bjjproblems.com — every take, since 2013
Every snarky take on real BJJ news.
Sep 6, 2026, 06:07 PM
ADCC's Ticket Math: 'On Track' Doesn't Mean Selling Out
When a major grappling organization gets on the mic six days before its flagship event and boasts about selling exactly four tickets per day, you know the conversation has shifted from "come watch this" to "please, anyone, come watch this." ADCC's recent announcement: they're "ex
Sep 6, 2026, 03:36 PM
Josh Barnett Says Blue Belts Shouldn't Get Paid. He's Half Right, and That's the Problem.
Josh Barnett has a problem with you getting paid. The former UFC heavyweight champion, second-degree black belt, and catch wrestling promotion operator went on the record recently with a take that landed hard in the grappling community: blue and purple belts competing in tourname
Sep 6, 2026, 07:44 AM
Burroughs Called Out Makhachev in Moscow—Dominated a Russian World Champion, Then Went Straight at the UFC Champ Cageside
On September 5, 2026, Jordan Burroughs did what Olympic wrestlers had been itching to do for twenty years: he showed up to someone else's house and said the quiet part out loud. The setting was RAF Wrestling in Moscow.
Sep 5, 2026, 08:58 PM
Purple Belt ADCC Planning: The Gym's Most Predictable Cycle
Every grappling gym has one. A purple belt catches you between rolls and leans against the cage: 'Bro, I'm thinking ADCC 2028.
Sep 5, 2026, 11:18 AM
Mikey Musumeci: Why Grappling Is Dying Before ADCC
On September 3rd, one week out from ADCC, Mikey Musumeci gave an interview that landed like a depressing reality check: "The state of grappling is really bad right now." He wasn't being melodramatic. He was being precise.
Sep 5, 2026, 07:54 AM
Chimaev -10000 Favorite: When Betting Prices Out Drama
Khamzat Chimaev is -10000 to beat Tyron Woodley at RAF Moscow on September 5. Negative ten thousand.
Sep 5, 2026, 07:23 AM
Jose Aldo vs. Marlon Vera Grappling Match: UFC's Solution to Beating Real Grapplers Is Having Strikers Learn to Grapple
When Jose Aldo and Marlon Vera announced they were stepping into a pure grappling competition, the BJJ community did what it always does when an MMA fighter pretends to have a ground game: nodded politely while internally screaming. Jose Aldo is a generational striking talent.
Sep 4, 2026, 10:50 PM
Colby Covington Joins Hype FC Submission Grappling
Colby Covington has officially signed with Hype FC to compete in submission grappling. Think about that for a second.
Sep 4, 2026, 03:29 PM
Mokaev Won ACBJJ 22 Title with Headbutts, Called Out Dana White for UFC Return
When Muhammad Mokaev finished his match at ACBJJ 22 in Istanbul on August 30, he hadn't just claimed a no-gi grappling title. The former UFC flyweight defeated Moris Boleyan by unanimous decision in nine minutes, employed headbutts as a primary control tactic throughout the bout,
Sep 4, 2026, 08:00 AM
Gracie University Training Works: Purple Belt Beats Brown
When brown belt Clarence questioned Gracie University's online curriculum, he didn't expect anyone to show up. But Rener Gracie sees opportunity in noise.
Sep 4, 2026, 07:30 AM
Real American Freestyle Moscow Event Moved Over Sanctions
The American grappling world learned something this week that nobody wanted to learn on a 48-hour notice: when you take your sport international, you also take on international law. Real American Freestyle — the MMA-meets-wrestling promotion that's been eating Bellator's lunch on
Sep 3, 2026, 09:39 PM
Murilo Bustamante Earns Coral Belt: 50-Year Legacy at 60
Murilo Bustamante put on a coral belt on August 3rd, 2026, and that sentence carries more weight than most people who don't train will ever understand. Coral belt—8th-degree black—isn't a promotion you campaign for or market yourself into.
Sep 3, 2026, 04:45 PM
ONE Fight Night 47: Lovato Jr Cancelled—Here's Why
You saw the headline: ONE Fight Night 47, September 4 in Bangkok, Lovato Jr versus Jaworski on Prime Video. John Lovato Jr—43 years old, America's most decorated grappling specialist, a heavyweight submission artist who makes people stop mid-scroll and actually read the byline.
Sep 3, 2026, 03:45 PM
A Banned Move in a Sanctioned Event: What Willian Masuda's Injury Reveals About BJJ's Enforcement Gap
Willian Masuda, a 37-year-old BJJ instructor known to the community as "Kabuto," was attempting to develop a stronger foundation in what he thought would be a new phase of his grappling career. On August 22, 2026, at Super Pro Jiu-Jitsu 2026 in Londrina, Paraná, that plan ended i
Sep 3, 2026, 11:46 AM
Colby Covington Joins Hype FC for Submission Grappling
Colby Covington proved something remarkable in fourteen months: if you're elite at one combat sport, you can cash in on credentials in the next. He retired from MMA in May 2026 after twelve years in the UFC.
