📝 Transcript

Title: Is Mike Israetel Really a Legit BJJ Black Belt? My Experience & Why the Internet Is Wrong
Date: 2025-11-13
Video ID: dG8GPamRHmA
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG8GPamRHmA
Source: auto-captions

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Hello and welcome to Toby on Fitness Tech. Uh, a little bit different of a video today. I wanted to weigh in on the micersel uh, black belt controversy. I felt like this is actually something that I could talk about uh because I'm actually a brown belt um myself and I can tell you I've actually seen Mike Ezertell uh at a competition when he was a brown belt. So there is a lot going on on the internet claiming that Mike Isertel is not a real black belt. And there there's a breakdown by a pretty talented uh jiu-jitsu expert where he's kind of going over here's the things he saw that kind of highlight that one, they don't really highlight that he's not a black belt, but more that he is not he's obviously not, you know, one of the best at jiu-jitsu, right? Which is different than not being a black belt entirely. Uh, and I could tell you the reason why I felt like I I wanted to talk about this is because I actually got to I didn't talk to them at the competition, but I was coaching one of my guys at one of the competitions and realized like I'm in the Northeast at the time. Mike Isertel was in the Northeast. Like we're not close in where we live, but there's a lot of competitions in DC and Maryland and stuff like that. And so everyone from the Northeast ends up there. Right. So, I actually ended up getting to see Mike Isertell and his coach uh this was three years ago at the time, something like that. And Mike Isertell was of course a brown belt at the time. And you can see that by the the rash guard that he's wearing. I believe he's wearing a rash guard that kind of indicated his color, which our gym also does where they have for Noi specifically, they have colored rash guards. I happen to not have any of them just weirdly enough because I just don't. But um but yeah, that he he was wearing something like that at the time and I I only remember him and remember his coach just because of how short and massive they were. I mean these are massive and his coach was an absolute tank of a human being. like I have never seen people uh that size and I realize I went to the Arnold Classic last year and even at the Arnold Classic I mean obviously you see big people like you know Big Paul or like a Nick Walker was there. I mean these are massive human beings you know Thor Bejornson was there. I mean Thor is a a massive human being right? Um, but you know, I've never seen someone that short and that, you know, that short and that wide. And for his coach to be, I would say, a more lean ripped version of him kind of thing. uh you know at the time at least at least if that maybe that wasn't his coach but he was standing right next to him and they were you know going and I can tell you his coach was actually comp had a competitor competing against the guy that I brought with me and the person I brought was a white belt but he had to compete in the no division with the blue belts because he had had like 60 or so wins as a white belt and at that point in time they kind of disqualify you from white belt competitions. And uh we had to we had to compete with one of his guys and uh we lost. [laughter] You know, we definitely got our butts handed to us by uh his competitor. So I can tell you his his coach's teaching methodologies are legit and you know, his student was able to to dominate, you know, my best student. I mean, my best student was still a white belt at the time competing against blue belts, but you know, I would say 70 to 90% of the blue belts in the world, you know, my guy beats. I mean, not not to be arrogant, like you you take him out to any gym and you put him in against a random cross-section of blue belts at that time when he was competing in, you know, obviously not now, but at that time when he was competing at his best, uh, he he wins a lot of those matches with me coaching him, a lot of those matches, in my opinion, right? And and we lost. And I can't remember how we lost. I just remember like, oh jeez. And all I could when I saw Mike Israel and his coach, it's like I don't want those matches. You know, at the time I was like 235 and not in the greatest shape. You know, I was definitely coaching shape and not athlete shape. And that was one of the other criticisms of Mike Israel is he doesn't look like an athlete and he doesn't move like an athlete. It's like, yeah, he's not in the shape of an athlete. You know, those are criticisms you could have lobbed at me whenever I was coaching. Now realize at the time I was coaching at purple belt. So I was a belt behind Mike Isertel. So I'm I'm a belt behind Mike Isertel. So like he's now a black belt and I'm a brown belt. At the time I was a purple belt coaching. He was, you know, a brown belt. So I I'm a belt level behind him, right? And I watched the the training footage and what bothers me in particular is not um I forget the name of the guy, but there was a a pretty well-known, pretty talented jiu-jitsu guy critiquing Mike's jiu-jitsu and saying, "Hey, it's not great, you know, and those criticisms are very fair." But then, uh, Greg Ducet made a video and that video was insulting to anyone who knows jiu-jitsu, quite frankly. And uh Ariel Hwani had done this with Derek Moneyberg also. And so these two guys don't know what they're talking about and it really bothers me. So Ariel Hwani's comment about to Derek Moneyberg that just made me realize that Ariel Hwani doesn't know what he's talking about. he's out to lunch and doesn't understand the game of jiu-jitsu because uh Moneyberg said, "Hey, if I was in there with Nikki Rod, I I wouldn't last 30 seconds, right? In a jiu-jitsu match against Nikki Rodriguez, he wouldn't he wouldn't last 30 seconds, right?" And and Ariel Juan is like, "Anyone should be able to last 30 seconds. What are you talking about?" And it's like, you obviously don't know what jiu-jitsu is [laughter] because when you have someone that fast, that skilled, that strong, and has all of those intangibles that Nikki Rod has, he runs through you. Uh, and sorry, it wasn't even Nikki Rod, it was Gordon Ryan, who also has the capability to run through people. I mean, he's run through world champions in under 30 seconds. Like, Gordon Ryan has a a win loss record that's incredible. And Nikki Rodriguez is another one, right? Where you put me in there with those guys and they decide they're like if they're playing around with me, sure, I could have it last 30 seconds, but if they decide they're going to make an example out of me, I don't last 30 seconds in there with those two. And anyone who knows sport jiu-jitsu would know that, you know. So, for Harry Owani to say that, it it shows his lack of knowledge on the sport. And Greg Ducet did an even more insulting video when it's very clear that the Mike Ezel Johnny Shrieve match Mike Ezertel's gooping around and the other person didn't use much from that video because it really doesn't paint Mike Isertel in a negative light if you watch the full because that that I had actually seen back whenever they shot it and I you know my takeaway from the that match whenever I was watching watching it is Mike Isertel's goofing around, right? So that it's entertaining, right? Because this should be entertaining and and uh and he was doing some pretty advanced moves in portions of it. It's not like he had some pretty unique sweeps and stuff like that. I didn't take away from this that Mike Ezel sucked, you know. I took it away that Mike and Mike Ezerell was goofing around and Greg Ducet launched on him and said, "Oh, it's taking him over three and a half minutes to take out Johnny Shre." It's like I'm pretty sure at at Mike Isert's skill level at that time, he could have taken him out quicker if that was the goal. But if his goal was to have an entertaining video, then that would not be the approach to make that video entertaining. Especially because Johnny Shrieve is big. And one of the other things Greg Ducet said is he weighs like 50 pounds more than Johnny Shrieve. I don't think that's true in that video. Johnny Sharie is a monster and a strong human being. Like if you put me in there with Johnny Shre Yes, I'd be if you put me in there and put a video camera on, I would probably and I was warned that this was going to go on the internet. I would take him out in 30 seconds. Yes. Um, but if you hit a video camera and told me to roll with Johnny Shreve and Johnny Shrieve comes in with the attitude that he seems to have, which is I'm here to have fun and learn and and like, you know, and and like don't hurt me kind of thing, right? If he has that attitude, right? and and doesn't do something to like really take me off at the beginning of the match, then I'm gonna roll the same way Mike Isertel did where I'm like trying to escape from bottom and I'm trying to learn, you know, I'm trying to do a bunch of different things. Now, I probably would have tried to use some more uh fancy passes, right? Especially, you know, even not being on video, I probably would have tried to to do some more athletic things, you know, especially with someone that big, you know, it might be time to bust out a cartwheel guard pass. Bust it out like once a year when I have to. I do have the ability to do those. I do not like doing them, especially not like right now I'm pushing 220 pounds. That's not the time for me to cart real guard pass, but I definitely can. Um, it's just one of those things where he was using he was using some techniques where you could definitely draw criticism that it wasn't the latest and greatest and fanciest jiu-jitsu in in all of those things. Uh the other one that was a question mark was that uh cop situation where they were battling cops and Greg Ducet was there for that one I'm pretty sure and that one I have no explanation for. So you know I have no idea. Uh I can tell you that cop seemed to know some jiu-jitsu that was in there with Mike is but it looked like Mike didn't want to be there. So I have no idea what was going on you know. Uh, but I can tell you I've seen the guy in person, you know, and he's not someone that I would take the match against him lightly. That's for sure. So, upper blue belt, to say he's upper blue belt level, I have no idea. You know, you know, I guess you could say that I'm upper blue belt level, right? We I did just recently do a tournament a couple months ago and I did win some matches thankfully. I I won two and lost, you know, like quite a few more than two because I had a whole bunch of matches back to back in in three different divisions. Um, so I did Gee, no GE, and then I did the absolute prize poll, but in the absolute prize poll, I lost in the first round in overtime to a blue bell. So realize it can happen. And I I'll explain a little bit of that situation because it was it was pretty awesome. So, it's my first competition back after having my second child. I swore I'd never compete again. But we had a situation where I felt the urge to compete to show someone else they should compete. So, it was it wasn't like I was competing because I wanted to compete, but I was competing because, you know, I can't ask someone else to compete and then not do it myself kind of thing. Uh, that's pretty hypocritical, especially when I hadn't competed for years. And so, I and I was in good shape. So, it's not