What happens? How'd you vote?

Rolling footage has been found and posted and... ...phew.

So. Let's say this guy shows up to Beltchecker (I wish he did 😆). https://www.reddit.com/r/[...]LBzzEbbLwV What happens? How'd you vote? I personally think he can potentially be high purple belt level IF the story of 3.5 years, not a single day missed is true. I would not care for not meeting IBJJF requirements but would not vote until I see (more) rolling footage (of course ideally train with the guy myself).

Rolling footage has been found and posted and... ...phew.

Well... let's see how this goes.

I honestly don't care. Belt's are overvalued anyway, in my opinion. I'd rather train with Jozef Chen when he was a purple belt than most black belts I've ever met.

You don't care so hard that you are on beltchecker.com...We are here on this sight, because we care about the integrity of the claims of rank in BJJ. Belts, like words, hold meaning. If it means nothing, why do people make any distinction? When you make the assertion that belts are meaningless, you dishonor those that have promoted you and imply that the claim your instructor made about you has no meaning. All of my promotions hold meaning. Belts mean different things to different people, that is why your lineage is important. We care about the Moneyberg promotion, not because of any affect on us, but because it removes clarity in the meaning of promotions for our students; that hurts the sport and the art we are passionate about, as a whole.

If you're going to call me out, would you at least do me the kindness of criticizing what I said? I said belts are over rated, not that they mean nothing. I've turned down promotions from others because I didn't agree with their standards. And I hate to break it too you, but there's no clarity of what the belts mean anyway. A blue belt in one gym would be a purple or brown belt at another. I've competed against black belts as a purple belt and won decisively. I've been beaten by blue belts. Every gym has a different standard, so there's no objective measure. So, yeah, I just don't care. I have better things to do with my time than rage online about a guy "not being up to the standard of XYZ rank" when there's no objective measure of this rank in the first place.

If you're going to call me out, would you at least do me the kindness of criticizing what I said? I said belts are over rated, not that they mean nothing. I've turned down promotions from others because I didn't agree with their standards. And I hate to break it too you, but there's no clarity of what the belts mean anyway. A blue belt in one gym would be a purple or brown belt at another. I've competed against black belts as a purple belt and won decisively. I've been beaten by blue belts. Every gym has a different standard, so there's no objective measure. So, yeah, I just don't care. I have better things to do with my time than rage online about a guy "not being up to the standard of XYZ rank" when there's no objective measure of this rank in the first place.

Totally hear your perspective on belt variability across gyms, it's a valid frustration in BJJ. That said, I’m a little curious about the promotion piece. If you’ve had the same professor since white belt, who were these other people offering promotions? Were they affiliated with your lineage or just outside observers? Different sport? Also, if you didn’t align with your instructor’s standards, wouldn’t continuing under that system signal agreement by default? Or at least trust in their judgment? Turning down a promotion implies you believe you know better than the person promoting you, which is usually someone ranked higher. That’s a strong stance to take unless it’s a self-promoted belt, which isn’t the case here, right? It just leaves me wondering, are you holding back out of humility, or is this more about signaling that you could be ranked higher, but choose not to be? Either way, belts aren’t everything, I agree. But if you're going to reject a rank, it’s fair to ask what criteria you do recognize as valid.

I've moved since I started BJJ and train/coach at a gym in my home city, which is far away from my original gym/coach. Regarding why I turned down promotions, I have specific things I wanted to achieve for previous belts and specific skills I wanted to develop before moving to the next. People wanted to promote me before I achieved them, and I just said no. It was less I didn't think they were justified, I just wasn't where I wanted to be yet. Also why I still train/coach at this gym. There wasn't any kind of fight or anything, they just wanted to promote me, I told them what I wanted to achieve before promotion and turned the promotion down. As for "knowing better than someone higher ranked", I have two points. Firstly, when it comes to what I want to achieve, well, yeah. I do I know that better than someone else. I personally think these things should be discussed before any promotion. I mean, imagine you have someone who wants to go to Euros or Worlds, and you promote them a week before they would compete. It's an extreme example, yes, but I know people this has happened to. If you know you have someone who's going to worlds soon, that should be considered when promotions. Secondly, I personally think rank is pretty irrelevant here when it comes to this. Being a black belt (hypothetically) just means you're good at Jiu-Jitsu. It doesn't make you a good coach, it doesn't mean you know how to motivate people, or anything else. That's kind of my whole point that belts are overrated. I've met and trained with very high level black belts who couldn't teach a class to save their life.

