July 22, 2025 • 25 mins
The Black Belt heard round the world. Many Jiu Jitsu folks are up in arms about the Moneyberg black belt situation and saying that he bought his Black Belt and did not earn it. Does this tarnish Jiu Jitsu's credibility as a whole? How about the world class guys that endorse him? How will this black belt affect the sport long term. Time will tell!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
A good martial artist does not become tense, but
ready.
Essentially, at this point thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
I'm ready.
Can black belts be bought?
(00:35):
Yes, they can, apparentlybecause your boy, derek
Moneyberg, has bought his.
There's a lot of controversyabout this, joe.
We need to unpack it.
Brother, I went away for a weeklast week.
Totally missed it, totallymissed it.
Saw the fucking WhatsApp belowup between you and Jack and,
(00:56):
obviously, reflective of youknow, the greater internet.
And then I did see somehighlight clips of a dude.
It gave me Steven Seagal vibes.
I did see some highlight clipsof a dude.
It gave me Steven Seagal vibes.
I'm going to say meatloaf circa1995, pre-fight club Barb's got
bitch tits, exactly, man.
(01:17):
Here's the thing.
Give me the backstory.
What happened, okay, sorecently?
I don't know the gentleman'sfull name, so he's known as
Moneyberg, right, and he's aninvestor of sorts.
And look, I don't think it's toocontroversial that people buy
belts.
It's definitely not good, right, it's been done for years and I
(01:37):
think the unfair comparison ispeople say, oh, it's just
another celebrity paying for abelt, right.
But what's the content.
What actually went down?
Well, so he is endorsed by manyhigh-level ex-MMA and current
MMA and jiu-jitsu heads and hehas trained with the very best
(02:02):
in the world.
But they are saying he's sosmart and he's so good, he could
get a black belt in three and ahalf years.
And now everybody is like what?
But because of the legitimacy,apparently, of the people who
are endorsing him, people peoplelike, oh well, oh, maybe, no,
(02:24):
it's.
The footage has been shown ofhim doing techniques and and and
training one-on-one.
The guy has never rolled in aclass.
So this is where it's verycontroversial Exclusively
private training, just privatelessons with celebrity
high-level jujitsu people.
And the reason why people areupset is because it is truly
(02:44):
unproven, other than the say-soof people who've been paid to
say so.
Who gave him his black belt?
So I think it's Mikey Musumechi.
We have to double-check this.
Yeah, mikey's one of the guysPlease Google away.
But also he's trained withGordon Ryan.
He's trained with Gilbert Burns.
He recently trained withGilbert Burns.
(03:05):
He recently trained with thejujitsu giant who I talked about
and he, you know, uh, danMinnesota, is like who cares?
How does it affect your life?
And I'm like fair, likewhatever it's.
I actually don't think Moneybergis the problem here.
Folks, the biggest problemabout this whole buying a black
belt is the black belt at somepoint in history represented a
(03:27):
certain amount of hard work, acertain amount of suffering and
a certain amount of proving yourworth.
You didn't have to be a worldchampion, but you had to put
your time in.
You know, very, veryconsistently, people say you
know, I studied for 10 years tobe a doctor and I'm also a black
belt in BJJ, and you know whatI'm more?
10 years to be a doctor and I'malso a black belt in BJJ.
And you know what I'm moreproud of?
I'm proud of my black beltbecause I fucking earned it.
(03:50):
They didn't buy it, and so Iactually don't think that.
You know, I don't care aboutcrypto scammers, I don't care
about investment people, butwhen you hear about someone
paying $5,000 for a privatelesson, you're like, oh, these
jiu-jitsu folks are absolutelyeating off this guy, right, and
(04:10):
now the sugar daddy is wantinghe's wanting to get his payday.
You know, he wants what he'spaid for and he wants
credibility, even though he hasno credibility to stand on.
I mean, yeah, I'm looking here.
I can't find who gave it to him.
This is odd.
I can see, you know, jakeshields, frank meir he's got
(04:34):
photos with the mall mma guys,craig, craig jones posted like
he paid me two and a half grandto come and do an interview on a
podcast.
Yeah, that's right.
He's obviously throwing arounda lot of coin, operates not
unlike myself, but that's thething.
You see how they're wearing hisshirt?
Yeah, and they're wearing hisbrand Shoes to Conquer?
Yeah, that's a business thing.
(04:55):
He's an investment advisor,right, and I don't want to
promote him.
I don't want to talk about thattoo much.
I want to talk about umendorsement.
I want to talk aboutauthenticity, truth and
integrity.
I want to talk about this cuntman.
Fuck that guy.
I will do anything for love.
(05:18):
The backlash yeah, vinnie'slegit, scathing and thinly
veiled takedown of moneyberg'spromotion.
He questioned both thelegitimacy of the process and
the motivations behind it, ofcourse.
Now, joe, my mum says I'mhandsome.
Fox catcher, energy andcommercial creep.
Do you think I'm handsome, joe?
My mum says I'm handsome.
Look hard to say she wouldn'thave a bias.
(05:39):
But yeah, I do think you arehandsome, jt.
Oh dang, I thought you weregoing to disagree, but that's
all right.
See, your mom can tell youyou're handsome because she's
your mom, she gave birth to you.
If she didn't tell you you'rehandsome, she's probably a bad
mom.
But what I'm saying here isjust because my mom tells me I'm
handsome doesn't mean someoneelse is going to perceive me as
such, right, right, that wasn'tearned in any way, she.
(06:07):
Now, when you pay people to benice to you, what is the
legitimacy of what they tell you?
And now here's the thing we'vegot to look at that there are
people who slave and struggleand absolutely commit themselves
to the process to be good atjujitsu and no one knows who
they are right Now.
