bjjproblems.com — every take, since 2013
Every snarky take on real BJJ news.
May 13, 2026, 09:00 PM
Matt Serra Says The Best Gyms Don't Push Beginners Into Sparring — An Entire Industry Just Stopped Nodding
Matt Serra has opinions on what a beginner should look for in a BJJ gym. The 5th-degree black belt, first American to ever earn a Renzo Gracie black belt, UFC Hall of Famer, and one half of the Long Island accent that built modern East Coast jiu-jitsu sat down and explained, in d
May 13, 2026, 08:06 PM
Gordon Ryan Doesn't Respect the Superfight He Vacated — Now Questioning Duarte's Right to Hold It
Gordon Ryan vacated the ADCC Superfight title in February 2026. He's spent the time since explaining why Kaynan Duarte doesn't deserve it.
May 13, 2026, 05:53 PM
ADCC's Answer to 63% Empty Seats Is a 2019 Rematch — Gordon Ryan Already Calling It a Consolation Prize
Sixty-three percent of the seats in Tauron Arena are currently empty. That's the actual math.
May 13, 2026, 04:00 PM
Kyra Gracie Says Her Own Family Tried to Block Her From Training — The Gracies Almost Stopped the Gracies
The Gracie name is jiu-jitsu. It's on the lineage walls, in the textbooks, baked into every gym that traces its roots to Rio.
May 13, 2026, 03:00 PM
Melqui Galvao Is Still Running His Academy — From Prison, Via Phone
Melqui Galvao was transferred to a São Paulo prison on May 10. Brazilian deputy Alessandra Campêlo went public this week with the claim: Galvao has been making video calls from inside the facility — 20 to 30 minutes at a time — to students connected to his BJJ College project in
May 13, 2026, 02:00 PM
Paddy Pimblett Made an Influencer Throw Up During Sparring. The Influencer Is Now a BJJ Convert.
At some point between throwing up at the window and getting back on the mat, Dean Alex — British TikToker, chaos content merchant, bearer of the catchphrase "do you not know who I am, kid?" — appears to have had an actual realization. He didn't know who he was dealing with.
May 13, 2026, 01:00 PM
Paddy Pimblett Accepted a Sparring Challenge From a TikToker. The TikToker Vomited.
"Do you not know who I am, kid?" is Dean Alex's catchphrase. His content franchise.
May 13, 2026, 12:38 PM
Polaris 37 Is June 6 in Dublin — Crevar Defends, Ffion Is Out, and the Card Is Getting Interesting
Polaris 37 lost its biggest name. It found a better story.
May 13, 2026, 10:00 AM
Kade Ruotolo Fights Tomorrow Night in Bangkok. It's His Toughest MMA Test. Nobody Is Watching.
The fight is Friday night. The start time is 8 PM local, which is somewhere between "reasonable breakfast" and "early commute" depending on which continent you're on.
May 13, 2026, 07:00 AM
Chimaev Just Lost His UFC Title. His Next Fight Is Against the Guy Who Cancels Everything.
Two days after losing the UFC middleweight title on a split decision, after reportedly cutting 46 pounds and spending fight week in oxygen deprivation, Khamzat Chimaev signed for a catchweight wrestling main event against Dillon Danis at RAF 10 on June 13. Chimaev went into UFC 3
May 12, 2026, 09:00 PM
Fitness Influencer Tries Actual BJJ — Eight Years Of Body Combat Did Nothing Against A 14-Year-Old
A 14-year-old kid put Riley Rehl to sleep in a regular jiu-jitsu class, and she had eight years of cardio kickboxing in the bank when it happened. That's the entire story.
May 12, 2026, 08:14 PM
Dean Lister Says BJJ Was Tougher Then But Better Now — Both Halves Of The Sport Are About To Be Mad
If you wanted to start a fight in any BJJ academy on earth this week, all you had to do was read Dean Lister's BJJEE interview out loud at the front desk. Lister, ADCC absolute champion and the guy who walked up to John Danaher in 2000 and asked "why would you ignore 50% of the h
May 12, 2026, 02:39 PM
Fight Sports Tops BJJ's PED Suspension Scorecard With Five. Alliance, Gracie Barra, And Atos Round Out The Standings Nobody Asked For.
Counting was the whole novelty. BJJEE published a piece this week titled "The Dirty Scorecard: Which BJJ Teams Have The Most PED Violations?" and somewhere between the headline and the math, the sport finally got a leaderboard nobody volunteered for.
May 12, 2026, 01:00 PM
Kayla Harrison Calls The IJF's Leg-Grab Ban 'Political' And Modern Judo 'Kind Of Boring' — 'How Are You Going To Ban An Original Throw?'