like I wasn't in the kind of shape to compete. Uh, I knew that I wasn't having the kind of training camps that I used to put together when I was actively competing. And uh when I was coaching uh like I was talking about coaching and I I was heavy at the time but realized when I was coaching I poured a lot of time into the students that we were taking to competitions and kind of reviewing what we should work on and and and especially after they would lose matches kind of going back to the drawing plan and like I did put a lot of time into that. Uh, but going into this competition, I didn't really put anything together as far as training camps go and uh and had some injuries going in, which, you know, I'm getting near 40, not not a shocker. Uh, but anyways, the first round of the absolute cash prize division was against a no expert who's who's a blue belt in ghee. So, you know, how many years grappling experience, I have no idea. But I can tell you the immediate salvo he launched me from. So the way these rings work is there's a circle and as long as you start the takedown inside the circle, that takedown is a valid takedown. So like no matter where you land it, you know, if you if you engage from inside the circle, it it's it's usually typically scored. You usually get your takedown points scored as a takedown. Well, he didn't he he didn't just start from inside the circle. He actually launched me from inside the circle and he launched me onto the concrete. [laughter] So, he launched me from inside the circle onto the concrete, like off the mat onto the concrete. And so, it was like, "Welcome to competition, Toby. Here's some concrete." Thankfully, I bounced off the concrete, got back up, there's no damage done, and went back and immediately restarted the match in the center. I don't even think they gave him his points for it, which technically he should have, you know what I mean? Cuz he did actually start the takedown from inside the circle. Nothing about it was illegal. But, you know, and then I lost that match in overtime because I I gassed out, you know, first one in years. And I mean, this guy was in competition shape and I clearly wasn't, you know, in terms of like the amount of training going into it. And I kind of knew that, you know, I'd have cardio problems when when the match went the distance and especially with someone with that kind of takedowns cuz the overtime is who gets the first takedown, which pretty much at that point in time I was, you know, I was not I didn't win the first takedown. I didn't win the second takedown because then he took me down inside the the and I reversed him and so that's how the points got to be, you know, tied at the end of the match, right? Uh, so I lost all three takedowns in that match, right? So, uh, and also they were criticizing like Mike Mike's takedown ability and it's like, oh man, if you're criticizing takedown ability, I mean, I have some decent takedowns, but, you know, I I was taken down by uh, you know, a blue belt essentially in my in my last tournament. So, like it can happen, right? Okay. And then and then I had better showings in other matches. We had one of the other black belts that uh in GE I gave him probably uh my best performance outside of the wins I had. Um where people got to see my reverse triangle and my positional dominance in in one of the like in the two matches that I won. Uh, but the black belt match, my first match with him in ghee was probably my best performance outside of that where I I don't think he was expecting, you know, the takedown ability that I do have to get in deep on a double leg and kind of lift you into the into the air kind of thing and then drop you. Um, but eventually he, you know, the the difference in skill, he was a competition black belt who was actually there to teach things later and entered our division. And I'm really glad he did, right? Because I got to learn a lot because uh, you know, he just weathered that early storm from me and then took over and won the match on points. And then in Noi, he showed me his true submission abilities, right? because he he didn't take it as easy as he probably thought he was going to be able to in that in that ghee match and just submitted me pretty quickly in no ghee. Uh but what what I'm getting at here is that jiu-jitsu has a wide variance of skills and I don't think it's fair to take a couple videos of someone and say, you know, they're terrible at jiu-jitsu. Like I think we're painting Mike Isertel in too negative of a light on the jiu-jitsu front. Now on the training front, right, I don't agree with his training methodologies at all. Hilariously, like I'm not a huge fan of his training content. Um I do believe in progressive overload as the primary factor in growth. I'm I'm more of a Mike Menser fan of, you know, lower volume uh harder sets. Like not all of Mike Menser stuff, but like in general, like I also agree with Mike Hersel that that uh Mike Menser had a sweet mustache. Uh and I had to shave mine off today. I was so disappointed. I actually had a pretty pretty nice mustache and my wife made me shave it. So, she will not allow the mustache. But, uh, yeah, in in terms of like I'm not not critical of Mike Isizert and in his PhD that had a a whole bunch of problems. It's not like I'm not critical of the man, but I just think without rolling with him, you don't know how good or not good he is. And based on that rolling footage, also they were pulling rolling footage, like the footage that the the main critaker used was actually footage with like Nikki Ryan and some really talented highle people. And I don't know if I would I I don't know how much like and he he was criticizing him for not wrestling up and stuff like that. And especially with all the injuries