In a dramatic shift from his previous public stance Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion Mikey Musumeci has walked back his earlier defense of Derek Moneyberg‘s controversial black belt promotion revealing new details about their training relationship that paint a starkly different picture.
Just months ago Musumeci passionately defended Moneyberg‘s rapid promotion to black belt in 3.5 years calling him a
“genius”
with
“super super intelligent”
capabilities. In a lengthy social media post Musumeci argued that Moneyberg‘s exceptional IQ and access to elite training partners including world champions like Gordon Ryan and Musumeci himself justified the accelerated timeline.
“Derek has everyday one of the best people in the world ALL WORLD CHAMPIONS including Gordon and myself traveling to him and teaching him everyday”
Musumeci wrote at the time suggesting that such high-level instruction could compress the typical learning curve dramatically.
However during a recent appearance on the Simple Man Podcast, Musumeci revealed a much more limited training relationship with Moneyberg that contradicts his earlier claims of intensive daily instruction.
“So I went there three times and the guy was always really nice to me”
Musumeci explained immediately scaling back from his previous suggestion of regular training sessions.
“He doesn’t train at all. Like he just like when I say train he doesn’t roll or anything.”
This admission directly undermines Musumeci‘s earlier assertion that Moneyberg was receiving daily instruction from world champions. Instead Musumeci described Moneyberg as someone who
“just learns from like random instructors every day like Gordon, Lyoto Machida, Glover Teixeira like random OG UFC people”
without actually rolling or applying techniques against resistance.
Musumeci acknowledged that Moneyberg possesses interesting technical knowledge particularly obscure details from legends like Royce Gracie and Frank Mir. When asked by Nicky Rodriguez if Moneyberg deserved a
“black belt in knowledge”
Musumeci conceded
“He knows things that I didn’t know in jiu-jitsu.”
However he drew a sharp distinction between theoretical knowledge and practical application:
“Now can he apply it and do it to someone in his division like Nick Rod? No f- way. But that doesn’t mean you could physically do it at all.”
Perhaps most tellingly Musumeci openly admitted to making a mistake in his earlier support.
“Would I give someone their black belt in three and a half years? I feel like a corrupt politician when I respond like this of course. But like I would never give anyone a black belt in that time. He doesn’t compete or train.”
Musumeci suggested that rapid promotion should only be considered for exceptional athletes like Nick Rodriguez elite wrestlers who can immediately compete with black belts due to their grappling background.
Reflecting on his earlier defense Musumeci was frank about his error:
“Honestly what happened was like sometimes you just you do something like you just f- up and you just like side with something and then you just like logically like I just f- up.”
