Alex Pereira beat Israel Adesanya for the middleweight UFC title via a standing TKO last weekend at UFC 281. The new UFC champion received his brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu from his professor Plinio Cruz much to the surprise of MMA and BJJ fans who were quick to make their feelings known.
There is a debate in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu whether people who are professional MMA fighters or black belts in other grappling arts should get through the belt system faster. That particular debate is far from being settled and when high-profile MMA fighters, like new middleweight UFC champion Alex Pereira get a belt they seemingly do not deserve it gets up like leftover dinner in a microwave.
The UFC champion deservedly won the title, knocking out Israel Adesanya for the third time ) the previous two times were in kickboxing). Pereira is a master striker, ut his grappling is far from being anywhere near the level of his stand-up.
A few days after Alex Pereira won the belt, he was awarded his brown belt by his professor Plinio Cruz, who praised Pereira for using his Jiu-Jitsu to survive in the match against Adesanya despite Israel being a purple belt, just like Pereira was at the time.
MMA reporter Ariel Helwani broke the news by posting a video of the promotion, saying:
“Last night, new UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira received a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from his trainer Plinio Cruz.”
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The promotion of the new UFC champion to brown belt drew instant reactions from fans worldwide, who feel the Brazilian was dominated easily by Israel in the grappling exchanges.
While promoting Alex Pereira, Plinio Cruz said:
“If you guys saw that fight Saturday … takedowns, sweeps, leg locks, almost like a real jiu-jitsu guy. But the main part of jiu-jitsu is not about submitting. It’s not about winning. It’s about surviving. And under the most hard circumstances, he used jiu-jitsu to survive.”
Alex Pereira has not submitted anyone in MMA up to date and has only one recorded loss – via submission.
Many fans and fighters reacted to the promotion, with Khamzat Chimaev re-posting Helwani’s original Instagram post accompanied by facepalm and laughing emojis.
Islam Makhachev recently raised the point that many modern-day BJJ black belts are actually nowhere near true black belt level and that they should have their belts “canceled“.
Whether new UFC champion Alex Pereira is actually a legitimate brown belt, or just got promoted because of his performances inside the octagon, remains to be seen.