Nikki Ryan has had, I can tell you if I was Mike Israel's size, I would not risk injuring Nikki Ryan, especially not at that gym with all of those monsters. like I would not wrestle up in a way that could be potentially and we know that Mike Isertel has to be slightly clumsy. I mean, let's face it. I at that size at at that height, there's no way that he has the kind of stability and control in a wrestle up to not accidentally fall on you. And if he falls on Nicki Ryan, he probably breaks something on him. So to criticize him not wrestling up one, sometimes I get too tired to wrestle up. So like you can throw that same criticism at me that you throw at Mick that uh Mike Isert that he's not in the kind of shape he should be in, right, for for jiu-jitsu, right? That's a fair critique, but that's a critique not of his belt level, but of his cardiovascular system, right? Like that's a that's a different critique. and to not wrestle up in that situation. I agree like I would be wrestling up but I'm also almost 100 pounds lighter than Mike Israel and I have a lot more control to not fall on Nicki Ryan. I can tell you at my heaviest I would have been afraid to fall on him and break him at like 250 pounds doughy a doughy 250 I would be afraid and and there are moves that you know when I'm facing like like the 100 pound females at the gym I strip them out of my game because if I land on them you know I'm going to hurt them and and I don't want to hurt people you know like it's just not something you know, it's not something that's worth um, you know, this momentary fame, especially not when you're in there with someone like Nikki Ryan who's, you know, world champion potential, but injuryprone, right? It's well known. It's well documented. So, I wouldn't want to be the one to injure him coming in the size of Mike Isertel, you know, especially with, you know, what we see in there with Johnny Shrieven stuff and the criticisms around cardiovascular endurance. When your cardio starts failing you, you get more sloppy. And and that's just a fact of of of doing jiu-jitsu. So, it's really hard to gauge this stuff. And I don't think these criticisms of his black belt are fair to be honest with you because it's not a Moneyberg situation where it's three years. I can tell you I saw him three years ago he was a brown belt, you know, like that's not fair. I can tell you three years ago he was a brown ball and he had been training for um I mean these are all like supposed numbers but it it you know because we don't don't have verification of anything past three years ago but you know he's supposedly been training for 10 years and it you know it checks out with like his teaching and everything like it's not like this is totally made up and fabricated. That's the one thing with everything Mike Israel has done. None of it's like fabricated, right? He does have a PhD. Um, he does have, you know, he does have a black belt like and he didn't just pay his way to get this back black belt. This is not, you know, people with Derek Moneyberg criticize him for saying for for it just being a paid situation. And and they're saying also his coach, you know, they're criticizing his coach and saying his coach is just running this, you know, like black belt mill. And and there are schools like this where timing grade matters more than anything else and not being on the wrong end of ticking off the gym owner, right? So don't take off the gym owner. Spend your timing grade and you get your next belt, right? Um I happen to tend to be one who ticks off the gym owner. [laughter] So, you know, so I'm I I'm some sometimes I get promoted a little slower than I I would otherwise, but you know, I I can be vocal and rude. Um, so that just is what it is, right? And it it doesn't really matter to me. Um, but there are places where time and grade is is the most important thing. And I can tell you from getting the coach against his coach, that doesn't seem to be the case with that guy. You know, he brought a competitor who was really talented at blue belt. So, if that's one of his blue belts, and at that time, Mike Isertel was one of his brown belts, you know, I really question this whole logic that he is an upper level blue bell. But you could say that if you take the wrong footage of any of us at Brown Black Belt, you could make the claim that we're upper level blue belt. Like on our worst day, and Craig Jones even talks about this. So if if you don't believe me, go out watch Craig Jones video. Craig Jones talks about going out and doing these seminars. And his biggest fear is not the purple belts, not the brown belts. It's the blue belt who puts himself at the end of the line of 20 people that he has to go through. And he will actually stop the line right before the blue bell and end the rolling segment. Like literally, he'll go because what it'll end up being is the purples, the Browns, the blacks will all put themselves to the front of the line. And the front of the line is typically the most arrogant of all of the people. Like I would tend to be the front of the line, right? like the one who is arrogant and confident, they're going to put themselves at the front of the line and that's probably going to be me or dumb enough, right? Which I I I hammer all those criteria, [laughter] right? So, I'm going to put myself at the front of the line, right? That's just the way it is. Uh and and try to test myself against the best version of you, right? I don't want the version of you that's dead tired, unless I'm injured or something like that. If I'm injured or don't feel good, I'm going to be the last upper belt and then I'm just going to go in there and have fun. I'm not going to be trying to win this match, right? If I put myself at the end of the upper