Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz recently sat down with Mike Davis on the MMA History Podcast and shared the story of how he first got introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, thanks to a random phone call, an unexpected challenge, and eventually, a six-dollar black belt.
The story began when a jiu-jitsu blue belt named Steve Bishop, a student of Pedro Sauer, called Schultz out of nowhere with a proposition.
“The best jiu-jitsu figh ter in the world is in town. Do you want to fig ht him?” Bishop asked.
Schultz immediately wanted clarification on what kind of match he was agreeing to. When he asked about the rules, Bishop replied, “There are no rules.”
That answer caught Schultz off guard.
“Really? No rules at all?” Schultz responded. “What are we going to commit a homicide? Bite his throat out, gouge his eyes out?”
Despite his concerns, he agreed to meet.
The match eventually took place in the BYU wrestling room against Rickson Gracie. Before they started, Rickson explained the usual nature of his matches.
“What I do is punch, kick, elbow, knee, headbutt,” Rickson told him, before adding, “but today we’re just going to do submission grappling until one of us taps out.”
Schultz admitted he was relieved by that clarification.
“Thank God there’s not going to be a homicide,” he joked.
During the match, Schultz managed to take Rickson down and controlled him in a cradle for nearly 20 minutes. Eventually, Rickson locked in a triangle choke. Schultz lifted him up and slammed him to escape, but Rickson reapplied the submission and forced the tap.
Even in defeat, the technique left a major impression on Schultz.
“I did like the triangle that Rickson put on me,” Schultz said. “I just thought that was the coolest move ever. I never saw that before.”
The two continued rolling afterward. Schultz said he allowed Rickson to reverse him, then instinctively went belly down like a freestyle wrestler. Rickson quickly took his back and submitted him again.
Afterward, Rickson gave Schultz a compliment that stuck with him.
“You know, Mark, you’re the toughest guy I’ve ever gone against,” Hixon said.
Schultz admitted that moment completely changed how he viewed him.
“And I just loved him for saying that,” Schultz recalled. “And I thought, man, I want to be just like this guy.”
Following that experience, Schultz trained under Pedro Sauer for the next three years. Despite his wrestling pedigree, he remained a blue belt the entire time.
Things changed once he began training with Walt Bayless.
“After working out with Walt for two weeks, he gave me a black belt after two weeks,” Schultz said. “We just went down to Fred Meyer and bought the black belt for six bucks. You know, that’s my black belt.”
Schultz later wore that belt while teaching at his club at the Midville Athletic Center. Whenever people questioned how he earned it, he repeated the explanation Walt gave him.
“If anybody can take it away from you, they can have it.”
The conversation eventually shifted to ADCC, where Davis brought up the theory that the Gracie family’s influence may have kept Schultz from competing in the tournament.
Schultz agreed with the idea.
“I can buy that,” he said. “I think that’s probably right. They kind of rigged it.”
Still, Schultz made it clear he did not want his criticism to come across as disrespect toward the Gracies.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to the Gracies because I have a Gracie black belt, but…” he added.
Schultz also criticized the traditional belt ranking system in jiu-jitsu, calling it a “genius marketing gimmick” and “an inaccurate description of somebody’s skill.”
He said Pedro Sauer once explained to him how promotions worked in Brazil.
“Belts are not given based on skill in Brazil,” Sauer told him. “They’re based on how much time and loyalty you’ve given to that professor.”
