarm. What seemed like a playful interaction between Marte and Agazarm quickly turned into Marte calling out Aj on his “bullsh*t,” […]
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