In a testament to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s effectiveness, even UFC referee Mike Beltran‘s imposing 230-pound frame proved no match for a 12-year-old practitioner during his first encounter with the martial art. The now-accomplished referee and recent BJJ black belt recipient initially approached the sport with skepticism, but a humbling experience would forever change his perspective on grappling.
Back in 2002, when Beltran was working as a deputy at Men’s Central Jail, his friend Joe Camacho persistently invited him to try what he described as “magic” – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Beltran, then focused solely on boxing, dismissed the invitation with the confidence of a striker: “Dude I don’t want to do that…it’s not for me. If I can knock you out…”
That confidence was quickly shattered during his first training session at New Breed gym. Camacho demonstrated the effectiveness of BJJ by systematically submitting the much larger Beltran through a variety of techniques – triangles, armbars, and rear-naked chokes. But the real eye-opener came when Beltran found himself rolling with Noah Tillis, a 12-year-old seventh grader.
“I couldn’t get him off of me,” Beltran recalls of his encounter with the young Tillis, who now runs Tillis BJJ in Whittier. The experience of being controlled by someone less than half his age and size proved to be a transformative moment for Beltran, fundamentally changing his understanding of martial arts.
“I was 230 pounds, 240 pounds, working at Men’s Central Jail as a big kid. I thought I could take him down and just, you know, beat his a*s. “I don’t want to hurt you, bro,” and blah, blah, blah. Well, he took me down, choked me out. I didn’t know what he did to me. Obviously, he triangled me, armbarred me, you know, Omoplata-ed me, rear-naked choked me. He did every god-awful thing you could possibly do to somebody. ”
“He humiliated me. I went from him to a 12-year-old kid, Noah Tillis, a 7th grader. He’s got his gym in Whittier. Tellus Jiu-Jitsu. He’s a good, solid kid. He’s a man now, a grown-a*s man, but back then, he was 12 years old, and I rolled with him. I couldn’t get him off of me. ”
This early lesson in humility has shaped Beltran‘s approach to both officiating and law enforcement. Now a vocal advocate for comprehensive martial arts training among officials and law enforcement officers, Beltran recently achieved his BJJ black belt under Professor Johnny Ramirez at New Breed Academy – the very gym where his journey began with that humbling first class.
“If you don’t train in the sport that you officiate, you got no business being there,” Beltran now famously stated on Ref Popeye Ray podcast, his journey from skeptic to black belt embodying the transformative power of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
