Derek Moneyberg has now spoken out about the criticism he’s faced for his incredibly quick promotion to BJJ black belt, just three and a half years after he first started grappling. The popular business coach has been getting more involved with both Jiu-Jitsu and MMA during that time, and regularly brings in some of the best coaches and competitors in the world to train him. The promotion ceremony itself featured MMA veterans Frank Mir, Jake Shields, Glover Teixeira, and Lyoto Machida; but he’s been seen training under even more elite competitors than that. From the Jiu-Jitsu community specifically, both Gordon Ryan and Royce Gracie have spent time with him in the past.
Regardless of how much time Moneyberg has spent training under some of the best in the world, any black belt promotion that sits among some of the quickest in the history of the sport was always going to raise eyebrows. That was only amplified by the fact that most of the grapplers receiving their BJJ black belts in just a few years were also actively competing at the rank. BJ Penn and Caio Terra both won the IBJJF World Championship at black belt shortly after their promotions and although they took a different path, Mads Burnell and Geo Martinez beat elite grapplers in their chosen specialties of MMA and no gi respectively.
One of the main criticisms levied at Moneyberg is his lack of a competition record, but several competitors like Mikey Musumeci have come out in his defense. After the criticism started to build, Moneyberg decided to address it himself and he fired back at the BJJ community in general. He said that ‘the general public in this sport is extraordinarily low-functioning and it’s hopeless for them to comprehend what I actually did’ and also pledged to ‘stop funding any BJJ people after this’ too. It appears as though this may be his final words on the issue, or at least that’s the impression that his statement gives.
The full comment that Derek Moneyberg made to answer the criticism he faced after being promoted to BJJ black belt in just three and a half years can be seen in a screenshot from his official Instagram account:
