1-31-21 --- I'm updating this post to make the information clear for newcomers and casual observers. My original post is at the bottom. Numbers in brackets (e.g., [12]) refer to the PAGE of this thread where information was found and posted.

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TL;DR --- Randy "Lasu" Rogers claims to be a 7th degree coral belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor. Jordan Matthew/Matthias Gregory claims to be a 2nd degree black belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor. Both teach at Pure Jiu Jitsu in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, USA. Their belts do not meet IBJJF standards for black/coral belt promotions and the vast majority of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu community would regard their belts as illegitimate/fake. Mr. Rogers appears to be entirely self-promoted, with the exception of perhaps the first and/or second degrees on his black belt coming from Carlos Machado.
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In December 2020, a Redditor started a thread on "Fake Black Belt Awarded in Albuquerque," (https://www.reddit.com/r/[...]buquerque/). I started a discussion here so we could use real names (which you can't do on Reddit due to their anti-doxxing rules.)

Randy "Lasu" Rogers runs Pure Jiu JItsu in Rio Rancho outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Mr. Rogers (called "Lasu" by those who know him) claims to be a 7th degree coral belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This is remarkable since the very first American black belts (like Chris Haueter) are only 5th degree. In the Brazilian jiu-jitsu belt system, it takes around 40 years of training to achieve this rank, 28+ of which should be spent at black belt.

Mr. Rogers came to Reddit's attention because he had just promoted his student, 26-year-old Jordan Matthew Gregory, straight from brown belt to second degree black belt. Again, in the BJJ belt system, it takes 6 years to go from one's initial black belt to a second degree. Furthermore, Kevin "Conan" Bankens of Bankens Mountain MMA commented on Mr. Gregory's promotion post stating that Mr. Gregory had been a white belt at his gym in 2013 [1]. Both Mr. Rogers and Mr. Gregory responded that Mr. Gregory was promoted to black belt in 2014, but Mr. Gregory's social media feeds show him periodically training with a brown belt on from at least December 2016 - December 2020 [1]. (As an aside, Mr. Gregory's social media feeds mostly showed him training MMA, boxing, and capoeira, *not* Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and he has an 0-3-2 professional boxing record; [12].)

It generally takes 8-10 years minimum to go from white belt to black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and 14-16 years minimum to go from white belt to second degree black. If Mr. Bankens' report is accurate, then Mr. Gregory has gone from white belt to second degree black belt in just over 7 years.

Mr. Rogers eventually responded to a DM on Facebook that he promoted Mr. Gregory to black belt in 2014, but didn't actually give him the belt due to a falling out. He stated that this is why he chose to promote him straight to 2nd degree when the two began training again in 2020 [7]. The BeltChecker community finds this explanation extremely questionable, especially since it means Mr. Gregory would have gone from white belt to black belt in just one year (2013-2014). It's also questionable whether an instructor can "back-promote" someone to black belt going back years because they meant to promote them but didn't.

Mr. Rogers' own affiliation and belt promotions have been even more questionable. He has claimed in multiple places that he is of "Machado" and "Fadda" lineage, and also claimed at least twice on the Pure Jiu Jitsu page that he "represented" Edmilson Alves and the Fadda lineage. In a direct message to a BeltChecker member, he stated that he received his black belt "20 years ago" from Tom McGonigal [7]. (Note: even if this were true it would mean, by his own admission, he hasn't been a black belt long enough to be a coral belt. He would only be a fifth degree at best.)

Tom McGonigal responded to BeltChecker members that Mr. Rogers trained with him years ago, but as a white belt. He denies promoting him to anything, let alone a black belt. McGonigal also "confirmed that [neither] Marco Santos, [the] Gracies, [n]or the Machado[s] have ever given Randy any belts at all." [17]

Carlos Machado responded that he did not promote Mr. Rogers to black belt; rather, that Mr. Rogers "joined our association with rank already and was asked to leave." [3] It is possible that Rogers received a degree or two from Machado during their affiliation, but most practitioners would argue that a first or second degree awarded to a fake black belt is still illegitimate.

Edmilson Alves has never been affiliated with Mr. Rogers or Pure Jiu-Jitsu. He states that Mr. Rogers reached out to him at one point to inquire about affiliating, to which Master Alves responded that he would have to be examined and graded prior to affiliation. Mr. Rogers never got back to him after that. On 1-27-21, Alves posted publicly on Facebook asking Mr. Rogers who promoted him to coral belt. Mr. Rogers said he would respond in private but reportedly didn't. [13, 14]

On 1-28-21, Master Alves posted on the Pure Jiu Jitsu page, responding to one of the posts claiming that Pure JIu JItsu was affiliated with him and the Fadda lineage. He denied all affiliation. Mr. Rogers deleted Master Alves' comment. As of 1-31-21, the Pure Jiu JItsu post claiming affiliation with Alves and Fadda remains. [16] UPDATE 2-2-21: Mr. Rogers posted on the Pure Jiu Jitsu page, "With much respect i do not represent master Edmilson Alves in any way." The July '20 post claiming Alves affiliation has now been deleted. [21]

CONCLUSION: The community at BeltChecker cannot find any instructors who can confirm that they promoted Randy "Lasu" Rogers to even a blue belt, let alone black belt. Mr. Rogers claimed to have received his black belt from Tom McGonigal, which McGonigal denies. Carlos Machado also denies promoting him to black belt, and Mr. Rogers clearly lied about being affiliated with Master Edmilson Alves and the Fadda lineage. Both Mr. Rogers and Mr. Gregory have responded to questions about their belts and promotion history by deleting comments and blocking.

For this reason, most of us here at BeltChecker feel that both gentlemen should not be wearing the belts/degrees that they currently wear. Mr. Rogers in particular appears to be a fraud who has self-promoted most of his belts/degrees and lied repeatedly about his affiliations and promotions (and is thus not qualified to make Mr. Gregory a second degree black belt, even if Mr. Gregory is sincere). Evaluation and promotion by a qualified higher-level instructor is necessary to grade both men and legitimize any belt they wear.

If any of the information posted above is inaccurate, I welcome Mr. Rogers (who has blocked me on Facebook) and Mr. Gregory (who has also blocked me on Facebook) to contact me and clear things up. I will IMMEDIATELY correct the record on anything I got wrong. If they can provide a valid and full promotion history, I will gladly edit this post accordingly. I can be reached at [email protected], by Beltchecker DM, Facebook/Messenger DM (Bridget Jack Jeffries or ClobberGirl), Instagram DM (WeightedGlory), or Twitter DM (weighted_glory). I have not blocked either of them. Thank you.

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ORIGINAL POST:

The academy is Pure Jiu Jitsu in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, USA. Promoting instructor is Randy Lasu Rogers and new 2nd degree black belt is Jordan Matthew Gregory.

Mr. Gregory's social media feed shows him training as a one-stripe brown belt for the past few months (update: I dug deeper into his social media feeds and there are pictures of him wearing a brown belt going back as far as December 2016; not a single picture of him wearing a black belt before December 23rd of this year). Mr. Rogers commented that Mr. Gregory has been a black belt for six years, and Mr. Gregory also claimed in a comment that he was promoted to black belt six years ago (in 2014).

Do we have anyone here who can shed some light on this?