bjjproblems.com — every take, since 2013
Every snarky take on real BJJ news.
Aug 19, 2026, 07:25 AM
Community Confirms ADCC 2026 Feels Different: This Year After Running Out of Champions to Withdraw
The ADCC Submission-Only World Championship used to be the one tournament nobody wanted to skip. Then, slowly, it became the one tournament everybody had a very specific reason to skip—and the reasons got better every time.
Aug 16, 2026, 07:38 AM
Jake Paul Claims MMA Fighters 'Wouldn't Last a Minute' Against D1 Wrestlers — Dana White Dismisses the Cross-Sport Flex
Jake Paul, the boxer-turned-promoter, made headlines when he claimed current MMA fighters "wouldn't last a minute" against Division One wrestlers. The statement was bold enough to draw immediate pushback from Dana White, who responded via podcast with the kind of matter-of-fact c
Aug 14, 2026, 03:39 PM
Elisabeth Clay Just Exposed ADCC's Circular Math on Women's Pay
Elisabeth Clay made a simple argument on the Jits and Giggles Podcast that ADCC has been avoiding: you can't cap participation, then use that artificial scarcity as justification for cutting pay. It's not a novel observation—it's basic logic.
Aug 14, 2026, 08:18 AM
ADCC-Invited Mateusz Gamrot Gets Submitted in Round 1 Three Weeks Before He's Supposed to Compete at Worlds
Mateusz Gamrot got submitted in Round 1 at UFC Vegas 120 on August 8. Quillan Salkilld caught him in a rear naked choke at 4:25.
Aug 14, 2026, 07:47 AM
ADCC Invited a 14-Year-Old. The IBJJF Won't Let Her Compete at All.
ADCC 2026 is in Krakow this September, and it just lowered the age requirement to 15. Then it immediately broke its own rule.
Aug 14, 2026, 07:17 AM
Meregali and Pena Are Fighting Again. Fourteen Days Before ADCC. What Could Go Wrong.
Nicholas Meregali and Felipe Pena (Preguica) have already done this twice. They have split the series.
Aug 12, 2026, 07:28 AM
Cejudo 0-2 Against Merab, Books Third Fight at RAF 12
Henry Cejudo is 0-2 against Merab Dvalishvili. At this point, even Merab knows that.
Aug 11, 2026, 10:54 PM
Renato Moicano's Arm Triangle Victory at BJJ Stars 19
Renato Moicano proved something this weekend at BJJ Stars 19 that MMA fighters have been trying to prove for years: they can actually grapple. Not in the "I wrestled in college" sense.
Aug 11, 2026, 09:23 AM
Bo Nickal vs Olympic Champion Muradov at RAF Moscow
Bo Nickal is walking into one of those matchups where everyone pretends to understand the stakes. A three-time NCAA wrestling champion with a 6-1 UFC record is facing off against Shirvani Muradov, who has Olympic gold medals in freestyle wrestling and is making his professional c
Aug 10, 2026, 10:49 PM
NGF Says 'Immediate Removal' Doesn't Mean Immediate
The National Grappling Federation released its comprehensive Athlete Safety Policy on August 8, 2026, and congratulations to them—they've solved athlete safety. Well, they've solved the problem of looking like they've solved it.
Aug 10, 2026, 09:48 PM
Jake Paul's MMA Debut: Combat Sports Press Ignores It
Jake Paul is doing MMA now. Or at least, that's the pitch.
Aug 9, 2026, 03:16 PM
The Tsarukyan Suplex Hoax Nobody Called Out (And Why That's the Real Story)
Here's how a headline gets born with zero facts attached. "Arman Tsarukyan Flew to India, Suplexed an Influencer in Front of a Packed Room, and Nobody Asked Any Questions." That headline got floated.
Aug 9, 2026, 12:04 PM
Gable Steveson's UFC Debut: Built to Last, Not Hyped to Pop
Gable Steveson's finally getting his UFC call. The wrestler-turned-grappler signed his deal, got his second fight booked for September 19, and the opponent is exactly what you'd expect: someone 0–2 with no pro wins.
Aug 9, 2026, 11:34 AM
ADCC Youth Championship Stands Alone for First Time
For fifteen years, ADCC Youth existed in the shadow of the main event. Kids would grind their brackets on the side while the adults got the main stage, the live stream, the sponsorship money.
Aug 9, 2026, 07:32 AM
Dern Defends Her Crown in Robertson's Backyard. Philadelphia Gets a Real Fight.
Mackenzie Dern travels to Philadelphia on August 15 to defend her UFC strawweight title against Gillian Robertson, and the moment is worth unpacking because everything about it is interesting—and nothing about it is simple. Robertson gets to fight for the belt at home.
