Top prospect Kaya Rudolph has just been promoted to black belt in BJJ by Absolute MMA head coach and Australian grappling legend Lachlan Giles. Rudolph is a New Zealander but he spends his time training under Giles in Australia along with visits to the B-Team Jiu-Jitsu headquarters in Austin, Texas. Rudolph is one of the most exciting and talented grapplers of his generation in the area and he’s been dedicated to the sport since he was just a child. After starting his Jiu-Jitsu journey at the age of 8, Rudolph is now 23 years old and has already spent years competing against some of the best grapplers in the world.
Rudolph first started to make an impact on the biggest stages of the sport back in 2022, when he won a bronze medal at the ADCC Asia and Oceania Trials. He has continued trying to break through to the most prestigious no gi grappling tournament in the world since then too, winning a second bronze medal at the ADCC Asia and Oceania Trials in 2023. Although he hasn’t made it to ADCC yet, he’s been right on the verge of doing so and receiving his black belt has come hot on the heels of another excellent Trials performance in a different promotion.
He competed in the six-man round-robin tournament at the Team Misfits Australasia Trials for CJI 2 and despite being the least-experienced competitor there, he only narrowly missed out on an invite by finishing third. Rudolph is also the reigning under 90kg champion at Battleground Grappling, one of the biggest promotions on the Australian circuit at the moment. He’s only a few months removed from his most recent title-defense too, as he defeated Anton Minenko at Battleground Grappling 7. Although Rudolph is not too well-known on the international stage, he’s one of the biggest names to watch over the next few years and is right on the verge of making his breakthrough.
Kaya Rudolph announced the news that Lachlan Giles had promoted him to BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