Obviously, they pay their duesin terms of paying mat fees and
paying their memberships andinjuries and everything it takes
, the sacrifice it takes to givethe time and energy to be
(06:29):
really good at jiu-jitsu.
We're not talking worldchampions, we're just talking
someone who's doing it for thelove of the art.
We know those people.
We're also those people.
Right, I wasn't someone who gotmy black belt really quick, and
I don't think getting your blackbelt quickly denotes quality
necessarily.
Right, generally, the exceptionis drawn when you have someone
who's like a mika galvan or likea kit dale or someone who
(06:53):
ascends quite rapidly.
You know, even though mika andkit are very different, they
both got their black belts veryquickly and performed very well.
They went out there and beatthe best in the world at their
respective levels, at purple, atbrown.
Has he been training since hewas a baby?
Yeah, he's been training sincehe was very young, for sure, but
(07:15):
I'm saying that he got hisblack belt as soon as you could
get it, very young, and soprobably it's not a fair
comparison.
Like Kit is famous for gettinghis black belt quickly, even
though I believe it may havetaken him longer than he would
say.
I mean, yeah, that quicknessthing we like to Romanticize,
(07:36):
yeah, but like you said earlier,it doesn't really mean anything
.
But if you look at his Oftencircumstantial If you look at
his repertoire, like sorry, ifyou look at his back catalog of
achievements, that speaks Bluebelt, purple belt, brown belt
Even though he was never a blackbelt world champion, at each
level he was proving his abilityto execute techniques.
Yeah, so you go all right.
(07:56):
Well, that's proven.
Our man Moneyberg has provennothing and this is why the
community is upset, because notso much I would say the man
himself, because obviously theman's a bit of a grifter.
You could see that just in howsleazy the whole arrangement is.
But it's the people whoendorsed him, people who we
(08:16):
thought had a degree ofintegrity, because they were
proven, they were battlehardened, they were champions or
are champions, and now it'sjust like oh no, well, we say
he's good, therefore he must begood.
When you say endorsed, howexactly did that take place?
Well, they're saying onlinelike oh, he's one of the
smartest guys I've ever trained.
(08:36):
So him getting his black belt.
Like these are this is likequote Like a video testimonial
yeah, this is In support of.
Like quote like a videotestimonial yeah, it's, this is,
this is supportive.
And they're standing next tohim going yes, we endorse
moneyberg.
Right, I mean it's, it's theprivilege of being rich?
I guess so.
But just fucking grease thewheels.
I think part of the reason whypeople are so upset and and you
(08:58):
know, I'm sure you know peoplewill sound off it's that the
idea of a black belt.
And even if you don't give afuck about belts, someone
proving their worth is important.
And in jujitsu, if you claimsomething, you got to back it up
.
Right Now there's plenty ofMcDojo.
Fake black belts out there,right, and they get found out,
but this guy is so protected younever see him roll in a class.
(09:20):
There's no footage of himtaking licks.
Right Now, let's give a shoutout to some celebrities who do
BJJ right.
Let's talk about Zuck.
Zuck actually competed in ajujitsu contest, right, like at
White Bolt.
He competed in competition, Ithink in Gi and no Gi.
He might've won a category,lost a category, but he actually
(09:41):
did compete and I'm not Enter,entered a public arena and I'm
not saying I endorse Zuck, butyou've got to go.
Oh, he's putting it out there,right, same thing as your boy
Bane, tom Hardy.
Tom Hardy competed.
He's now a purple belt, but youregularly see him getting
fucked up in training.
(10:02):
Putting it in, the guy is aboutit.
Did you see the post of one ofthe guys that fought against Tom
Hardy?
And he's like, yeah, I'm afather of three, I'm a working
man, I'm out here living likepaycheck to paycheck.
And then I got to fucking fightTom Hardy at a competition on
the weekend.
Like what have I done wrong?
What have I done?
And he gets his ass kicked byTom.
(10:23):
Yeah, but yeah, that's right.
Like that is, that is, there's a, there's an honesty to that.
Um, and and that's the thingthat I I believe is the great
thing about jujitsu, which youcan't really lie about your
skill.
If you say I have a great guard, you must prove it, like
demonstrate it, all right.
(10:48):
Well, this guy take him down,like demonstrate your skill, and
this is the truth of the matter.
And if you don't, then it'sfucking fake.
Yeah, so the I think the thething, the thing here that hurts
for and and again, I'm reallylooks pretty creepy to me.
It looks pretty pretty, youknow, it looks like a grift, but
(11:09):
but you know, whatever, like Idon't know much about it besides
what you're telling me rightnow.
But, um, the thing, the thingthat that that hurts people here
right, that hurts every jujitsuperson listening to this is
that we have, as a community andand and sort of an unspoken
(11:30):
understanding of the value ofthe belts and the value because
we know how hard jiu-jitsu is.
Yes, you know, you show up andtrain and it's a struggle and
there's numerous challenges, andso, as you progress, you know,
in your, in your skills, you'relike, fuck, this is really
hard-earned.
So when someone circumvents theprocess, they, they devalue it.
(11:53):
And when it gets devalued, wellit does, and then that can.
That threatens the value of theprocess.
You're in, right, yeah, becauseyou're like, hang on a second.
We all I thought we all agreedto this thing, and now there's
this motherfucker, you know, andthat's, and that's where it
just it can become a free forall, I suppose.
And so, yeah, I think that'swhat hurts people is that it
sort of has a psychologicalbearing on, or effect on, their
(12:18):
perception of what they're doing.
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(13:01):
But the buying of belts is notnew, right?
Celebrities over time havetrained with who else?
