bjjproblems.com — every take, since 2013
Every snarky take on real BJJ news.
Jun 2, 2026, 07:42 PM
Tom Hardy's BJJ Coach Reveals: Actor Has Been Training in Secret Since 2018
Celebrity BJJ belt stories follow a predictable arc. Actor gets intrigued, visits a famous gym, gets a photo with the instructor, leaves with a new belt.
Jun 2, 2026, 07:20 PM
San Diego Closed The Galvão Case For 'Insufficient Evidence.' A Second Atos Athlete Came Forward Anyway.
The tidy version of the André Galvão story was supposed to end on May 1, when San Diego authorities closed the case for insufficient evidence and no charges were filed. A named athlete inside Atos did not get the memo.
Jun 2, 2026, 07:11 PM
An Atos Black Belt Just Said Both Galvão Accusers Are Telling The Truth
For months, Atos had a tidy way to file the André Galvão allegations: jealous outsiders, disgruntled ex-students, a smear campaign. Then one of their own black belts opened his mouth.
Jun 2, 2026, 06:45 PM
ONE Inner Circle: When Oumar Kane Faced Malykhin in the First Heavyweight Title Defense of 2026
ONE Championship staged a rematch that had been simmering for months—a heavyweight title defense that brought together two of the most dominant grapplers on the promotion's roster at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok. Oumar "Reug Reug" Kane defended his ONE Heavyweight title against An
Jun 2, 2026, 06:14 PM
Mica Galvao Announced His Own Team, Then Shut It Down Before The Gear Was Even Printed
Here's the complete history of Mika Jiu-Jitsu: announced, then canceled, with no gear to show for it. The window between "I'm starting a team" and "never mind" was about a week.
Jun 2, 2026, 05:44 PM
Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson Tried Sumo Wrestling And Actually Meant It
Something unusual happened in the crossover-training space—the kind of thing that should have been a throwaway YouTube moment but turned into something worth actually examining. Stephen Thompson does not wrestle.
Jun 2, 2026, 04:43 PM
Ed O'Neill Explains Why Most BJJ Practitioners Never Reach Black Belt — 'They Just Stop Coming'
Ed O'Neill was 45 when he walked into the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California, for the first time. He trained under Rorion Gracie for sixteen years.
Jun 2, 2026, 04:13 PM
John Danaher on His Two Favorite Types of Students: 'Polar Opposites'
John Danaher sat down with BJJEE on May 30 and described his two favorite types of students as "polar opposites": total beginners learning fundamentals and advanced athletes refining nuances. That wasn't a hot take—that was just smart coaching.
Jun 2, 2026, 03:42 PM
Fabricio Andrey Chose Alliance Over Mica's New Team — Mica's New Team Didn't Last 72 Hours
Three years ago, Fabricio Andrey left. Not with a manifesto.
Jun 2, 2026, 03:12 PM
Joe Rogan Said Chimaev Has Been Winning Because He Hasn't Wrestled Anyone — Burns And Usman Were The Real Tests
Joe Rogan spent part of episode 2487 of his podcast, released April 22 with Action Bronson, explaining that Khamzat Chimaev was, in fact, a freak. Then he spent the rest of it explaining why we didn't actually know how big a freak yet.
Jun 2, 2026, 02:13 PM
GSP On Rolling With Prime Danaher: 'There Was Nothing I Could Do'
"Nothing I could do." That's how Georges St-Pierre, three-time UFC welterweight champion, Hall of Famer, BJJ black belt under John Danaher, describes what it was like to roll with his own coach in his prime. Not "tough rolls." Not "we had good rounds." Nothing he could do.
Jun 2, 2026, 01:43 PM
The Brasileiro Sold Out At 8,000 Entries: How Two AOJ Teammates Nearly Made Back-To-Back Grand Slams Real
Something genuinely rare happened in jiu-jitsu: the IBJJF's oldest major championship hit a ceiling nobody had seen before. The Brasileiro — ten days of competition across every belt level from kids to black belt — sold out at exactly 8,000 registered competitors.
Jun 2, 2026, 01:12 PM
Khamzat Chimaev's $200K Wrestling Bounty Met Reality—And Lost
Khamzat Chimaev made headlines that seemed to sum up everything wrong and right about the crossover fever gripping combat sports. On April 18, the reigning UFC middleweight champion (15-0) signed with Real American Freestyle, posted a $200,000 bounty for any Olympic wrestling cha
Jun 2, 2026, 12:42 PM
Ed O'Neill Has Been Training BJJ Under Rorion Gracie for 40 Years. His Answer to Why People Quit Is Three Words.
Ed O'Neill started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1991. He had one of the highest-rated sitcoms on American television.
Jun 2, 2026, 12:12 PM
Kron Gracie Says His Father's MMA Advice 'Doesn't Work' — Rickson Reportedly Stopped Speaking to Him For Years Over It
Kron Gracie walked into a training session, tried the move his father told him to use, and his training partner snatched his leg and kicked back. The move was a front kick.
