I click on a link on one of my favorite (or at least most frequently visited) jiu jitsu message board. The link promises footage of a match between Lloyd Irvin black belt J.T. Torres and UFC welterweight contender and fellow black belt, Dustin Hazelett.
The fight is ultimately underwhelming. JT submits Dustin fairly quickly with an armlock from the guard. Essentially, JT pulls guard early. Dustin goes to a conventional, Roger Gracie style collar and sleeve standing guard open and pass. JT manages to break Dustin's posture and get control of an arm. The posture break and arm seizing are not quick. Neither is the tap, which comes after a few moments.
So what do I read from one of the otherwise more popular (or at least most frequently commenting) commentator?
"Just goes to show that there are black belts and there are black belts."
I'll admit that I'm not having the greatest day, but this comment infuriated me. To anyone paying attention, Dustin looked incredibly tentative, like he hadn't been in a grappling match - to say nothing of a full-on, gi jiu jitsu match - in years. He let JT hang out after he stood up in guard, not once trying to force a leg down and put pressure on the closed guard. Then, after JT attacked with the armlock, Dustin's defense seemed non-existent. He didn't lower his body to smash and stack JT, at all. In fact, it wasn't until someone shouted from the sidelines to "raise the hips" that JT was able to apply the requisite pressure to get the tap.
In other words, there were plenty of intelligent things that could have been said about the performance. Taking nothing away from either competitor, Dustin did not have a single correct reaction in that match. Not one.
Instead, I recent a snide, Orwellian cliche about some black belts being more equal than others. From someone who should know better.
What I love is that this kind of thing comes from the same people who are swift to suggest that anyone with any renown whatsoever who earns his or her black belt was "overdue" in doing so, as if the instructor or professor who awarded the black belt had been bogarting the damn thing for years (as seemed to suggest in the recent case of new Felipe Costa black belt, Ryan Hall).
The only thing worse than arguing on message boards is arguing about them. So I'm through here. But it is little surprise to see so many of the folks who used to be message board regulars a year or two ago clearly deciding to reallocate their online time.