Well, there's just been somepeople throughout history and
it's controversy to a certainextent, that certain high-level
jiu-jitsu folks had awardedbelts to people who maybe didn't
deserve them.
Right, I'm not gonna talk about, like katherine zeta, jones,
(13:23):
ashton kutcher, well, no, well,did you see the clip of uh,
which is a brown belt, was abrown getting beat the fuck up
by craig jones?
I don't know.
Jones Shout out Ashton Kutcher,please invest in our tech
startup.
But you know, like people arelike, oh, he's not a brown belt,
but I mean, whatever he trains,he's still putting in the work.
Right, like it's whatever youmight say there.
(13:45):
Yeah, the buying of belts isnot new.
But the devaluing by high levelguys who we respected, that is
the painful thing.
Because it's so many guys.
Yeah, we thought we could counton you guys.
Man, he's sullying so many guyswho we gave credit to.
Now would these guys say thesame shit about some rando who
got their black belt in threeand a half years?
(14:07):
If he hadn't paid them tens ofthousands, hundreds of thousands
of dollars?
No, they would be ripping themapart.
Yeah, they'd be up in arms,just like Vinnie Magalhaes, my
goodness.
And look, so jujitsu Chewy hadsaid look, it's like an honorary
belt, similar to his take on itwas like an honorary degree oh,
(14:28):
you've contributed $30,000,$50,000, $100,000 to this
university.
We'll give you an honorarydoctorate.
Is this the only thing that wehave that we can give you to say
thanks?
It doesn't mean anything,you're not going to be a
professor, but, all right,morgan Freeman, you're now a
doctor.
And if you're someone whostudied a PhD and my sister has
you put 10 to 12 years on, amotherfucker to get a doctorate
(14:50):
and then you see some richcelebrity getting an honorary
doctorate, fucking hurts yourheart, right, because it is a
portion of your life you cannever get back.
Yeah, those 10 years, that 15years, whatever it took you to
get there, you can't get it back, and it was hard earned.
And so I think the key thing isthis you know the difference.
You know the difference.
(15:11):
You know the difference betweensomebody who can hold their
belt up and who doesn't.
Right, and I'm not talkingabout there's plenty of folks
out there would be like beltsdon't matter anymore.
Jiu Jitsu is a sport, blah,blah, blah Like sure.
But you could definitely say ifsomeone bought an Olympic gold
medal, wouldn't that change whatOlympic gold medals mean?
Yeah, yeah, like you buy a UFCbelt.
(15:32):
It doesn't make you a UFCchampion.
So funny, timely story Lastnight I was at a grading at
Gracie Balmain All right,awesome.
And actually Joel, the headcoach there, friend of ours,
friend of the show shout out toJoel invited me because a good
friend and a training partner ofmine was receiving his black
(15:52):
belt.
Oh, amazing, and it was reallyspecial.
And the guy, lockie, who gothis black belt last night, oh,
he got his black belt.
Yeah, oh, how good, big props.
It was really cool to be there.
And you know, lockie's not, he'salways been a guy that's like I
don't care about belts and Ithink I first rolled with him
when he was a been an absolutenightmare from.
You know, from the moment I methim in terms of his jiu-jitsu
(16:14):
and extremely studious andextremely committed, right and
uh, he's just one of those guys.
More has been traditionallymore of a no-gi guy, scrap super
hard and like I don't give afuck about bells, I just like
wrecking everyone.
And he's that dude.
And uh, last night he goesblack belt and they asked him to
say a few words and he's like,look, I don't have't have much
to say, it's a bit of a.
He's a quiet fellow, but, um,he's like guys.
(16:35):
I always say like um, you know,the belts don't mean anything to
me, but then he's like but Ithink they do.
He was like yeah, I think theymatter.
Now, yeah, but you know, justfunny, right, right, like we all
say that, I always.
But you know, and it mattersless to some people, of course,
(16:55):
yeah, but there is still value,even for bill.
It's like yeah, no, it stillmeans something.
When you see, you know, when yousee someone like that, even if
you don't give a fuck aboutbelts, I guarantee if you look
at this, you're talking aboutmoneyberg.
This will hurt you.
You'd be like motherfucker, Ithink in moment, and we've said
this before.
It's whatever it means to you.
But clearly this guy justthinks he can buy anything.
(17:19):
So he's like I'll just buy allthese jujitsu guys and I'll just
buy all this money.
But honestly, it's like a pimp.
Buy all this money, bro.
He's.
He's a pimp marrying hisprostitutes, like he's paying
them for a service.
Now sugar daddy's coming tocollect, marry me, bitch.
And they're all marrying him.
And he's got a harem of guyswho we used to respect.
(17:40):
And now what the fuck does itmean?
Not a whole lot.
So shame on you, you fuckingpieces of shit Selling out the
art that you actually.
We looked up to you.
You're heroes.
Look at you.
Look at you.
Look at what you did.
Why do we value a champion?
Why do we admire these folks?
Because they sweat, they bled,they broke, they did everything
(18:01):
they could to be the best, andnow they're at the top and
they're really compromising whatit all means, which is the
saddest part of all of this.
That's my take on it.
It's not about money.
Burke Belts can be bought.
Rich people get what they want.
Who gives a shit?
It's more that people who wethought had integrity are
(18:22):
demonstrating that they don't.
I think that's the most painfulpoint.
At the end of the day, it'sthat I'd agree.
What is it that we don't likeabout hypocrisy?
It's not even that the person'strying to lie to you.
You can see it.
You know it's like a fatpersonal trainer or someone who
you know being a broke financialadvisor.
(18:43):
It doesn't make any sense.
And it's not even that they'retrying to lie to you.
It's that they're obviouslylying to their fucking selves.
And how can you respectsomebody and I believe that
jujitsu is really built onrespect, whether it's about how
a person conducts themselves orhow hard they work, or whatever.
You value, right, and money isjust a token.
(19:06):
Right?
Money doesn't in and of itself,have a value.
It's only the value weattribute to it.
And you could say that's thesame thing about a black belt,
but we, as jujitsu folks, doattribute value.
We attribute to it, and youcould say that's the same thing
about a black belt, but we, asjujitsu folks, do attribute
value to a black belt, and thiswhole process has highlighted
that people we respected and wetrusted have put a lower value
on it.
I listened to a podcast theother day.
(19:27):
It was titled something like um, you will hate rich people even
more after this, or something.
Was it one of your communistpodcasts?
No, it wasn't.
It was a guy who I discoveredvia I think I found him through
Lex Friedman.
Chris Hedges is his name.
Okay, smart fella, good listen,good listen generally.
(19:50):
But this was one of his episodesand he had a guy on who's
recently written a book talkingabout rich, basically rich
people and how the bad shit thatthey end up doing to society.
Sure, not necessarily becausethey set out, because they have
bad intentions, no, but just howthe how wealth inequality
actually works.
(20:10):
Sure, and one of the things hepointed out was that there is a
a natural like a bubble ofprotection that that grows
around wealthy people, becauseall of the people close to them
don't want to put them off side.
Because there is well, there'ssome underlying thing where it's
(20:31):
like, well, maybe if I'mhanging out and we're having a
few drinks, he'll buy me a house, or you know, like you can't
help but sort of be enamored by,yeah, you know it's cool.
Well, fuck, yeah, you know,like a bummer dinner kind of
thing.
Like, you know, we becomeenslaved in a way, definitely,
and you know.
And so what it was.
What it just made me think inthis regard is that, like,
(20:55):
values get compromised, you knowthe money starts to become
intoxicating and then yourvalues get compromised and
before you know it, you'resucking dicks in the gutter.
I mean, I did it once, but themoney was so good.
But you know, yeah, like,before you know it, you're like,
oh shit.
But here's the thing I wouldconsider us both to be rich in
(21:17):
our own way.
Right, I look at you, we arefirst world.
I mean, we are, of course,we're first world white guys
living in Australia.
Yeah, and we are capitalists.
Right, because we did anepisode which was and it was
titled you know, has CapitalismTaken the Soul of Jiu-Jitsu?
Right, and we are.
(21:39):
We.
We operate in a capitalistsystem.
Yes, I don't apply the label ofcapitalist to myself, just to be
clear.
All right, joey identifies as amarxist, slash socialist.
No, no, no, no, I'm just sayingI'm not.
I'm gender neutral.
Okay, I'm a they, them.
I'm a fucking capitalist.
I don't care what you fuckingdoing a pretty shit job of it.
If that's what you are, fuckoff.
I'm.
I'm doing.
Good, you can say what you like.
This is what I want to say.
Switch to finance.
No, dude, how do you know?
(22:01):
I haven't log into my cryptoaccount now.
Get my wallet bulletproof.
For finance.
Um, you too, can have a join.
My coaching three and a halfyears, I'm gonna tell you, the
best fucking stocks droppingright now.
No, no, I consider myself rich,so it's not a question of that,
and I know there's people withmore money than me, but everyone
(22:21):
values different things.
I have hung out with more thanone billionaire.
I have clients who aremultimillionaires, but does it
mean I respect them more or less?
No, they have domain knowledgeand they are who they are.
Yeah, but when you werefondling his balls and just
playing just the tip, you know,there's a moment there right
where you're like wait, would Ihave done this if we weren't
(22:43):
going out on the yacht today?
No, no, not at all.
No, no, no.
My gag reflex is good, butthat's because I eat too much
food people.
No, the reason why I say this iswhat I have loved about jujitsu
is that you can have people whoare of completely different
realms in life,socioeconomically, but the skill
(23:06):
factor, which just takes timeto build, no matter how you
learn it, that's the equalizeron the mat.
And you were saying beforeabout the immunity of the bubble
of, of, of, of wealth andprivilege and everything like
this.
Well, this guy is protected,this guy's protected by many
elite level bodyguards who arelike no, no, no, we say he's
(23:28):
good.
Well, that that just totallycorrupts what jujitsu is, which
is like let your man defendhimself, hold up your belt, if
you are a belt, demonstrate yourskill.
And even in the footage of himjust drilling techniques, it's
very clear he's not proficient.
So to say the guy's a blackbelt is kind of hilarious.
(23:51):
So the reason why I wanted totalk about this is you know,
people being corrupted andcompromised by money is
universal.
It doesn't matter.
You know all facets of life.
Our politicians sell us out,you great artists that you
discovered when they're a garageband.
They then get signed to getmillions and they start making
(24:12):
shit music.
Joe Rogan offered us a billiondollars to buy our podcast.
We knocked it back.
We said no, because I knowabout that.
Welley joey took the trt deal.
I said.
I said no, maric health, gofuck yourself.
I got too much testosterone.
But it is so challengingbecause initially there's trust,
because you think there's acertain value there, and then it
(24:35):
does change over time and yougo okay, well, this isn't what I
thought it was and that's okay,it doesn't change.
I think the value in jujitsu isthe hard work and earning it
and it's.
You know, nothing's going tochange.
You're going to keep going totraining, you're going to keep
working hard.
You're not.
You're not going to try andfake it, and anyone who's going
(24:56):
to fake it will eventually befound out.
But I I think that the sadthing is to see our, our heroes,
these high level folks, take adip for the cash.
You know that's, that's what itis, sure you.
A good martial artist does not become tense, but
ready.
