BJJ Black Belt Claims It Is Fair Play To Promote Yourself To Black Belt Level

Roland Sarria is a name that has become synonymous with controversy in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA worlds, largely due to his unprecedented decision to self-promote to black belt.

For Sarria, the conventional process of getting promoted to black belt was far too slow and, in his view, overly political.Frustrated, he decided to promote himself to black belt, a decision that shocked the BJJ community.

Here is what he said:

Instructors got black belts inside the academy, but they never competed in their lives – those cowards.They want to make fun of me when I competed against the best of the best, and they did not.

After a match arranged by Rigan Machado against David Myers, Sarria felt validated in his abilities.A post-match questioning cemented his controversial decision:

Some Brazilian came up to me and said: “Hey, who promoted you?”I looked at the monkey and said: “You saw the match, right?”

He goes: “Yeah.”I said: “Do I look like a black belt?”

He didn’t say anything.I said: “I’ll tell you who promoted me – God did.”

Despite the criticism, Sarria remained unapologetic, framing his actions as a form of protest against what he saw as flaws in the promotion system:

I wasn’t born to be a sheep. I was born to be a lion.