No-Gi Is Real Jiu Jitsu: Richie Martinez Makes the Case

One of the oldest arguments in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is whether a black belt earned entirely without the gi is a "real" black belt. Richie "Boogeyman" Martinez — the 10th Planet standout known for his EBI runs and highlight-reel submissions — has heard that one his whole career, and he recently put it to rest with about as gracious an answer as the debate has ever gotten. His take is worth sharing, because it's less a rebuttal than an invitation: the art is bigger than the uniform, and there's room in it for everyone.

The old criticism, answered with class

Martinez has never trained in the gi, and for years that fact came with a familiar jab from parts of the traditional world — that a no-gi black belt is "just a grappler," not a true Jiu Jitsu black belt. Speaking on the Jits and Giggles Podcast, he met it head-on, but without bitterness. "If you want to call me a grappler and I'm tapping you out with submissions that are jiu-jitsu based, then that's on you," he said. You can watch the conversation on YouTube.

What stands out is how he diagnosed the resistance. He didn't call the traditionalists fools; he chalked it up to a natural discomfort with change. "People are not comfortable with change," he said. "They're like, we've been doing this all our lives, and now you're taking the essence of the art. And I'm like, dude, we're just building on that culture. We're creating more to that culture." That's a genuinely big-hearted way to frame a fight he's every right to be annoyed about — as addition, not subtraction.

The uniform is the clothing, not the art

Strip the debate down and Martinez is simply right about the fundamentals. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, at its core, is a system of control and submission — leverage, position, angles, the relentless hunt for the tap. None of that lives in the fabric of a gi. The grips change, the pace changes, and some techniques favour one style over the other, but the underlying art is the same conversation in two different languages. A rear naked choke doesn't care whether you're wearing a jacket.

That's why the "real black belt" argument tends to dissolve on contact with the mat. A no-gi black belt has still spent the same long years chasing the same repeatable truths, taken the same thousands of taps, and built the same deep understanding of how to control a resisting human being. The path looked a little different. The destination — genuine mastery of Jiu Jitsu — is the same one.

No-gi grew the whole house

Here's the part that should make even the most gi-devoted traditionalist pause. Martinez pointed out that much of Jiu Jitsu's explosion in popularity has ridden on no-gi's back. "You have the biggest jiu-jitsu events being no-gi," he noted — ADCC, EBI, the FloGrappling shows, the UFC's BJJ series. Those are the events pulling new eyeballs to grappling, filling arenas, and putting submissions in front of mainstream sports fans who'd never watch a gi tournament.

When the sport grows, everybody's gym benefits — including the gi academies. More people discovering Jiu Jitsu through a flashy no-gi event means more beginners walking through doors of every kind, more kids' programs, more careers for coaches, more of the whole culture that gi practitioners love. No-gi didn't take anything from traditional Jiu Jitsu. It threw the doors open wider for all of it.

Two expressions of one art

The most encouraging note in the whole conversation is that Martinez holds no grudge against the gi at all. "I don't have nothing against the gi. I just don't do the gi," he said. "I think as a sport it's awesome. There's so much art involved in gi jiu-jitsu." That's the spirit the community should take from this — not a turf war, but mutual respect between two branches of the same tree.

So whether you train with the jacket or without it, take Martinez's message to heart: you're doing real Jiu Jitsu. And if you've only ever known one, consider borrowing a few rounds from the other. Gi players often sharpen up their scrambles and submission speed in no-gi; no-gi players often discover a whole new world of control and patience in the gi. The art is broad enough to hold both, and you get better by respecting all of it.

Real Jiu Jitsu is real Jiu Jitsu, gi or no-gi. See you on the mats.

Original report via BJJEE.