Essentially, at this point thefight is over, so you pretty
much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?
I'm ready.
Can black belts be bought?
(00:35):
Yes, they can, apparentlybecause your boy, derek
Moneyberg, has bought his.
There's a lot of controversyabout this, joe.
We need to unpack it.
Brother, I went away for a weeklast week.
Totally missed it, totallymissed it.
Saw the fucking WhatsApp belowup between you and Jack and,
(00:56):
obviously, reflective of youknow, the greater internet.
And then I did see somehighlight clips of a dude.
It gave me Steven Seagal vibes.
I did see some highlight clipsof a dude.
It gave me Steven Seagal vibes.
I'm going to say meatloaf circa1995, pre-fight club Barb's got
bitch tits, exactly, man.
(01:17):
Here's the thing.
Give me the backstory.
What happened, okay, sorecently?
I don't know the gentleman'sfull name, so he's known as
Moneyberg, right, and he's aninvestor of sorts.
And look, I don't think it's toocontroversial that people buy
belts.
It's definitely not good, right, it's been done for years and I
(01:37):
think the unfair comparison ispeople say, oh, it's just
another celebrity paying for abelt, right.
But what's the content.
What actually went down?
Well, so he is endorsed by manyhigh-level ex-MMA and current
MMA and jiu-jitsu heads and hehas trained with the very best
(02:02):
in the world.
But they are saying he's sosmart and he's so good, he could
get a black belt in three and ahalf years.
And now everybody is like what?
But because of the legitimacy,apparently, of the people who
are endorsing him, people peoplelike, oh well, oh, maybe, no,
(02:24):
it's.
The footage has been shown ofhim doing techniques and and and
training one-on-one.
The guy has never rolled in aclass.
So this is where it's verycontroversial Exclusively
private training, just privatelessons with celebrity
high-level jujitsu people.
And the reason why people areupset is because it is truly
(02:44):
unproven, other than the say-soof people who've been paid to
say so.
Who gave him his black belt?
So I think it's Mikey Musumechi.
We have to double-check this.
Yeah, mikey's one of the guysPlease Google away.
But also he's trained withGordon Ryan.
He's trained with Gilbert Burns.
He recently trained withGilbert Burns.
(03:05):
He recently trained with thejujitsu giant who I talked about
and he, you know, uh, danMinnesota, is like who cares?
How does it affect your life?
And I'm like fair, likewhatever it's.
I actually don't think Moneybergis the problem here.
Folks, the biggest problemabout this whole buying a black
belt is the black belt at somepoint in history represented a
(03:27):
certain amount of hard work, acertain amount of suffering and
a certain amount of proving yourworth.
You didn't have to be a worldchampion, but you had to put
your time in.
You know, very, veryconsistently, people say you
know, I studied for 10 years tobe a doctor and I'm also a black
belt in BJJ, and you know whatI'm more?
10 years to be a doctor and I'malso a black belt in BJJ.
And you know what I'm moreproud of?
I'm proud of my black beltbecause I fucking earned it.
(03:50):
They didn't buy it, and so Iactually don't think that.
You know, I don't care aboutcrypto scammers, I don't care
about investment people, butwhen you hear about someone
paying $5,000 for a privatelesson, you're like, oh, these
jiu-jitsu folks are absolutelyeating off this guy, right, and
(04:10):
now the sugar daddy is wantinghe's wanting to get his payday.
You know, he wants what he'spaid for and he wants
credibility, even though he hasno credibility to stand on.
I mean, yeah, I'm looking here.
I can't find who gave it to him.
This is odd.
I can see, you know, jakeshields, frank meir he's got
(04:34):
photos with the mall mma guys,craig, craig jones posted like
he paid me two and a half grandto come and do an interview on a
podcast.
Yeah, that's right.
He's obviously throwing arounda lot of coin, operates not
unlike myself, but that's thething.
You see how they're wearing hisshirt?
Yeah, and they're wearing hisbrand Shoes to Conquer?
Yeah, that's a business thing.
(04:55):
He's an investment advisor,right, and I don't want to
promote him.
I don't want to talk about thattoo much.
I want to talk about umendorsement.
I want to talk aboutauthenticity, truth and
integrity.
I want to talk about this cuntman.
Fuck that guy.
I will do anything for love.
(05:18):
The backlash yeah, vinnie'slegit, scathing and thinly
veiled takedown of moneyberg'spromotion.
He questioned both thelegitimacy of the process and
the motivations behind it, ofcourse.
Now, joe, my mum says I'mhandsome.
Fox catcher, energy andcommercial creep.
Do you think I'm handsome, joe?
My mum says I'm handsome.
Look hard to say she wouldn'thave a bias.
(05:39):
But yeah, I do think you arehandsome, jt.
Oh dang, I thought you weregoing to disagree, but that's
all right.
See, your mom can tell youyou're handsome because she's
your mom, she gave birth to you.
If she didn't tell you you'rehandsome, she's probably a bad
mom.
But what I'm saying here isjust because my mom tells me I'm
handsome doesn't mean someoneelse is going to perceive me as
such, right, right, that wasn'tearned in any way, she.
(06:07):
Now, when you pay people to benice to you, what is the
legitimacy of what they tell you?
And now here's the thing we'vegot to look at that there are
people who slave and struggleand absolutely commit themselves
to the process to be good atjujitsu and no one knows who
they are right Now.
Obviously, they pay their duesin terms of paying mat fees and
paying their memberships andinjuries and everything it takes
, the sacrifice it takes to givethe time and energy to be
(06:29):
really good at jiu-jitsu.
We're not talking worldchampions, we're just talking
someone who's doing it for thelove of the art.
We know those people.
We're also those people.
