🥋 What is the Toughest Belt in BJJ?

What up Flowrollers, it’s a great day to proclaim your respect for all martial arts while internally thinking basically everything outside of Jiu Jitsu is worthless.

Let’s get to it, slap-and-bump 👊🏻

THE MAIN EVENT 🚨

In a recent Huberman Lab episode, podcaster and Jiu Jitsu black belt Lex Fridman said the hardest belt to achieve in his journey was the brown belt.

Makes sense. These days, purple belt competitors are soooo ridiculously tough. Many of them are treating Jiu Jitsu as a full time job, and for a frequent competitor like Lex to advance through this rank and earn his brown belt was no easy feat.

At the end of the day though, it’s hard to argue with the numbers: roughly 90% of people quit Jiu Jitsu before they get their blue belt. So, in my opinion blue belt is the hardest belt to achieve.

IBJJF GRAND PRIX RECAP 📰

Friday’s Tezos FloGrappling IBJJF Grand Prix was one of the biggest gi events we’ve seen in a long time.

FloGrappling has been leaning hard into no-gi, and this was their way to come back to center a bit. The structure was similar to a “Who’s Number One” event, with a 30 minute gi superfight at the end.

B-Team’s Craig Jones does a great breakdown of the format and matches here:

Here’s the tl;dr…

• Women:

  • Nathiely de Jesus became the Women's Heavyweight GP Champion after two exciting matches.

  • Ana Vieira made the Final a tough match for her opponent and earns 2nd place.

  • Melissa Stricker did not go home empty handed, taking 3rd place.

• Men:

  • Jonathan Alves won first place and was crowned Men's Lightweight GP Champion.

  • Andy Murasaki placed second after a great duel in the Final.

  • Elijah Dorsey landed the 3rd place after putting on the pressure in his last match.

• Superfights:

  • Tainan Dapra, Ronaldo Junior and Janaina Lebre were the Superfight Victors for the Tezos FloGrappling GP Event.

Overall, about what you’d expect in a long night of high level gi fights. Very few submissions. Even if you are a serious Jiu Jitsu lover, 30 minutes is just way too long for a gi match.

DEAL OF THE DAY 💰

Revgear’s Venice gi is on sale for just $99 today. Can’t have too many gis!

QUICK TAPS 📝

• UFC 285 recap, from a grappling perspective. There were some crazy submissions!

• Miyao brothers are opening a (huge) new academy in Jersey.

TECHNIQUE CORNER 🧠

Andrew Wiltse goes into detail into his own variation of the Flower Sweep. Check out these details you'll need to quickly flip your opponent from closed guard.

MEME SWEEP 🧹

Want to avoid getting any real work done today? Be sure to follow us on Instagram @getflowroll.

That’s a wrap. Go train!