Aug 8, 2026, 03:18 PM
Andrew Tackett: PEDs Are Why BJJ Matches Suck
Andrew Tackett didn't bury the lede. On a recent Mighty Cast podcast appearance, the UFC BJJ welterweight champion took a flamethrower to the sport's most obvious problem: athletes on steroids have turned grappling into a strength contest, and nobody's going to say it out loud ex
Aug 8, 2026, 12:13 PM
Islam Makhachev: Taekwondo Black Belt He Doesn't Deserve
Islam Makhachev just got handed a taekwondo black belt he specifically said he doesn't deserve. And he said it out loud, on the record, unapologetically.
Aug 8, 2026, 07:31 AM
Sean Strickland Cliff Dare: Friend's Near-Drowning
On July 30-31, Sean Strickland posted Instagram Stories filming a cliff-diving incident that started as content and ended with someone's life in actual danger. The setup was standard influencer material: a group of friends at a scenic location, a dare, and a camera rolling.
Aug 7, 2026, 10:20 AM
When Elisabeth Clay's Leg Lock Broke Danilo's Knee
Danilo Moreira has rolled with world-class grapplers across two continents, competed at elite levels in both gi and no-gi, and built a legitimate career as a professional grappler. He also, at various points, refused to tap to his wife while she was literally breaking his body.
Aug 7, 2026, 08:07 AM
Matt Serra and Mikey Musumeci Said Ecological BJJ Is Just Reinventing the Wheel — 'Don't Make Jiu-Jitsu Only for the Intellectuals'
On an episode of the Overdogs BJJ podcast, Matt Serra and Mikey Musumeci put a name to something every gym has argued about in the locker room after class: the tension between time-tested drilling and newer, "ecological" approaches to jiu-jitsu instruction. For those not deep in
Aug 7, 2026, 07:18 AM
Jonah Hill Says His Jiu-Jitsu Would Annihilate Three Comedians. Cub Swanson Made Him an Offer.
Actor Jonah Hill confidently declared on a recent podcast that his Brazilian jiu-jitsu training would, in his own words, "fing annihilate" three famous podcast hosts—Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. Hill, 42, has been training seriously under black belt instructor Josh
Aug 6, 2026, 08:14 PM
BJJ Nurse Safely De-escalates Aggressive Patient
October 2024, 2 a.m., Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Emergency Department. Daniel Nelson is a registered nurse with ten years of jiu-jitsu training.
Aug 6, 2026, 08:17 AM
Mackenzie Dern Wasn't at UFC 330. Here's Why That Matters.
You know that moment in the gym when someone says, 'Yeah, I heard Gordon Ryan's moving to California,' and by the end of class it's evolved into 'Gordon Ryan opened a gym AND started a supplement line'? Each person adds something.
Aug 6, 2026, 07:47 AM
ADCC Worlds 2026 Is Losing Athletes to UFC BJJ — Double-Gold Winner Just Chose the Commercial Event Over the Crown Jewel
Adele Fornarino, a double-gold ADCC medalist — the kind of credential that used to mean everything in grappling — withdrew from ADCC Worlds 2026. Not for a family emergency.
Aug 5, 2026, 07:28 AM
Rafael Lovato Jr. Skipped ADCC 2026: 'I Won't Compete Against Younger Athletes For Free' — And He Had a Point
Rafael Lovato Jr., a 43-year-old veteran of elite grappling and MMA competition, announced he would skip ADCC 2026. His reason was direct: he was done competing against twenty-somethings without a paycheck.
Aug 4, 2026, 05:18 PM
Craig Jones Joins PGF — Finally Hits Every Major Org
Craig Jones has officially signed with the Professional Grappling Federation for Season 10, according to FloGrappling. Terms are unspecified.
Aug 4, 2026, 04:47 PM
ADCC Youth Worlds Reshape Elite BJJ Pipeline
There's a tournament happening in Austin this weekend that nobody outside the sport is going to watch, and that's exactly the point. The ADCC Youth World Championships are coming to Texas with the quiet inevitability of a slow-motion takedown.
Aug 4, 2026, 04:17 PM
Ethan Crelinsten Loses Polaris Belt After UFC Callout
Polaris made a mistake. Not with Ethan Crelinsten—he played the game perfectly.
Jul 27, 2026, 03:31 PM
ADCC Prize Money Is Shockingly Low — Jozef Chen's Take
Jozef Chen didn't mince words. He's one of the best no-gi grapplers alive—a multiple ADCC title contender, a submission machine, the kind of guy who dismantles everyone they put in front of him.
Jul 26, 2026, 01:46 PM
Rear Naked Choke Manslaughter: Perth Case
On the morning of July 13, 2026, Christian Jack Joseph appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on a manslaughter charge after a street altercation in Fremantle that left a 63-year-old man dead. Joseph, a 26-year-old junior doctor at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and a BJJ blue belt,