Right, I wasn't someone who gotmy black belt really quick, and
I don't think getting your blackbelt quickly denotes quality
necessarily.
Right, generally, the exceptionis drawn when you have someone
who's like a mika galvan or likea kit dale or someone who
(06:53):
ascends quite rapidly.
You know, even though mika andkit are very different, they
both got their black belts veryquickly and performed very well.
They went out there and beatthe best in the world at their
respective levels, at purple, atbrown.
Has he been training since hewas a baby?
Yeah, he's been training sincehe was very young, for sure, but
(07:15):
I'm saying that he got hisblack belt as soon as you could
get it, very young, and soprobably it's not a fair
comparison.
Like Kit is famous for gettinghis black belt quickly, even
though I believe it may havetaken him longer than he would
say.
I mean, yeah, that quicknessthing we like to Romanticize,
(07:36):
yeah, but like you said earlier,it doesn't really mean anything
.
But if you look at his Oftencircumstantial If you look at
his repertoire, like sorry, ifyou look at his back catalog of
achievements, that speaks Bluebelt, purple belt, brown belt
Even though he was never a blackbelt world champion, at each
level he was proving his abilityto execute techniques.
Yeah, so you go all right.
(07:56):
Well, that's proven.
Our man Moneyberg has provennothing and this is why the
community is upset, because notso much I would say the man
himself, because obviously theman's a bit of a grifter.
You could see that just in howsleazy the whole arrangement is.
But it's the people whoendorsed him, people who we
(08:16):
thought had a degree ofintegrity, because they were
proven, they were battlehardened, they were champions or
are champions, and now it'sjust like oh no, well, we say
he's good, therefore he must begood.
When you say endorsed, howexactly did that take place?
Well, they're saying onlinelike oh, he's one of the
smartest guys I've ever trained.
(08:36):
So him getting his black belt.
Like these are this is likequote Like a video testimonial
yeah, this is In support of.
Like quote like a videotestimonial yeah, it's, this is,
this is supportive.
And they're standing next tohim going yes, we endorse
moneyberg.
Right, I mean it's, it's theprivilege of being rich?
I guess so.
But just fucking grease thewheels.
I think part of the reason whypeople are so upset and and you
(08:58):
know, I'm sure you know peoplewill sound off it's that the
idea of a black belt.
And even if you don't give afuck about belts, someone
proving their worth is important.
And in jujitsu, if you claimsomething, you got to back it up
.
Right Now there's plenty ofMcDojo.
Fake black belts out there,right, and they get found out,
but this guy is so protected younever see him roll in a class.
(09:20):
There's no footage of himtaking licks.
Right Now, let's give a shoutout to some celebrities who do
BJJ right.
Let's talk about Zuck.
Zuck actually competed in ajujitsu contest, right, like at
White Bolt.
He competed in competition, Ithink in Gi and no Gi.
He might've won a category,lost a category, but he actually
(09:41):
did compete and I'm not Enter,entered a public arena and I'm
not saying I endorse Zuck, butyou've got to go.
Oh, he's putting it out there,right, same thing as your boy
Bane, tom Hardy.
Tom Hardy competed.
He's now a purple belt, but youregularly see him getting
fucked up in training.
(10:02):
Putting it in, the guy is aboutit.
Did you see the post of one ofthe guys that fought against Tom
Hardy?
And he's like, yeah, I'm afather of three, I'm a working
man, I'm out here living likepaycheck to paycheck.
And then I got to fucking fightTom Hardy at a competition on
the weekend.
Like what have I done wrong?
What have I done?
And he gets his ass kicked byTom.
(10:23):
Yeah, but yeah, that's right.
Like that is, that is, there's a, there's an honesty to that.
Um, and and that's the thingthat I I believe is the great
thing about jujitsu, which youcan't really lie about your
skill.
If you say I have a great guard, you must prove it, like
demonstrate it, all right.
(10:48):
Well, this guy take him down,like demonstrate your skill, and
this is the truth of the matter.
And if you don't, then it'sfucking fake.
Yeah, so the I think the thething, the thing here that hurts
for and and again, I'm reallylooks pretty creepy to me.
It looks pretty pretty, youknow, it looks like a grift, but
(11:09):
but you know, whatever, like Idon't know much about it besides
what you're telling me rightnow.
But, um, the thing, the thingthat that that hurts people here
right, that hurts every jujitsuperson listening to this is
that we have, as a community andand and sort of an unspoken
(11:30):
understanding of the value ofthe belts and the value because
we know how hard jiu-jitsu is.
Yes, you know, you show up andtrain and it's a struggle and
there's numerous challenges, andso, as you progress, you know,
in your, in your skills, you'relike, fuck, this is really
hard-earned.
So when someone circumvents theprocess, they, they devalue it.
(11:53):
And when it gets devalued, wellit does, and then that can.
That threatens the value of theprocess.
You're in, right, yeah, becauseyou're like, hang on a second.
We all I thought we all agreedto this thing, and now there's
this motherfucker, you know, andthat's, and that's where it
just it can become a free forall, I suppose.
And so, yeah, I think that'swhat hurts people is that it
sort of has a psychologicalbearing on, or effect on, their
(12:18):
perception of what they're doing.
Yeah, but do you like yourself atasty beverage?
I do, and if you would love amargarita that doesn't give you
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That answer is sody thedelicious salty electrolytes
(12:39):
that are going to keep youhydrated for jujitsu, stop you
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So if you had a big nightbefore jujitsu, pump a Sodi and
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If you want to get some Sodi,go to Sodi S-O-D-I-Icomau and
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You get 15% off.
Get your delicious hydrationsalts today.
(13:01):
But the buying of belts is notnew, right?
Celebrities over time havetrained with who else?
