Elite young competitor Dorian Olivarez has just been promoted to black belt in BJJ by John Danaher. It’s a huge achievement for someone so young, as Olivarez has reached the rank at just 19 years old. It’s not as if he isn’t used to achieving things that would be beyond most teenagers’ reach though, as he’s been competing and winning at the highest level of multiple sports for quite some time. Olivarez is not only an elite no gi grappling competitor that has trained under his father Mike since childhood, but he’s also one of the top wrestlers in his weight class and has one eye on a future MMA career.
He’s been drawing attention for his incredible grappling skills and well-rounded style for quite a while now, but it was the Combat Jiu-Jitsu Bantamweight World Championship 2023 that saw him really break through to the highest level. He became the youngest world champion in CJJ history as a 17 year-old blue belt and he did it in impressive fashion, submitting all four of his opponents and only seeing EBI overtime once. His form comtinued throughout that year, as he beat several more elite black belts along the way to winning the under 66kg dividion at the ADCC North American East Coast Trials 2023.
That earned him a coveted invite and although he went out in the opening round of ADCC 2024, for someone that young to make it that far was a huge feat. Although Olivarez has an incredibly high level of wrestling for Jiu-Jitsu, he’s also shown relentless passing and slick back-takes throughout his career so far. Most recently, he competed as a brown belt at the IBJJF No Gi World Championship 2024 and he submitted every single one of his opponents on the way to winning gold. That flawless performance seems to have prompted his promotion to black belt, and now he’ll be able to face the highest level of competitiom even more regularly than before.
John Danaher announced the news that he had promoted Dorian Olivarez to black belt in BJJ in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