belts, that meant that I'm coming in here not trying not necessarily I don't want to lose obviously, but just trying to learn and not trying to test myself. If I put myself at the front of the line, I'm trying to give you 100%. you know, but I'm never going to put myself at the end of the line. And you will have a blue belt who does that where they put them, and Craig Jones talks about it, they put themselves at the end of the line and their goal is to actually beat you. But Pete beat a version of you that's really fatigued and they're dangerous. They can win that match. So realize this is the self-proclaimed second best in the world. And I happen to think he is up there. I mean, he's definitely the top five best in the world in jiu-jitsu, and he can be beaten by blue belts. So, for him to for Mike Isertell to be called an upper level blue belt, you could say that about any of us. You know, if you watch Craig Jones lose to that blue belt, you know, and that's your only rolling footage of him, you're going to say he's clearly an upper level blue belt, right? If you have blue belt on here and Craig Jones losing. Now, that's not the case with all of Mike Israel's footage. Obviously, there's a lot of footage of him, but there's no footage that's not to be mean to to Moneyberg, but there's no footage that is as bad as the Moneyberg footage. And the the footage of Moneyberg is is usually of him showing stuff and not of him live rolling, right? So, like the Mike Isert footage is at least of him live rolling and obviously none of it's like well and I even saw crazy stuff like Jaco Willing uh took on what was his name? He's now in Russia and he's a former like top guy in the UFC. tatted up, bald guy, short, ironically, like Mike Israel size individual, but with a giant amount of tattoos. Of course, now I'm blanking on his name, but he's a former jiu-jitsu champion. Like, he's a former UFC fighter. Like, and and this guy uh fought Joo Willing in a jiu-jitsu match. And obviously that did not go Jaco's way, you know what I mean, to face a champion like that. And I saw comments under that like, "Oh, Joo sucks." and stuff like that. And I'm like, this guy is one of the best in the world. And he's facing him when he's on top. Like before he went to Russia, you know, he's facing him literally off of a UFC win. I'm pretty sure like in a jiu-jitsu grappling match. And he's a jiu-jitsu expert. Like he's not, you know, you're facing a jiu-jitsu expert who's a monster of a human being who's bigger than you in his realm. Like people are so critical on the internet and and it just blows my mind to see these critique of these individuals who aren't just jiu-jitsu players and go out there and like in and Jaco did not look as terrible as I would have looked in that match, you know, like Joo actually put up a pretty good fight against uh again, you know, against a world champion. I'm pretty sure he's an Abu Dhabi. The worst is I can't remember his name, but he's an Abu Dhabi champion. Uh I mean, he he's just it's just a crazy matchup. And it's been a couple years since I watched that match, but you know, these are these are individuals who are known for something else, but are really talented at jiu-jitsu facing, you know, world champions. And even like the Nikki Ryan match like you know Mike Isertel's in there with Nikki Ryan who is a top top jiu-jitsu guy uh you know and and and an injury-prone one at that which would that's not I mean that that's kind of a match that I would be scared of just like what if you accidentally snap something on him you know um with all the injuries he's had you know I kind rather face Gordon Ryan than Nikki Ryan because at least I know I'm not going to hurt Gordon Ryan, you know, like there's a pretty like I know how that match ends and it ends with me losing, but there also isn't this risk of me like spinning wrong or falling wrong or doing something dumb. You know what I mean? Cuz like I'm not going to I'm not snapping Nikki Ryan's limb in an arm bar or or a leg lock of some sort. like I'm not I'm not going to end up, you know, heel hooking or leg hooking him and and injuring him that way. It's going to be like me falling and and landing on his knee or something like that and breaking it into pieces. Um whereas with Gordon Ryan, he's just, you know, he's obviously more sturdy, less injuryprone and bigger, right? Much much bigger. Uh now Nicki Rodriguez, I would not I would not want that matchup. that that's a I mean that's a strong powerful human being who's also known for being really hard on people in the gym. So that that would be a concerning match. I guess what I'm getting at is I don't think it's fair for all this criticism of Mike Iserto's Black Bow. I think the Derek Moneyberg stuff is is way more uh more critical. And I think also pointing out these like factory like you spent so much time now you're the next belt. I do think some of that needs to needs to go away. Like if I had went out there in that jiu-jitsu tournament and lost all my matches, there's no way I would even accept my black belt, you know, the next time, you know, the next time like I would have to go back and fix that, right? But we got to see that I can win on points. Uh we got to see that I can also win with my reverse triangle. Uh you got to see a little bit of the dynamices dynamicis especially because I was losing like I was losing the whole match uh because I was gassed uh when I hit that reverse triangle and I knew there was less than a minute left and they went for an applaud and I flipped them into my reverse triangle and it's actually a thing that I do like in the gym. It's not like it's something I've trained, right? And something I've worked on to be able to hit my reverse triangle from, you know, from the receiving end of a nomatada, right? So, I'm locked in it. And then I spin and and and flip into this thing. So, it's uh you know, it is a thing that I've worked on. Uh, and I was able to hit it in a competition, which is pretty cool because I've never hit it against someone that high level, right? I've hit it and I've hit it quite a few times and I usually end up hitting it on our purple belts or our upper blue belts because to hit me in a nomatada, you have to have a level of skill. So for me to hit that reversal, you know, requires like that combination. So it's it's never white bells that get hit with this thing. I have a different variant of it that I can hit on a white bell, but um that that tends to be they're trying to push me away. So I'm I'm already on top of them and I'm inside control and they're trying to push me away and then I'll hit the reverse triangle from there. So, I have a different variant of it that's a lot easier to hit on a white belt because they'll just try to push you away and they'll push your head towards their legs, which gives me the opportunity to spin into my reverse triangle. Um, but e either way, what I'm getting at is I can't vouch for Mike Isertell's black belt. I can't say, "Yeah, I've trained with him a bunch of times." But I can tell you the criticisms of Greg Ducet are just wrong and show a level of lack of understanding of the sport. And Ariel Hwani did the same on his show. These people don't know jiu-jitsu well enough to even uh be qualified to talk on the matter to be honest with you. And Ariel's was more like Greg Ducet. I would expect that. I mean, he's a bodybuilder. He's an IFBB pro. Like that's not his, you know, and he does like these hit pieces on people. So like that I kind of expected. But for Ariel Hwani to not understand that Moneyberg would stand no chance against Gordon Ryan and not make it past 30 seconds uh shows especially for someone who's commentated who has a black belt behind him. Obviously it's not a real black belt but for him to do commentary on MMA and jiu-jitsu all these years and have such a lack of understanding of jiu-jitsu is kind of insulting to me. you know, on Ariel Hani's part, he really needs to learn the difference in a black belt and a world champion uh in jiu-jitsu. Like, and and I think he thinks about it in the MMA context of I could probably last in an MMA fight for 30 seconds against anyone by dancing around, right? By keeping them at bay and not getting hit, I could probably make it the 30 second mark. Hopefully, you know, there might be some people that they're just too fast and they end up clocking me, but uh and I don't get a takedown or I don't pull guard or whatever to get the to get the match on the ground. But there there's a bigger chance of me lasting for 30 seconds in an MMA fight with a UFC champion than there ever would be of a jiu-jitsu match with Corner Ryan or Nicki Rod. Like like their ability to get get the match on the ground and get into an entanglement with a finish is just far too great. uh in an MMA match, there's so many ways to defend yourself against getting finished quickly. Whereas with jiu-jitsu, with pure jiu-jitsu, uh it's very easily easy to get finished very easily, especially because the skill difference is so great. And I have a general understanding of how to defend myself, but just the difference in skill of those of those two specific competitors, right? um I might stand a chance of lasting a lot longer against someone who's a lot smaller who is going to have a harder time taking me down. But even like the Tacket brothers, right? I mean, they're going to be able to launch me to the floor pretty quickly and I'm not going to be able to defend myself against them very long, most likely if they're in competition mode. So, I just wanted to give you guys that realization that I don't think the criticism of Mike Zertell on his black belt is fair. And I feel personally that Ariel Hwani and Greg Dusen really need to do some jiu-jitsu before they do that level of criticism. Uh although the criticism of Moneyberg in general is more accurate, you know, because it's I mean the only other person that we know of that did that in three years is BJ Penn and he's he's a prodigy. Like he's a he's a he's a world champion, right? And I do think if you're going to get a black belt that quickly or a black belt in general, you should have to compete. Uh, like I said, if I had lost every match in that competition, there's no way I could I could ever be handed a black belt and accept it until I go and rectify that. And even now, I would like to have a better showing at a competition. Uh, for sure that wasn't uh I just felt that I could have done a lot more had I had a full training camp. But, you know, saying that, I have a broken finger right now. So, it's like you're not getting a full training camp anytime soon to be able to to be able to go go out there and showcase the best version of you possible. And that's what you got to realize with guys like Nikki Rod and and Gordon Ryan and all these guys. That's that's their livelihood. So, it's very important that they're always on their agame when they're competing. And for someone like a Mike Isertel, obviously that's not his primary focus. For Derek Moneyberg, supposedly that was his primary focus to do that in three years. But you would expect him to have done some sort of competitions in those three years just to solidify his placement. And I mean, even Mark Zuckerberg did a competition, right, under a fake name and went out there and won. Uh, I think the criticism of Ariel Hwani should have stuck around the lack of competing and that excuse that, well, I'm in my 40s. Well, there's a ton of people who compete in their 40s. I mean, there's a whole division in