Well, there's just been somepeople throughout history and
it's controversy to a certainextent, that certain high-level
jiu-jitsu folks had awardedbelts to people who maybe didn't
deserve them.
Right, I'm not gonna talk about, like katherine zeta, jones,
(13:23):
ashton kutcher, well, no, well,did you see the clip of uh,
which is a brown belt, was abrown getting beat the fuck up
by craig jones?
I don't know.
Jones Shout out Ashton Kutcher,please invest in our tech
startup.
But you know, like people arelike, oh, he's not a brown belt,
but I mean, whatever he trains,he's still putting in the work.
Right, like it's whatever youmight say there.
(13:45):
Yeah, the buying of belts isnot new.
But the devaluing by high levelguys who we respected, that is
the painful thing.
Because it's so many guys.
Yeah, we thought we could counton you guys.
Man, he's sullying so many guyswho we gave credit to.
Now would these guys say thesame shit about some rando who
got their black belt in threeand a half years?
(14:07):
If he hadn't paid them tens ofthousands, hundreds of thousands
of dollars?
No, they would be ripping themapart.
Yeah, they'd be up in arms,just like Vinnie Magalhaes, my
goodness.
And look, so jujitsu Chewy hadsaid look, it's like an honorary
belt, similar to his take on itwas like an honorary degree oh,
(14:28):
you've contributed $30,000,$50,000, $100,000 to this
university.
We'll give you an honorarydoctorate.
Is this the only thing that wehave that we can give you to say
thanks?
It doesn't mean anything,you're not going to be a
professor, but, all right,morgan Freeman, you're now a
doctor.
And if you're someone whostudied a PhD and my sister has
you put 10 to 12 years on, amotherfucker to get a doctorate
(14:50):
and then you see some richcelebrity getting an honorary
doctorate, fucking hurts yourheart, right, because it is a
portion of your life you cannever get back.
Yeah, those 10 years, that 15years, whatever it took you to
get there, you can't get it back, and it was hard earned.
And so I think the key thing isthis you know the difference.
You know the difference.
(15:11):
You know the difference betweensomebody who can hold their
belt up and who doesn't.
Right, and I'm not talkingabout there's plenty of folks
out there would be like beltsdon't matter anymore.
Jiu Jitsu is a sport, blah,blah, blah Like sure.
But you could definitely say ifsomeone bought an Olympic gold
medal, wouldn't that change whatOlympic gold medals mean?
Yeah, yeah, like you buy a UFCbelt.
(15:32):
It doesn't make you a UFCchampion.
So funny, timely story Lastnight I was at a grading at
Gracie Balmain All right,awesome.
And actually Joel, the headcoach there, friend of ours,
friend of the show shout out toJoel invited me because a good
friend and a training partner ofmine was receiving his black
(15:52):
belt.
Oh, amazing, and it was reallyspecial.
And the guy, lockie, who gothis black belt last night, oh,
he got his black belt.
Yeah, oh, how good, big props.
It was really cool to be there.
And you know, lockie's not, he'salways been a guy that's like I
don't care about belts and Ithink I first rolled with him
when he was a been an absolutenightmare from.
You know, from the moment I methim in terms of his jiu-jitsu
(16:14):
and extremely studious andextremely committed, right and
uh, he's just one of those guys.
More has been traditionallymore of a no-gi guy, scrap super
hard and like I don't give afuck about bells, I just like
wrecking everyone.
And he's that dude.
And uh, last night he goesblack belt and they asked him to
say a few words and he's like,look, I don't have't have much
to say, it's a bit of a.
He's a quiet fellow, but, um,he's like guys.
(16:35):
I always say like um, you know,the belts don't mean anything to
me, but then he's like but Ithink they do.
He was like yeah, I think theymatter.
Now, yeah, but you know, justfunny, right, right, like we all
say that, I always.
But you know, and it mattersless to some people, of course,
(16:55):
yeah, but there is still value,even for bill.
It's like yeah, no, it stillmeans something.
When you see, you know, when yousee someone like that, even if
you don't give a fuck aboutbelts, I guarantee if you look
at this, you're talking aboutmoneyberg.
This will hurt you.
You'd be like motherfucker, Ithink in moment, and we've said
this before.
It's whatever it means to you.
But clearly this guy justthinks he can buy anything.
(17:19):
So he's like I'll just buy allthese jujitsu guys and I'll just
buy all this money.
But honestly, it's like a pimp.
Buy all this money, bro.
He's.
He's a pimp marrying hisprostitutes, like he's paying
them for a service.
Now sugar daddy's coming tocollect, marry me, bitch.
And they're all marrying him.
And he's got a harem of guyswho we used to respect.
(17:40):
And now what the fuck does itmean?
Not a whole lot.
So shame on you, you fuckingpieces of shit Selling out the
art that you actually.
We looked up to you.
You're heroes.
Look at you.
Look at you.
Look at what you did.
Why do we value a champion?
Why do we admire these folks?
Because they sweat, they bled,they broke, they did everything
(18:01):
they could to be the best, andnow they're at the top and
they're really compromising whatit all means, which is the
saddest part of all of this.
That's my take on it.
It's not about money.
Burke Belts can be bought.
Rich people get what they want.
Who gives a shit?
It's more that people who wethought had integrity are
(18:22):
demonstrating that they don't.
I think that's the most painfulpoint.
At the end of the day, it'sthat I'd agree.
What is it that we don't likeabout hypocrisy?
It's not even that the person'strying to lie to you.
You can see it.
You know it's like a fatpersonal trainer or someone who
you know being a broke financialadvisor.
(18:43):
It doesn't make any sense.
And it's not even that they'retrying to lie to you.
