Alright, let’s talk about something that crossed my mind the other day. I was watching some fight clips, you know, just killing time, and Sean Strickland popped up. Love him or hate him, the guy’s always interesting. And I started thinking about his ground game. For a guy known mostly for his stand-up and that weird, pressuring style, he handles himself pretty well if things hit the mat, right?
So, naturally, the thought popped into my head: What belt is this guy? Must be a black belt, I figured. Competing at that level in the UFC, especially holding the middleweight title for a bit, you kinda assume these guys have serious credentials in all areas, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Digging into it
I got curious. It wasn’t like a major research project, more like me fiddling on my phone while the TV was on. I started searching around. You type in “Sean Strickland BJJ belt” and see what comes up. Lots of opinions, lots of forum posts, the usual internet chatter.
Took me a little while, wading through fight results and interviews about his latest crazy statement. But then I started seeing it mentioned more consistently. Coach Eric Nicksick at Xtreme Couture, who’s a legit BJJ black belt himself and Strickland’s coach, has talked about it. Other fighters chimed in here and there.
And the answer I kept finding? Nope. Sean Strickland isn’t actually a BJJ black belt. Seems he’s maybe a brown belt, or some sources even said purple belt, but definitely not a black belt in the formal sense.
My Takeaway
Honestly, finding that out was kind of interesting. It made me stop and think. Here we have a top-tier fighter, a former world champion, who is effective enough on the ground to survive and even compete with high-level grapplers, but doesn’t hold that coveted black belt rank.
What did that tell me? Well, a few things:
- Practical skill matters most: Clearly, Strickland has put in the hours on the mat. He might not have gone through all the formal grading steps, or maybe it just wasn’t his focus, but he developed functional grappling skills for MMA. What he can do is more important than the color of the belt he wears (or doesn’t wear).
- MMA grappling is different: BJJ for sport and BJJ for MMA aren’t exactly the same. Strickland’s grappling is tailored for fighting – think cage awareness, ground and pound defense, getting back to his feet. Maybe that’s where his focus lies, rather than pure BJJ submissions and positions geared towards tournaments.
- Belts aren’t the whole story: It’s a good reminder that belts are a measure of progress and knowledge within a specific system, but they don’t always perfectly reflect fighting ability, especially in the chaos of an MMA fight.
So yeah, that was my little journey finding out about Strickland’s belt situation. It just reinforces the idea that time spent actually practicing and applying skills, especially in a specific context like MMA, often outweighs formal titles. Pretty straightforward when you think about it that way.