Jun 2, 2026, 11:41 AM
Fight 2 Win's 315-Event American Run — and Why It Took 11 Years to Book Brazil
When Fight 2 Win announced its May 23, 2026 event in São Paulo, it marked a quiet milestone that had been staring at the submission grappling world for over a decade: the promotion had just held its 316th show ever, and for the first time in eleven years, it wasn't in North Ameri
Jun 2, 2026, 11:11 AM
Gordon Ryan Said He Was 'Retired.' Then He Kept Showing Up to the Mat—and the Camera Caught Him
About three weeks after Gordon Ryan posted his retirement announcement, footage started circulating that told a different story entirely. The timeline is worth unpacking, because it matters.
Jun 2, 2026, 09:48 AM
F2W Finally Left North America. After 316 Shows, It Took Brazil to Do It.
Fight to Win hit a historic milestone — not because of what happened, but because of where it happened. Three hundred and sixteen shows.
Jun 2, 2026, 09:17 AM
Owen Jones Calls Out Mikey Musumeci: 'He Doesn't Deserve to Be the Face of the Sport'
Owen Jones said it on The Charles Eoghan Experience podcast last summer, and nobody really answered him. "I just don't like that they're trying to make him the face of the sport.
Jun 2, 2026, 08:47 AM
Khamzat Chimaev Lost His Middleweight Belt and Decided Light Heavyweight Was the Answer
Khamzat Chimaev experienced something he hadn't tasted before in his professional career: a loss. And not just any loss—a split decision defeat to Sean Strickland, a 4-to-1 underdog, at UFC 328 in Newark.
Jun 2, 2026, 08:17 AM
Erich Munis Lost His Own Weight Class At Brasileiros Then Won The 14-Man Absolute The Same Day
When the dust settled on the IBJJF Brasileiros, one result sat in the data that nobody quite knew what to do with: the men's super heavy black belt final that Erich Munis lost, followed immediately—same day, same venue—by the absolute title that he won. The super heavy final came
Jun 2, 2026, 07:29 AM
Paddy Pimblett Made a Content Creator Physically Vomit in Sparring — There Is Video
When this went down recently—back on May 13th—it seemed like the kind of gym story that would die the moment the session ended. British TikToker Dean Alex showed up to Next Generation MMA in Liverpool to spar Paddy Pimblett.
Jun 1, 2026, 10:56 PM
The Death of Medet Zheenaliev — Kyrgyzstan Fighter Who Drowned Saving Four Teenage Girls
When the news came through about what happened at Lake Issyk-Kul, it moved quietly through the grappling world—the kind of story that doesn't trend, doesn't get a thousand takes, but lands differently on people who understand what combat sports actually asks of the body and mind.
Jun 1, 2026, 10:26 PM
BJJ World Champion Brenda Larissa Named 14 Years of Alleged Abuse by Melqui Galvão
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu world faced a reckoning it couldn't ignore. The machinery of institutional response had already been set in motion—the IBJJF and CBJJ announced a permanent ban on April 28, the same day police arrested Melqui Galvão in Manaus.
Jun 1, 2026, 09:55 PM
Brenda Larissa Is the Second Named Competitor On the Record Against Melqui Galvão — and She Kept Competing Through All of It
Brazilian jiu-jitsu had one of those moments where the sport's internal machinery finally breaks down in public. Melqui Galvão was arrested on April 28, and by the next day, both the IBJJF and CBJJ had issued permanent bans.
Jun 1, 2026, 09:25 PM
Arman Tsarukyan Demanded 3% Of RAF And Rewrote The Playbook
Something strange happened on The Ariel Helwani Show. Arman Tsarukyan went on air and negotiated a contract in real time, with no apparent embarrassment, telling the grappling press that Real American Freestyle was "worth 15" before he showed up.
Jun 1, 2026, 08:55 PM
Strickland's 76% Takedown Defense vs Chimaev's 55% Takedown Success — What The UFC 328 Math Actually Showed
When UFC 328 went down at the Prudential Center in Newark on May 9, the betting line told one story while the grappling stats told another. Sean Strickland was a +310 underdog at FanDuel heading in.
Jun 1, 2026, 08:24 PM
RAF's Global Conquest: Everywhere Except Where Wrestling Fans Actually Are
Here's the thing about Real Arena Fighting's expansion strategy: they've figured out how to build a combat sports promotion on every continent except the one where wrestlers congregate. RAF has events in Japan, Brazil, Singapore, London, the Philippines, and now — finally, finall
Jun 1, 2026, 07:53 PM
Andre Galvao Was Already Back On The Mat At Atos On April 18 — Then He Issued His Written Denial Of Alexa Herse's Allegations Four Days Later
There's an order these things are supposed to follow. Deny through your lawyer.
Jun 1, 2026, 07:23 PM
Tsarukyan Reveals He Spends $500K-$700K Per Month — Mostly on Watches Up to $250K Each
The UFC's 2 lightweight contender just told a podcast he spends $500,000 to $700,000 a month, mostly on watches he buys himself after training sessions. The promotion's main concern, separately, is that he might win a title and leave.