First question I have, is do you dispute the people who support him such as Jake Shields, Mucemeci etc. right to award a black belt ? Honestly I thought that once you achieve a certain rank in BJJ you have earned the right to award the belt. As far as I have seen there is no universal criteria for promotion, hell there is no universal criteria for what actually is needed to get a black belt. Is it performance, knowledge, teaching ability ? On top of that what outside criteria are involved. Code of conduct, integrity, behavior, belief systems ? Honestly the belt is absolutely meaningless unless you respect who awarded it. People have been buying belts since BJJ started to become popular I have had 2 brown belts stop be recently one was just about Black Belt and one I wouldn't give a purple belt to. When the told me who they trained with I knew which one would be legit and which one would suck before rolling with them. The fact the one sucks and i would have him at purple does not mean he is not a brown. Who am I to say he is not

Honestly, this whole thread feels like the BJJ version of asking Mr. Miyagi how he decided Daniel was ready for his black belt — wax on, wax off, boom, you're fighting in the All Valley. And let’s not forget: he famously said his own black belt came from JC Penney. No lineage, no ceremony — just straight retail confidence. So yeah, if Jake Shields or Mucemeci are putting a belt on someone, I’m not rushing in with a barcode scanner to check its authenticity. But your point hits: the belt only means something if the person tying it around your waist means something to you. Otherwise, it’s just fabric with emotional debt. At the end of the day, promotions aren’t tracked by GPS coordinates or universal metrics. Some are based on performance, some on teaching, and let’s be real — some are based on vibes, like getting blessed by the BJJ Pope during open mat. And if someone wants to flex their new rank, cool. But you’ll know exactly what that belt’s worth when you slap hands and bump fists.

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I really appreciate the emphasis on athlete goals. But I also think coaches play a key role in supporting competitive timelines especially when an athlete is weeks out from something like Euros or Worlds. If a coach knows a student is registered for a major comp at their current belt, it makes sense to delay promotion until after the event. Not because the athlete isn’t ready, but because they deserve the chance to finish what they committed to. It’s not “waiting to see if they win” it’s honoring their preparation, teammates, and bracket strategy. Promotion after a comp doesn’t necessarly reward victory, it acknowledges progress that’s already been earned. And truthfully, competing at a lower belt when the athlete’s clearly above the skill curve without communication can feel like sandbagging, even if unintentional. I still might be missing part of the story, but I am little confused. Your profile shows the same coach from white to brown, so I wasn’t sure who was planning to promote you that you turned down. If it’s still your original coach that promoted yous, how were you evaluated for the promotions, did you travel back for testing or something like that? Just wondering because it wasn’t super clear to me.

As for the sandbagging, unpopular opinion, I think this is fake, and kind of goes to why I think belts are overrated in the first place. Simply put, what standard do you use for sandbagging or promotion? It's not fair to hold the middle aged father of three IT worker who just wants to have some exercise to the same standards as someone who's competing, nor is it fair to hold someone who completes locally for fun to someone who's competing every week, or to someone competing at the world level. I know plenty of guys who tear it up on the local tournament scene but lose the first match at Euros. Is that guy sandbagging even though he wants to compete at Euros and win? Is it fair to him to promote him without really giving him enough chances to reach his goal? This is why I think it should just be discussed with the individual.