bjjproblems.com — every take, since 2013
Every snarky take on real BJJ news.
Jun 6, 2026, 08:20 AM
BJJ's Amateur Competition Scene Is Quietly Collapsing — and Too Many Promotions Finally Hit a Wall
You drive four hours. Your bracket started with twelve registered competitors.
Jun 5, 2026, 08:30 PM
When BJJ Had Its Closest Olympic Shot Yet — And Immediately Fractured Into Three Competing Camps
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu community witnessed something genuinely remarkable: the sport's most realistic Olympic pathway in its history, followed almost immediately by complete organizational chaos. The sequence of events that unfolded over just a few weeks — and the three incompat
Jun 5, 2026, 05:18 PM
ADCC Removed Its Invite List. Then Got Caught Not Removing Anything Else.
When ADCC removed its invite list in May 2026, it exposed the job that matters: credibility. The technique speaks for itself.
Jun 5, 2026, 04:48 PM
Tom DeBlass Told Men Not To DM Women At The Gym — The Real Issue Is Whether 'No Thanks' Gets Respected
Tom DeBlass has been in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for over three decades. He runs one of the most respected gyms on the East Coast.
Jun 5, 2026, 04:18 PM
Mikey Musumeci Is Abandoning His Leg Locks to Train Like a Dagestani — Before the Title Defense He Already Has
Mikey Musumeci won the UFC BJJ bantamweight title by footlocking Shay Montague in round two. He'd prefer you forgot that.
Jun 5, 2026, 09:12 AM
Security Camera Footage Shows BJJ Black Belt Assaulting His Wife — Released on R$1,621 Bail the Same Day
Last week, a BJJ black belt in Brazil's northeastern region assaulted his wife, captured on security camera. He was released on R$1,621 bail within hours—approximately $324 USD.
Jun 5, 2026, 08:42 AM
Academy Responds to Member Concerns About Training Environment by Hiring Organizational Development Consultant Who Described BJJ As 'A Grappling Form of Karate'
Somewhere out there, a BJJ gym owner is writing a check to an organizational development consultant who has never set foot on a mat. The consultant has a master's degree, a LinkedIn with 4,000 connections, and a very thorough intake questionnaire.
Jun 5, 2026, 08:12 AM
Jeremy Glick Tried to Stop a Hijacked Plane With His Hands. The US Judo Association Just Made Him a 10th-Degree Black Belt.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jeremy Glick called his wife Lyz from a payphone in the back of United Flight 93. He told her the plane had been hijacked.
Jun 5, 2026, 07:28 AM
How China Built BJJ Into Its School System—And What That Means for Everyone Else
The grappling world got a reminder of something uncomfortable: when a country with 1.4 billion people decides to systematize a sport, the rest of us should probably pay attention. Somewhere in Shanghai, a seven-year-old was getting graded on guard retention.
Jun 4, 2026, 07:55 AM
When Basilio's Surgery Forced a 9-Day Scramble for Moura's Title Defense
The Women's Bantamweight Title fight at UFC BJJ 8 went through one final upheaval—and it said something uncomfortable about the state of women's elite grappling that nobody really wanted to admit out loud. That was the window Sabrina Gondim had between accepting a title shot and
Jun 4, 2026, 07:25 AM
BJJ 6th-Degree Black Belt Chokes Out Racist Aggressor at Steamer Lane Surf Break — Goes Viral in Two Communities
He didn't throw a single punch. Sandro Santiago — 6th-degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Santa Cruz gym founder — had a racist aggressor swing at him on the beach at Steamer Lane.
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