Kayla Harrison has two Olympic gold medals in judo, a UFC bantamweight title around her waist, and a public diagnosis of her old sport that the International Judo Federation cannot really argue with: modern judo is, in her words, "kind of boring." The leg-grab ban they've defende
May 12, 2026, 12:06 PM
CJI 3 Has a $10M Prize Pool — and Still No Date
Just a matter of motivation." Craig Jones said that about CJI 3 in July 2025. The prize pool — $10 million, the largest in grappling history by a margin that makes every other promotion feel embarrassed — is sitting there, confirmed and funded.
May 12, 2026, 10:00 AM
Gisele Bündchen Married Her BJJ Instructor — The Man Who Introduced Her to Jiu-Jitsu Got a Kid and a Valente Brothers Rebrand Out of It
Tom Brady lost to a BJJ instructor. Not on the mat — Brady hasn't trained, as far as anyone can tell.
May 12, 2026, 09:29 AM
Franjinha Miller: No-Gi Has A Cleaner Path To The Olympics Than Gi — And The Old Guard Is Splitting On Its Own Question
Franjinha Miller came out this week and said what a lot of people have been quietly thinking: no-gi has a cleaner path to the Olympics than gi does. Then he said the part everyone is skipping past.
May 12, 2026, 07:00 AM
Ffion Davies Withdrew From Polaris Squads — Team Europe Is Now Captained By Nia Blackman
Here's something you don't get to say often in professional grappling: the biggest star in the sport just pulled out, and the person replacing her might end up being the actual story. Ffion Davies — multiple-time IBJJF world champion, ADCC champion, the dominant force in women's
May 11, 2026, 09:00 PM
Regional Academy Updates Website To Reflect Status As 'Official Training Home' Of Two-Time UFC Champion — He Attended A Seminar In April 2019
The website went up sometime last week. Under "About Our Academy" — maybe in the banner, floating over a photo of a crowded mat — there are now four words that weren't there before: Official Training Home.
May 11, 2026, 05:40 PM
Muhammad Mokaev's Visa Problem Just Killed Netflix's Best Fight
Netflix debuts MMA on May 16th with a card headlined by Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carano. No, that's not a typo.
May 11, 2026, 12:28 PM
BJJ Black Belt Restrains Racist Surfer Without Throwing a Punch. Then Demanded an Apology.
Watch the Sandro Santiago video and notice what isn't there. No moment where a trained martial artist decides a racist confrontation at Steamer Lane is the place to demonstrate how hard he can hit someone.
May 10, 2026, 07:00 PM
China Has Made Jiu-Jitsu A Mandatory School Subject, Starting From Kindergarten. There Are Grades.
China just made jiu-jitsu homework. Not an extracurricular.
May 10, 2026, 06:00 PM
Franjinha Miller: BJJ Will Never Make the Olympics Because Private Entities Control the Sport
Alliance BJJ co-founder Romero "Franjinha" Miller gave BJJ Doc the most honest answer anyone in the sport has offered on the Olympics question: "I don't think it's gonna be Olympic. It's too much private companies running the show right now." That was last Friday.
May 10, 2026, 05:36 PM
ADCC's Absolute Champion Can't Fill a Seminar in Her Own Country — Australians Think They're Already Good Enough
She submitted Beatriz Mesquita on penalties. She submitted Bia Basilio with an armlock to win her weight class.
May 10, 2026, 04:00 PM
Gilbert Burns Just Signed With UFC BJJ Less Than a Month After His Retirement Speech
Burns left his gloves in the Octagon on April 18. That's the image everyone locked onto after his fight with Mike Malott at UFC Winnipeg.
May 10, 2026, 02:54 PM
Chris Bones Built His Brand on Rickson Gracie's Name. Rickson's Son Has Notes.
Chris Bones has spent years building one of the most aggressive online presences in BJJ on a very specific foundation. He calls himself a "3rd Degree Black Belt under Master Rickson Gracie and Professor Jason Roebig." That credential — Rickson Gracie's name literally attached to
May 10, 2026, 02:43 PM
Khamzat Chimaev Just Lost His First Fight. The Narrative Was Always the Problem.
Khamzat Chimaev lost a fight last night. It's a short sentence.
May 10, 2026, 02:42 PM
Jeremy Stephens Missed Weight, Got Submitted, Hit 20 UFC Losses, and Left Without a Word
King Green submitted Jeremy Stephens in round one at UFC 328, handing Stephens his record 20th UFC loss. Stephens spent his pre-fight week demanding the UFC raise fighter bonuses — then showed up five pounds over and forfeited 30% of his purse.
May 10, 2026, 02:39 PM
Sean Strickland Is a Two-Time UFC Middleweight Champion. That Sentence Shouldn't Make Sense.
Sean Strickland is the UFC middleweight champion. You can read that twice.
May 10, 2026, 02:37 PM
Netflix's First MMA Card Features Two Fighters Who Haven't Won A Fight This Decade
The streaming platform that changed how the world watches television is about to introduce 325 million subscribers to combat sports. And the first thing they'll see is a woman who last won a fight when "Hotline Bling" was still on the charts.