Elite wrestler Jason Nolf has just received his blue belt in BJJ from Gordon Ryan after spending over a year developing himself and competing at the highest level. Obviously he was coming into it with a huge amount of transferable skills, as does any wrestler who makes the transition to Jiu-Jitsu. Nolf isn’t just any wrestler though, he’s one of the very best of his generation and has three NCAA Division I titles to his name to prove it. That has served him well in his BJJ career as well, as he has a significant standing grappling advantage against anyone he faces.
Nolf first started training in Jiu-Jitsu alongside fellow elite wrestler Bo Nickal back in 2020, but he continued focusing on wrestling exclusively in the years that followed. It wasn’t until his unsuccessful bid to make the US team for the Olympics in 2024 that he chose to pursue Jiu-Jitsu competitively. He spent just a few months focusing on BJJ before taking his first ever match, and he put on a dominant performance that ended with an arm-triangle choke. Although that was a match against a colored belt opponent on a lower-level promotion, Nolf immediately jumped to the highest level of competition in his very next appearance.
Nolf competed in the under 80kg division at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational and although he lost in the opening round, he gave a solid account of himself against one of the best BJJ competitors in the world. He later announced that he was retiring from wrestling to pursue Jiu-Jitsu and other interests full-time, and he’s continued to compete on the biggest stages of the sport since then. Nolf has had mixed results but he’s clearly working to improve his Jiu-Jitsu skills and he’s in very safe hands among some of the best competitors in the sport at Kingsway Jiu-Jitsu.
Jason Nolf announced the news that he had been promoted to BJJ blue belt by Gordon Ryan in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