jiu-jitsu of 40 plus that most competitions have. Uh now 40 plus brown belt is not gonna exist. But you know for him to have done no competitions at any of those belts is pretty shocking. Uh especially when you're being trained by world champions like that. You know I would I would I would want to go out there and test myself and and in fact at Purple Belt I didn't and I was mad at myself for not doing it. So, I competed white competed in one at white belt, competed in one at blue belt, and then didn't compete at purple belt, and then I obviously I got a third place medal at brown belt. So, I did I meddled, but I didn't get that first place that I got at all the other belts. Um, other than purple belt and purple belt, I didn't compete, but I was coaching, you know, and I wasn't in the like I wasn't in any condition to compete for most of it, you know. I was in terrible condition. Um, but I was coaching constantly for a lot of it and that I I had relegated myself to to always doing that [laughter] to be honest with you. I never thought I'd get back in there and compete again. I wanted to compete at purple belt just to see where I was at, but it just didn't happen. So now brown belt I I did one and I don't know if I'll do another one or not but obviously I'd like to you know what I mean but I'd like to be at you know not with a broken finger and not this holiday season that's for sure. Uh but you know if I have enough time maybe in the spring we'll we'll go back and do another competition. But yeah that that's that's just what I wanted to talk about. I I think these criticisms of Mike Isert are unfair and I think Ariel Hwani is more on the point with Derek Moneyberg. I don't I would love to someday actually get to roll with Derek Moneyberg uh to to see what his skill level is. Mike Israel. I think from some of the videos I can ascertain some of it. And you know that's not as a that's I don't think that's going to be an easy role for me to be honest with you. Like people who think Mike Isertel is not black belt level. I'm pretty sure if I rolled with him, you'd get to see a more serious version of him because I'm not uh especially if he knew like it was it was a situation where this is getting videotaped and and it's like his redemption arc, right, of like showing his black belt skills. I'm pretty sure he would do a lot better based upon his coach and based upon his coach's student and what I was able to see in that competition three years ago. I'm pretty sure Mike Isizertell would give me a different version of him that looks a lot better. Um, now I'm not saying that I couldn't win that. Like I I I think I can win that match. You know, I've I've faced people that size before. Um, I've gone the whole way up onto my neck in matches against them and everyone worries that I'm going to be paralyzed someday from doing that because uh, and my coach yells at me constantly because I will I will flip my whole body up to try to shoot triangles and stuff like that and launch attacks off the ground while people are standing. And I'll do that by putting my whole basically all my weight onto my neck. Uh, and so if someone Mike Isertell's size decides they're going to drop down and forward, right? Uh, you know, they they literally could break my neck and it's just a risk that I'm willing to take to try to hit those submissions, right? So, I I take risks, right, in my jiu-jitsu. And [laughter] that match could end very very badly for me, but it's a match I'd be willing to take, you know. And I've done I've done that same thing up on my neck. I've actually had to one point in time I realized the person was going to come down on me and I had enough time because the they were slow enough to to shoot myself underneath their legs. So I shot my head underneath her legs to to to avoid, you know, getting my spine busted in half and my neck, you know, shattered. So I I did, but that was a white belt. That is not someone who's a black belt. That was a white belt who decided he's going to drop all his weight down on me and thankfully he's slow, right? I can't imagine with the speed of someone at Brown, black, you know, even upper purple bell, right? I'm not going to have the kind of time to react. That's the biggest difference between, you know, specifically a white belt and a blue belt is the ability to control timing, right? And that's why when this guy says, "Oh, yeah, he's an upper blue belt." What he's really saying is, you know, the timing's good. You know, his timing's good, right? So, you can see even in the Johnny Shreve role, like he's got an element of timing that you wouldn't get with a white bell, right? one and in my opinion is once you're upper blue bell, it's really hard to assess where someone's at. Uh unless unless you watch them teaching, right? If you watch them teaching or you watch them in a bunch of live roles against different opponents where where they're trying, right? It's really hard when when the person's not trying in the roles. But yeah, I I just I have I have this feeling that the critiques of Mike Gizer on this one are far more nuanced, far more complicated and I I wanted to get my own feelings out there just because I've seen the guy in person. He's a He was an absolute I mean him and his coach both were absolute units of human beings. Just absolute monsters. Um like especially at that size, you know what I mean? because I'm a lot taller than than Mike Isertel or or his coach. Um, from from what I remember, you know, and I I can just tell you if their blue belt looked as good as that, you know, if all of their blue belts look as good as the one they brought to the competition and Mike Isert's a brown belt according to that same coach at the time, I mean, he he's a freaking brown belt, you know? Uh