Oliver Taza has just become the latest athlete to earn his BJJ black belt under one of the most successful coaches of his generation, John Danaher. This news comes at the end of a string of recent promotions by Danaher, after he also promoted Nicky Ryan and Ethan Crelinsten to black belt last week. Taza is definitely deserving of new belt as he has been making a name for himself over the last few years as a brown belt, competing at the highest levels of the no gi circuit and doing well at it.
Taza won the IBJJF World Championship at brown belt all the way back in 2017 and has been developing even further ever since, especially his leglock expertise. He’s used those skills to put on a string of impressive performances at ADCC trials events and no doubt, he’ll be ready to get to work again soon when the buildup for the 2022 World Championships starts. Most recently, Taza was seen putting in a solid performance at Subversiv 4, where he was part of Team New York who eventually finished in fourth place. He managed to defeat both of his opponents on the way to the Semi-Finals before losing by decision to Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa, and his team lost 2-0 before he stepped on the mats for the third-place playoff, so his night ended there.
Oliver Taza announced his promotion to black belt on his official Instagram account and we’ll likely be seeing him soon when the Danaher Death Squad brings the team to an event to dominate again.
Fall seven times and stand up eight.