Black belt 1st degree

June 5, 2021St. Louis, MO

2 years, 11 months, 27 days

Burton awarded me my first stripe in person at a seminar in St. Louis, Missouri a few weeks after the date indicated above. He called me on the phone on June 5, 2021 to tell me that he was awarding me my first degree on the third anniversary of my black belt test, but he announced the promotion at the St. Louis seminar. I didn't get a certificate, but I have attached a photo of us at the seminar after the promotion (including Jimmie Johnson, who earned his brown belt). There is also an attached image of a Facebook post that Burton made on the fourth anniversary of my black belt.

The attached photos include my black belt certificate from Burton Richardson, a photo of me after receiving my belt (with Burton and his first two black belt students, Shelton Yamashiro and Scott Ishihara), and a Facebook post that Burton made about the promotion.

Brown belt

August 30, 2015Cincinnati, OH

2 years, 9 months, 6 days

Burton promoted me after I trained with him at a seminar in Cincinnati, OH. Attached are photos of my original brown belt certificate, a Facebook post by Burton about the promotion, and my four-stripe brown belt certificate from a few years later. Ten years elapsed between earning my purple belt and earning my brown belt because (1) I moved from Hawaii to the mainland (so I only trained with Burton at seminars and when visiting Hawaii), (2) my wife went through cancer treatment (so I didn't train for over a year), and (3) I had a spinal injury that took over a year to rehabilitate.

Burton Richardson was my primary instructor at the time (though I also cross-trained with Charuto at HMC that year). Since Burton was a brown belt in 2005 (he got his black in 2006), he brought Charuto in to do rank evaluation for his students. The attached photos are of my rank certificate, the students who tested that night (Charuto and I are the tallest guys in the back), and a post that Burton made on the old JKDU forums about the testing.

I was promoted directly from white belt to purple belt by Renato "Charuto" Verissimo. At the time, I had been training MMA and Jeet Kune Do under Burton Richardson for five and a half years, so I had a lot of grappling experience, but no official BJJ rank. I'm following the "I have skipped a belt..." instructions in your FAQ and making a blue belt listing even though I was never awarded one.

I trained MMA and Jeet Kune Do with Burton Richardson starting in August of 1999 after I moved to Honolulu, HI. Burton was a purple belt at the time and incorporated a lot of BJJ into his classes, but didn't officially start teaching BJJ until years later. I officially started doing BJJ full-time in 2005 with Charuto Verissimo, but Burton was my first grappling coach with a BJJ background.