Andrew Wiltse has just quietly returned to the BJJ world with a brand new YouTube channel called WiltseBJJ. He was at one point one of the most popular grapplers in the world with both a successful YouTube channel and plenty of great instructionals for sale on BJJ Fanatics. This was made by possible thanks to his results as a competitor, as he took the world by storm when he was still a colored belt. Wiltse won the IBJJF No Gi World Championship at every belt level during his journey through the ranks to black belt and was one of the leading figures in the rise of the Pedigo Submission Fighting team.
Wiltse was promoted to black belt at the end of 2019 and there was a ton of attention on him as one of the top rookies in the sports. He won the IBJJF No Gi Pan Championship on his first attempt the following year and the future looked very bright indeed for Wiltse. He competed in several superfights and racked up wins against some seriously impressive opponents like PJ Barch and Gabriel Almeida in 2021 before disappearing from the mats entirely. Fans were left wondering where Wiltse had gone and whether or not he would be making a return to competition at any point soon.
That’s when news surfaced that Wiltse was battling through some mental health struggles and needed to take time away from the sport to deal with that. Things appeared to be looking good by the time that 2023 came around, as Wiltse revealed that he was ‘starting to come back’ and would be looking at taking matches soon. Sadly that didn’t come to fruition and not only was Wiltse unable to return to competition but his mental health issues resurfaced, eventually leading to his arrest in 2024. Now Wiltse has started putting out new content related to BJJ again, although it’s unclear if he will ever compete again.
Andrew Wiltse released the first few BJJ videos to his official YouTube channel, starting with one detailing how to optimize your Jiu-Jitsu:
