- Richie Boogeyman Martinez retires from professional competition right after taking gold at IBJJF No-Gi Worlds 2025.
- He won the Master 3 super-heavyweight division by running through four matches in an 18-man bracket.
- Martinez finished every match the same way: rubber guard to the Carni, the omoplata variation that’s become a signature of his game.
- After the final, he left his black belt on the mat — a traditional gesture that signals retirement from competition.
- The move caps a career that helped define 10th Planet’s rise in elite No-Gi grappling.
A Storybook Ending in Las Vegas
Richie Boogeyman Martinez retires on the kind of ending most competitors only joke about: win No-Gi Worlds, leave the belt on the mat, and walk away.
At the 2025 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship, Martinez entered the Master 3 super-heavyweight division and battled through four matches to claim gold.
The bracket included 18 black belts in the same age range, and it demanded more than a single “good day” — it demanded a game that holds up under pressure.
Martinez delivered it with a familiar blueprint. In every match, he relied on 10th Planet’s trademark rubber guard and finished with the Carni, an omoplata variation from that position that has followed him for years.
When the final ended, he set his black belt down on the mat and let the gesture speak for itself.
“My Farewell tournament wasn’t about chasing anything new. It was about trusting the Jiu Jitsu I’ve trained and lived by for so many years.”
– Richie Martinez –
From Breakdancing to BJJ Black Belt
In grappling, retirements can be flexible. People step away, come back, and step away again. But when Richie Boogeyman Martinez retires in his 40s, with a full academy to run, it lands differently.
Martinez has competed less frequently in recent years, but his name still carries weight in the No-Gi world: he was part of the first wave of elite 10th Planet competitors who proved the system could work against the best in the sport.
As 10th Planet grew from “that weird rubber guard team” into a major force, Martinez was one of the faces people associated with that shift.
That’s also why the belt-on-the-mat moment matters. It wasn’t just a personal milestone — it was a visual marker that one of the affiliation’s most recognisable originals is turning the page.
Martinez is a black belt under Eddie Bravo and is widely known by the nickname “Boogeyman,” a name he originally used during his breakdancing career.
Alongside his younger brother Geo Martinez, he became well known in California’s B-boy scene before eventually moving into grappling. The brothers would later become known among fans as the “Freak Brothers,” a label that fits both their creativity and their willingness to do things differently.
That background helps explain why Martinez’s Jiu-Jitsu never looked like a standard “No-Gi fundamentals” template. From early on, his approach leaned into movement, misdirection, and chaining attacks from angles opponents weren’t comfortable defending.
Richie Boogeyman Martinez Retires: A Career Built on Being Hard to Copy
Plenty of athletes have a signature technique. Not many have a signature style — something that’s immediately identifiable even if you don’t know who you’re watching. Martinez is one of those rare cases.
His competitive résumé includes high-level results across multiple rulesets and eras.
He took silver at the 2016 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship at Master 1, finished runner-up at the first EBI Invitational in 2014, and also earned runner-up honours at the 2015 Onnit Invitational. Earlier, he collected wins at events like NAGA Phoenix and NAGA Las Vegas in 2014.
But the bigger story is what his success represented: a proof-of-concept that an unorthodox system — built around rubber guard control, attacks like the omoplata, and front-headlock threats like the Japanese necktie — could translate to elite competition.
Even as the wider No-Gi meta shifted toward wrestling-heavy scrambles and leg lock systems, Martinez stayed committed to his lane. And at No-Gi Worlds 2025, he didn’t just win — he won with the same ideas he’s been known for all along.
The Legacy: Competitor Turned Coach
Retirement doesn’t remove Martinez from the sport — it just changes where we’ll feel his presence most.
As a coach, he’s been credited with helping develop the next generation of 10th Planet talent, including standouts like Keith Krikorian and PJ Barch. If Richie Boogeyman Martinez retires from competition for good, it won’t feel like the end of his story.
It’ll feel like a changing of the guard: the athlete stepping back, the teacher stepping forward, and the same creative Jiu-Jitsu continuing through the students he’s shaped.
Reporting notes (not part of the article): Key event details (No-Gi Worlds 2025 win, 18-man bracket, four Carni finishes, belt left on the mat) were cross-checked against the provided write-ups.