It's that they're obviouslylying to their fucking selves.
And how can you respectsomebody and I believe that
jujitsu is really built onrespect, whether it's about how
a person conducts themselves orhow hard they work, or whatever.
You value, right, and money isjust a token.
(19:06):
Right?
Money doesn't in and of itself,have a value.
It's only the value weattribute to it.
And you could say that's thesame thing about a black belt,
but we, as jujitsu folks, doattribute value.
We attribute to it, and youcould say that's the same thing
about a black belt, but we, asjujitsu folks, do attribute
value to a black belt, and thiswhole process has highlighted
that people we respected and wetrusted have put a lower value
on it.
I listened to a podcast theother day.
(19:27):
It was titled something like um, you will hate rich people even
more after this, or something.
Was it one of your communistpodcasts?
No, it wasn't.
It was a guy who I discoveredvia I think I found him through
Lex Friedman.
Chris Hedges is his name.
Okay, smart fella, good listen,good listen generally.
(19:50):
But this was one of his episodesand he had a guy on who's
recently written a book talkingabout rich, basically rich
people and how the bad shit thatthey end up doing to society.
Sure, not necessarily becausethey set out, because they have
bad intentions, no, but just howthe how wealth inequality
actually works.
(20:10):
Sure, and one of the things hepointed out was that there is a
a natural like a bubble ofprotection that that grows
around wealthy people, becauseall of the people close to them
don't want to put them off side.
Because there is well, there'ssome underlying thing where it's
(20:31):
like, well, maybe if I'mhanging out and we're having a
few drinks, he'll buy me a house, or you know, like you can't
help but sort of be enamored by,yeah, you know it's cool.
Well, fuck, yeah, you know,like a bummer dinner kind of
thing.
Like, you know, we becomeenslaved in a way, definitely,
and you know.
And so what it was.
What it just made me think inthis regard is that, like,
(20:55):
values get compromised, you knowthe money starts to become
intoxicating and then yourvalues get compromised and
before you know it, you'resucking dicks in the gutter.
I mean, I did it once, but themoney was so good.
But you know, yeah, like,before you know it, you're like,
oh shit.
But here's the thing I wouldconsider us both to be rich in
(21:17):
our own way.
Right, I look at you, we arefirst world.
I mean, we are, of course,we're first world white guys
living in Australia.
Yeah, and we are capitalists.
Right, because we did anepisode which was and it was
titled you know, has CapitalismTaken the Soul of Jiu-Jitsu?
Right, and we are.
(21:39):
We.
We operate in a capitalistsystem.
Yes, I don't apply the label ofcapitalist to myself, just to be
clear.
All right, joey identifies as amarxist, slash socialist.
No, no, no, no, I'm just sayingI'm not.
I'm gender neutral.
Okay, I'm a they, them.
I'm a fucking capitalist.
I don't care what you fuckingdoing a pretty shit job of it.
If that's what you are, fuckoff.
I'm.
I'm doing.
Good, you can say what you like.
This is what I want to say.
Switch to finance.
No, dude, how do you know?
(22:01):
I haven't log into my cryptoaccount now.
Get my wallet bulletproof.
For finance.
Um, you too, can have a join.
My coaching three and a halfyears, I'm gonna tell you, the
best fucking stocks droppingright now.
No, no, I consider myself rich,so it's not a question of that,
and I know there's people withmore money than me, but everyone
(22:21):
values different things.
I have hung out with more thanone billionaire.
I have clients who aremultimillionaires, but does it
mean I respect them more or less?
No, they have domain knowledgeand they are who they are.
Yeah, but when you werefondling his balls and just
playing just the tip, you know,there's a moment there right
where you're like wait, would Ihave done this if we weren't
(22:43):
going out on the yacht today?
No, no, not at all.
No, no, no.
My gag reflex is good, butthat's because I eat too much
food people.
No, the reason why I say this iswhat I have loved about jujitsu
is that you can have people whoare of completely different
realms in life,socioeconomically, but the skill
(23:06):
factor, which just takes timeto build, no matter how you
learn it, that's the equalizeron the mat.
And you were saying beforeabout the immunity of the bubble
of, of, of, of wealth andprivilege and everything like
this.
Well, this guy is protected,this guy's protected by many
elite level bodyguards who arelike no, no, no, we say he's
(23:28):
good.
Well, that that just totallycorrupts what jujitsu is, which
is like let your man defendhimself, hold up your belt, if
you are a belt, demonstrate yourskill.
And even in the footage of himjust drilling techniques, it's
very clear he's not proficient.
So to say the guy's a blackbelt is kind of hilarious.
(23:51):
So the reason why I wanted totalk about this is you know,
people being corrupted andcompromised by money is
universal.
It doesn't matter.
You know all facets of life.
Our politicians sell us out,you great artists that you
discovered when they're a garageband.
They then get signed to getmillions and they start making
(24:12):
shit music.
Joe Rogan offered us a billiondollars to buy our podcast.
We knocked it back.
We said no, because I knowabout that.
Welley joey took the trt deal.
I said.
I said no, maric health, gofuck yourself.
I got too much testosterone.
But it is so challengingbecause initially there's trust,
because you think there's acertain value there, and then it
(24:35):
does change over time and yougo okay, well, this isn't what I
thought it was and that's okay,it doesn't change.
I think the value in jujitsu isthe hard work and earning it
and it's.
You know, nothing's going tochange.
You're going to keep going totraining, you're going to keep
working hard.
You're not.
You're not going to try andfake it, and anyone who's going
(24:56):
to fake it will eventually befound out.
But I I think that the sadthing is to see our, our heroes,
these high level folks, take adip for the cash.
You know that's, that's what itis, sure you.
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