it's not just time and grade, right? Uh the guy that was there that Mike and maybe that's not Mike Isertell's coach. Maybe that's just a buddy of his and that you know he was there to support his buddy. I don't know. Right. But if that is Mike Isertell's coach, right, that guy doesn't hand out black belts. He doesn't look like the type of person who hands out black belts. You know, he doesn't look like the type of person who even cares whether or not he's paid. He looks like he's gonna try to hurt you. [laughter] And his student was every bit of that, you know, like that. That's the kind of gym, to be honest with you, that I would avoid training at just because the risk of injury is too high, you know? Uh, you know, to be honest with you, he looked like the kind of coach where it's like, I'm not going to that gym because I do not want injured, you know. I I value being injuryfree. uh o over you know training intensity whenever it comes to jiu-jitsu right ironically right now I'm injured with a broken finger and I it's pretty mad about it [laughter] because I'm not getting broken fingers and stuff from lower belts I'm getting broken fingers from upper belts so that that's making me pretty grouchy and it's on grip brakes and stuff like that so yeah that's that's one where Uh those types of injuries are ones that are unexpected [laughter] and def definitely suck. But yeah, thank you for your time today. I figured I would shoot this video just because everyone's on the train of bashing Mike Isertel. And look, I'm not a huge fan of his training principles. I'm I'm more of a one set to failure kind of person to be honest with you with my training. And I am actually on Greg Ducet's side of how hard should I lift harder than last time. You know, like what Greg Ducet says, I actually think that's as complicated as your training really needs to be. And everything else should be filled in with what you enjoy. So what you enjoy and also a bunch of accessory lifts to and and what should you do with these accessory lifts, which was my big mistake in the past. The answer is those you also do harder than last time, right? All of these lifts need to progress um at a rate that's that's meaningful and uh and impactful. So what's funny is for someone who's on Greg Drew's side from a training philosophy perspective, his take on Mike Isertell's jiu-jitsu is just pure garbage. And I figured after after watching that video, I'd have to sit down and talk about it because I watched Greg Ducet's video and it made me realize that him and Ariel Hani, those guys have no business critiquing uh these people's belts right now. Derek Moneyberg, there's a lot more to critique there. A lot more to critique. um and kind of highlights a real problem in jiu-jitsu belting in general and and and the ability to gain belts without tournament wins. Uh and without even showcasing your talents in a tournament setting where you have live opponents, right? Because I didn't win my tournament. I mean, I took third, but and ironically, I took third with that reverse triangle, right? That's what gave me the third place spot. Uh but you know, and I got to showcase what I'm truly capable of in terms of dynamic submissions from from losing from losing badly. Like I was way behind on points. This is like 122 or something like that. Like I was really behind on points. Uh, and I I just think that we have a problem in jiu-jitsu and honestly tournaments solve that and we probably should enact some sort of a tournament system. But then the problem is these tournaments end up becoming uh who regulates the tournaments and what are the rules sets of the tournaments. it just becomes way too messy to say you must do a tournament because even my coach wanted to say you must do a tournament to get your next belt. But then we had uh we have a student who's really really talented but they're in their 60s, right? And not only they're they have grandkids. Like they don't they're not just in their 60s, but they have grandkids and they're never going to get out to compete just from a sheer work a full-time job, come in in the morning and train. Uh have all the talent in the world. Like everyone can see that they're they were blue belt level. Uh and they're not going to get to go out and compete. So it's it's not a stature of you know, it would be unfair to not promote them is is what I'm getting at, especially at that talent level. Uh, when you could see how how good they were in live roles against me, right? So, someone who outweighs him by like 60 70 pounds right now. So, he can hold his own in there with me. I mean, obviously, if I go in in competition mode, you know, to to to the point of uh Ariel Hani, it ain't lasting 30 seconds. Like, if I go in in competition mode, that match does not last 30 seconds, right? But if I don't, and I'm trying to assess where he's at, he's giving me more of a problem than a lot of our blue belts were. So, I I just don't think those I I just don't think those two commentators know what they're talking about. And it's disappointing that we have uh people speaking on behalf of jiu-jitsu with no cred credibility in the sense of knowledge of the the sport in the the differences in levels. Um, I I really wish they learned more first, right, is is my criticism, especially of Ariel Wani. Like, he should know a lot more. He's been around fighters and jiu-jitsu experts for years and years and years. He should know way more jiu-jitsu than that. Uh, to know that you don't last in there with the top two in the world uh in in, you know, in 30 seconds like nobody does. Uh, so that that's kind of my criticism of those those two individuals. But yeah, thank you for your time. Uh, figured I' I'd do a quick rant on jiu-jitsu and belts because it's top of mind.