Sep 3, 2026, 11:16 AM
Banned Pile Driver Causes Cervical Spine Injury
On August 22, 2026, Willian Hiroyuki Masuda, a 37-year-old jiu-jitsu instructor known in the community as 'Kabuto,' suffered a catastrophic cervical spine injury during a no-gi competition at the Moringão gymnasium in Londrina, Brazil. The injury wasn't caused by a technical slip
Sep 3, 2026, 10:17 AM
Bo Nickal Faces Olympic Judoka at RAF Moscow
This Friday, September 5, 2026, Bo Nickal will step into the cage in Moscow to face Shirvani Muradov—a man who hasn't competed in professional combat sports since 2012. That's fourteen years.
Sep 3, 2026, 07:46 AM
Kevin James Recalls 'Panicking' in His First BJJ Class: 'I Was Basically Trying to Choke My Training Partner'
Kevin James, the actor and comedian who's been training jiu-jitsu long enough to earn a blue belt, recently sat down with Joe Rogan and described his first class in a way that every single person who's been to an opening session will recognize: he panicked. Not the casual "oh thi
Sep 3, 2026, 07:16 AM
Craig Jones's B-Team Resort Play Is Exactly Where Elite Grappling Was Always Heading
Craig Jones gave the first official tour of B-Team Jiu-Jitsu's new Zamaya Resort property in Tulum, Mexico, on September 17, and somewhere in a garage in Des Moines a guy named Todd just realized his entire business model has been wrong for twelve years. It's not even technically
Sep 2, 2026, 10:40 PM
Mikey Musumeci MMA Debut: Only 3 Weeks of Striking Training
Here's a timeline that should make you laugh and/or deeply concerned: On July 13, 2026, Mikey Musumeci announced his MMA debut target for late September 2026 at 125 pounds. The same month he's scheduled to defend his UFC BJJ 11 grappling title at the same weight class.
Sep 2, 2026, 10:10 PM
Josh Saunders: BJJ's Accountability Crisis
Accountability in combat sports moves slowly, if at all. So when Reddit users uncovered Nazi imagery in Josh Saunders' social media activity in early July 2025, the Australian ADCC veteran's response time matched the sport's institutional pace: nowhere fast.
Sep 2, 2026, 09:39 PM
Craig Jones vs Gordon Ryan: Pre-ADCC Camp Rivalry
Actually, it's worse than that. Jones didn't cancel—he's accelerating a September camp in Mexico because Gordon Ryan's running a closed-door session in Budapest three days before ADCC.
Sep 2, 2026, 03:44 PM
Gordon Ryan Sent Kron Gracie a Contract. Kron's Response Was: Keep Danaher Home.
Kron Gracie went after Gordon Ryan on social media—which, fine, normal grappling drama. But the real target wasn't Ryan.
Sep 2, 2026, 07:14 AM
Tyron Woodley Says He'll 'Beat Chimaev Like a Drum' at RAF Moscow — Then Reality Showed Up
On August 22, 2026, Tyron Woodley did something he hadn't done in seven years: he won a fight. At RAF 12, the former UFC Welterweight Champion stopped Joaquin Buckley, snapping a losing streak that had lasted since his UFC 228 victory over Darren Till in September 2018.
Sep 1, 2026, 03:34 PM
Wrestler Offers $1,000 to Anyone Who Can Take Down Islam Makhachev in Open Mat: 'Cage Control Doesn't Exist Here'
Georgio Poullas, the wrestler behind the viral "$1,000 Take Me Down" challenge series, did something on August 31 that nobody in combat sports usually does: he talked himself out of his own trash talk before anyone could argue with him. Speaking to BJJEE, Poullas said he would "r
Aug 31, 2026, 04:08 PM
Ben Kovacs on Craig Jones and the Grappling Pay Ratchet
Ben Kovacs sits at the intersection of two things most people in grappling try not to think about simultaneously: money and honesty. As the general manager of FloGrappling and founder of the Guardian Jiu-Jitsu Foundation, he's the guy who has to explain why elite athletes are get
Aug 31, 2026, 03:37 PM
FloGrappling GM: CJI Was 'A Hugely Painful Time' — And the Pay Ratchet It Set Has Permanently Changed Grappling Economics
When Ben Kovacs, FloGrappling's general manager and founder of the Guardian Jiu-Jitsu Foundation, sat down on the Jits and Giggles podcast, he didn't mince words. The 2024 Craig Jones Invitational was "a hugely painful time." Not just for Craig.
Aug 31, 2026, 12:02 PM
$972 ADCC Mat-Side Tickets Are Wrecking Marriages
Blue belt, maybe purple. Makes decent money—$60K, $80K, whatever.
Aug 31, 2026, 11:31 AM
Mitchell Negotiates Musumeci at UFC BJJ 11—Still Underdog
Bryce Mitchell did something we don't see very often in combat sports: he looked at his opponent's entire gameplan and said, "Actually, can you not do that?" And Mikey Musumeci, the UFC BJJ Bantamweight Champion, apparently said yes. Here's what happened.
Aug 31, 2026, 08:00 AM
When a Blue Belt Tries Whiteboard Teaching for Jiu-Jitsu
Paul Wentworth, 44, has trained jiu-jitsu for eleven years across three separate periods—started, quit, came back, quit, came back again. On Tuesday evening, he brought a whiteboard to his rolling class.