bjjproblems.com — every take, since 2013
Every snarky take on real BJJ news. Newest first.
Jun 3, 2026, 10:30 PM
BJJ's Abuse Crisis Is Now Being Analyzed in Academic Media — The Sport Marketed As Safer Than Striking Gets Its First Mainstream Institutional Autopsy
The pitch was always the same. You want self-defense without turning your brain to pudding?
Jun 3, 2026, 10:00 PM
Ed O'Neill On Why Nobody Gets Black Belts: 'They Don't Keep Going to Class'
Al Bundy has a black belt. Al Bundy sold shoes, watched Psycho Dad, and sat on a couch in a bathrobe for eleven seasons.
Jun 3, 2026, 09:29 PM
Back in May, ADCC's Krakow Problem Got Worse: A Look at What the Organization Left Unsaid
When this went down recently—specifically on May 9th, 2026—ADCC faced a choice. The organization could have made a statement.
Jun 3, 2026, 08:59 PM
Islam Makhachev Says Ian Garry's Wrestling Camp Won't Help — 'Short-Term Training Doesn't Provide Meaningful Improvement'
Ian Garry flew to Georgia. Not the state, the country — home of Nox, khinkali, and apparently the only wrestlers on Earth who can prepare an Irishman to take down a Dagestani champion.
Jun 3, 2026, 08:29 PM
Gamebred Bareknuckle Produced Three RNCs On One Card — Remove The Gloves And Grapplers Just Choke Everyone
When Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA ran its return show on Friday the 10th at Ovalo Feria Ganadera in Santo Domingo, something remarkable happened. All three were rear-naked chokes.
Jun 3, 2026, 07:58 PM
A Sixth-Degree BJJ Black Belt Put an Aggressive Surfer in a Hold at Steamer Lane
Something happened at Steamer Lane that caught the attention of the wider surf and martial arts world — a moment that seemed simple on the surface but revealed something deeper about what training actually means when the stakes stop being theoretical. Sandro Santiago, a sixth-deg
Jun 3, 2026, 07:28 PM
Three Weeks Out From Worlds, Two Athletes Are Still Alive on the Grand Slam. One Has Never Won It.
The 2026 IBJJF Grand Slam is down to two people. That's the state of things three weeks before Worlds.
Jun 3, 2026, 06:24 PM
Izaak Michell Is On The Leaked ADCC 2026 Invite List — Active Felony Warrant Did Not Cost Him The Slot
Izaak Michell qualified for ADCC 2026 the honest way. He won the Asia & Oceania Trials at 77 kilograms in December 2025.
Jun 3, 2026, 05:54 PM
A Sixth-Degree BJJ Black Belt Controlled a Surf Bully at Steamer Lane Without Throwing a Single Punch
A video dropped that would spend weeks circulating through both surfing and jiu-jitsu communities simultaneously — the kind of rare crossover that only happens when martial arts theory actually collides with reality in a way nobody can argue with. The clip didn't look like most s
Jun 3, 2026, 04:53 PM
Dagestani Mikey Is Real: Musumeci Rewired His Game Before the Title Defense
Mikey Musumeci announced he was done pulling guard. Specifically, he announced he was from Dagestan now.
Jun 3, 2026, 03:53 PM
Craig Jones Called Gordon Ryan a 'Classic Right-Wing Grifter' in Playboy
When Craig Jones's Playboy interview hit the internet and started circulating through the BJJ community, it became clear that something had fundamentally shifted in how the sport's biggest personalities were choosing to speak about each other—and about the sport itself. The piece
Jun 3, 2026, 03:22 PM
Khamzat Chimaev's Wrestling Return Hit a Pothole — How a Knee Injury Derailed RAF 10 vs Danis
Khamzat Chimaev's return to wrestling just took a hard hit. The Chechen-Swedish striker was supposed to headline RAF 10 against Dillon Danis in what looked like a redemption narrative — a UFC veteran pivoting back to his roots after years chasing the welterweight title.
Jun 3, 2026, 02:09 PM
Netflix's Uma Thurman Narrative Gambit — How a 42-Minute Fight Camp Doc Sold Rousey vs. Carano
The mechanics of combat sports marketing shifted in a way that most people watching didn't immediately clock. Netflix dropped "Countdown: Rousey vs.
Jun 3, 2026, 01:38 PM
Ashton Kutcher Earned His Black Belt. He Spent Six Years at Brown Belt.
Six years at brown belt. That's Ashton Kutcher's number.
