Nick Huntington Earned a BJJ Black Belt in Just 1.5 Years-Threw It Away & Became A White Belt Again

Описание: Everyman BJJ-- Nick Huntington episode April 25, 2021
You’ve probably never heard of Nick Huntington, but his jiu jitsu journey has been remarkably unusual. For the first time ever, the 35-year-old Las Vegan has decided to publicly share his unique story, which saw him get royally duped into believing martial arts “bullshido” and feeling deeply embarrassed by his past naivete. You see, Nick Huntington earned his BJJ black belt in 1.5 years, then realized there was a big problem when he went to a different jiu jitsu school to train and was getting utterly annihilated by blue belts.


“It was clearly predatory behavior,” Huntington says of his training in the mid-2000s at a Las Vegas-based school. “Sometimes you want something so badly that you ignore many of the red flags. I learned that lesson the hard way. I thought to myself, ‘I know I’m not a black belt after one and a half years. You have to recognize when you’re lying to yourself.”


On this episode of Everyman BJJ, Huntington sits down with longtime training partner Frank Forza and co-host Noah Green to discuss his decision to renounce his BJJ black belt many years ago and “start over” again as a white belt. He shares his cautionary tale and some warning signs that may indicate your martial arts is illegitimate (for instance, Huntington’s big-name professor didn’t like when his students or instructors rolled live during class! Students had to actually sneak in some live rolls on Sunday and their instruction, if he discovered they had been live rolling, would get angry and throw a fit about it!).


After nearly 14 years of training, last week Huntington earned his BJJ black belt--this time totally legit--from world-class black belt Rene Lopez and Matthew Villiatora. The question is posed to him, “After that whole ‘Fake Jiu Jitsu’ debacle, what made you keep going?” What is it about training jiu jitsu that is so effective for building personal and character development?


Forza, a black belt since 2010, offers his thoughts on “the meritocracy of the mats,” the sanctuary of the mats during the greatest adversities of our life, how a live human trying to choke you holds a remarkable ability to force us to be fully and completely 100 percent dialed in on the present moment.


Noah Green, a Renzo Gracie Academy blue belt, talks about a harrowing experience involving his wife and how a healthy amount of skepticism can be protective. Other key topics discussed: resilience, ego and overcoming injuries.


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About the Everyman BJJ team:


Frank Curreri Forza is a 3x IBJJF Masters World Champion, two-time TEDx speaker, award-winning journalist and philosopher-poet who has worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, The Salt Lake Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal and appeared in other prominent media outlets. He is a Baltimore native and University of Maryland graduate who has been living the Spartan-esque combat sports lifestyle for more than 33 years.


Noah Green is a bit of a renaissance man. A Texan by birth, US Marine for life, husband, father, avid fan of Joe Rogan, Malcolm Gladwell, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He’s been an NYC-based student of Renzo Gracie since 2009 (off and on due to injuries, work, life) and has been a blue belt since October 2015. He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a while and speaks Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. His passions are for the study and acquisition of expert performance (Anders Ericsson), Brazilian food and culture, and data science. His BJJ goal is to compete and medal at each belt along his journey. The day job is as a financial executive in NYC.