Jun 3, 2026, 01:08 PM
Ronda Rousey Tried to Occupy Two Contradictory Positions at Once, Three Weeks Before Fighting Gina Carano
About two weeks before the Netflix main event that would shake up combat sports, Ronda Rousey did what she'd been doing non-stop for the previous three weeks: she tried to hold two mutually exclusive emotional positions in a single sentence and called it grace. When TMZ caught he
Jun 3, 2026, 12:37 PM
Draculino Says BJJ's Global Explosion Was 'Beyond His Wildest Dreams' — He's One of the Architects Who Caused It
Draculino says he couldn't have imagined this. "Not even in my wildest dreams," said the coral belt legend in a recent interview, surveying a sport that now spans millions of practitioners worldwide, has made professional grappling careers viable without anyone needing to cross o
Jun 3, 2026, 12:06 PM
Mikey Musumeci Defended His Title While Planning a Dagestan MMA Debut
The UFC BJJ world watched Mikey Musumeci do something that perfectly encapsulated the structural problem plaguing the bantamweight division: he prepared for a title defense while openly planning a wrestling pilgrimage to Russia. UFC BJJ 8 went down on May 21 at the UFC APEX in La
Jun 3, 2026, 11:36 AM
Fabricio Andrey's Title Shot and the Team He Left Behind in 2023
When Fabricio Andrey landed his ONE Championship Lightweight Submission Grappling title shot against Kade Ruotolo, the narrative practically wrote itself. A 26-year-old Brazilian grappler with three IBJJF World titles was about to fight for gold—but the real story sat in the back
Jun 3, 2026, 11:06 AM
ADCC 2026 Was a Ticket Fiasco and Everyone Saw It Coming
When the dust settled on ADCC's qualification cycle for the September event in Poland, one number told the entire story: four tickets per day. That was the sales velocity for what's supposed to be the biggest submission grappling event on the planet, scheduled for September 12-13
Jun 3, 2026, 10:06 AM
Chimaev Lost the Belt, Got Booked for Wrestling 23 Days Later, and Nobody Checked In
Something peculiar happened in combat sports that deserved more attention than it got. Three days after Khamzat Chimaev went into oxygen deprivation during his weight cut, lost his first professional fight, and watched his 15-0 record end on a split decision at UFC 328 on May 9th
Jun 3, 2026, 09:36 AM
Chimaev Lost His Title Saturday and Still Had to Honor His Wrestling Match Three Weeks Later
Khamzat Chimaev walked into the Prudential Center as a 13-0 UFC middleweight champion carrying something most title challengers don't: a pre-existing wrestling commitment he'd signed six weeks earlier. When he walked out that Saturday night—May 15, to be exact—as a 13-1 former ch
Jun 3, 2026, 09:06 AM
ADCC 2026's Replacement Superfight — And How Gordon Ryan's Exit Left Kaynan Duarte and Yuri Simoes Fighting in His Shadow
When Gordon Ryan announced his retirement just months before what was supposed to be his ADCC superfight showcase, he left the organization with more than just an empty slot on the September card. He left a roadmap of his dismissals, and ADCC filled that superfight with the exact
Jun 3, 2026, 08:35 AM
Back in May, ADCC Finally Settled Its Superfight Void: Duarte vs Simoes Gets the Vacant Belt in September
When the ADCC 2026 superfight matchup was announced on May 12, it landed with the kind of quiet finality that only major decisions in submission grappling can carry. Yuri Simoes confirmed for Tauron Arena in Krakow on September 12-13.
Jun 3, 2026, 07:31 AM
Three Athletes Walked Into Brasileiros Black Belt Finals With A Grand Slam On The Line — Pato, Dalpra, Pessanha Needed One More Gold
Three athletes walked into Ginásio Poliesportivo José Correa with the same résumé. Won Worlds in May 2025.
Jun 2, 2026, 10:44 PM
Max Holloway Trained For McGregor With No Contract Signed — 'It Sucks. You Don't Have Nothing Signed or Whatever.'
The UFC had already moved forward on nearly every front of a Conor McGregor comeback fight against Max Holloway—except the one that actually mattered to the fighter showing up to camp. The promotion had a video game cover courtesy of EA Sports.
Jun 2, 2026, 10:14 PM
Ian Garry Called in Demian Maia to Crack Islam Makhachev's Code — BJJ's Greatest MMA Mind vs. The Grappler Who Broke Everyone Else
About three weeks before Ian Garry's welterweight title fight against Islam Makhachev was set to shake up UFC 330 in Philadelphia, the real story wasn't about two fighters preparing for August 15. It was about a phone call that never should have surprised anyone but did: Garry's
Jun 2, 2026, 09:43 PM
Gianni Grippo Is 34, Waited 11 Years for His Next ADCC Invite, and Just Went 7-0 Without Conceding a Point to Get It
Something genuinely disorienting happened in a packed expo hall in Pomona. Gianni Grippo walked into the ADCC West Coast Trials at 34 years old, entered the -66kg division, and walked out 7-0 with an ADCC invitation in hand.
Jun 2, 2026, 09:13 PM
Mica Galvao Closed BJJ College And Launched Mika Jiu-Jitsu — Diogo Reis Already Out, Andrey Still 'Evaluating'
Something genuinely chaotic unfolded in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Mica Galvao started the week employed by his father's organization.
Jun 2, 2026, 08:42 PM
Melqui Galvao Allegedly Kept Intimidating Witnesses From Inside Prison
Brazilian state deputy Alessandra Campêlo made allegations that transformed what was already a serious case into something darker and more calculated. When Galvao was arrested on April 28th, the prosecution had something damning: a 13-minute audio recording of him apparently nego
Jun 2, 2026, 08:12 PM
Tom Hardy Has Been Training Jiu-Jitsu for 15 Years and Just Made Brown Belt — His Coach Explains How You Keep a Hollywood Star on the Mats
Your first instinct when you hear "Hollywood actor earns BJJ brown belt" is the same as mine. You've seen this movie.