Mike White - BJJ Black Belt?

**Punisher** · Posted On: 9/30/2009 7:29pm

Originally Posted by EternalRage

NHB Gear Forum thread where a Mike White purple is feeling suspicious about his promotion:
http://www.nhbgear.com/forum/index.p...c,87055.0.html

NHB Gear Forum thread from 2008 about White:
http://www.nhbgear.com/forum/index.p...240.0/all.html

Supposedly this was Mike White calling out black belts in an NHB thread:
http://www.nhbgear.com/forum/index.p...c,79366.0.html

Google-fu also turned up evidence of his students competing, one of whom is the person who started the first thread I linked:
http://www.usgrappling.us/events/copa-nova-ii/

Your google-fu is weak.

The purple belt that you said was "suspicious" about his promotion is simply a guy saying that even though he was promoted to purple he still felt like a blue, despite a record showing he did well in competition. The guy never casts doubt on Mike White or the legitmacy, just the purple stating he didn't feel worthy of of his rank yet. Many other posters in the thread say they felt the same when they got there purple.

The NHB Gear forum thread is basically a copy of this one. A TS saying hey I think this guy is a fraud with nothing really to back it up. It even links to another bullshido there where someone asks "Who's a bigger fraud Mike White or (some other guy)".

The "call out" thread is poster called "MW" sound like he's trying to organize a tournament. This is his entire post:

Since we are blessed in Northern,Va to so many great Black belt instuctors, why not a "battle for the beltway"

Instuctors compete against one another. Superfigts!

Just a thought......

People seem interested but he never posts again, and it never goes anywhere.

Finally if his students are able to compete sucessfully against people from known legit schools such as Lloyd Irvin's it weighs in his favor.

The only thing I've seen that even remotely seems fishy is the purple belt student saying Mike is a BJJ BB under Royce. This leads me to believe he may have claimed that in the past, but he doesn't seem to be doing that now.

**potatowned** · Posted On: 9/30/2009 9:03pm

Originally Posted by David Koresh Jr.

I actually don't see anything technically wrong with his grappling. His blue belts could have had some better passing skills, but they looked kinda old and not in great shape so. Like Coffee said he's not saying it's BJJ it may be a McDojo with average grappling, but he's not a fraud BJJ blackbelt. Now do I think it's slightly dishonest to wear the BJJ gi and a blackbelt, yup sure do. He's being sleazy for sure.

is the bald guy mike white?

whether or not hes as BJJ black belt, his grappling looked pretty dubious to me. i mean, he may be sandbagging, but but i've never seen a BB sandbag to the point where his JJ doesnt look elite.

in that first video, he's rolling with a white belt and a few things stood out. one, he went for that sweep several times and didn't hit it. he let the white belt post his arm. he also went for a pretty sloppy armbar. i've rolled with maybe 5 or 6 BJJ bb's and none of them have ever shown sloppy technique. they would let me work a little, but whenever they executed a move, it was tight and it was concise.

he may be a bb in mke white JJ, but if we were talking about BJJ, he cant be any higher than a blue.

i also just realized that in the armbar video, he has his ankles crossed, which is a pretty big no-no when you're teaching that technique. it keeps you from keeping your knees pinched together and allows the other person room to slip out. i've seen people cross their ankles in certain situations, but it shouldnt be done when teaching the technique. (i cant hear the audio since im at work... maybe he explains this?)

**Punisher** · Posted On: 9/30/2009 9:42pm

Originally Posted by potatowned

is the bald guy mike white?

I think this still needs to be established. There is someone claiming it is Mike White, but the written description of the clips themselves don't reference Mike White or come from Mike White's website or another source that can be directly linked to him.

I can't hear the audio either so unless the guy in the video says "Hi, I'm BJJ black belt Mike White and this is me teaching an armbar" the clips shouldn't be treated as evidence of Mike White being a fraud.

**potatowned** · Posted On: 10/01/2009 12:35am

whoops apologies to mike white i wasnt paying attention to the video the first time around. (i was at work) he only crossed his ankles when doing the collar choke. when doing the armbar he had his knees pinched.

**CoffeeFan** · Posted On: 10/01/2009 11:30am

Another thing to keep in mind is that we don't know how hard he was really trying against the white belt or what the situation was. It's quite possible he was going very easy and being sloppy so the WB could figure out what to do. Hell, when I train with brand new students I let them do all sorts of things, take my back, so for subs, do crappy sweeps, just so they can get a feel for their base and how to disrupt a person's maneuvers.

Now I don't know if that is the case or if he really sucks, but I just feel that the little evidence presented isn't enough to claim the guy is a fraud.

**MaxThunderstone** · Posted On: 10/02/2009 12:51am

This is pretty shady though. If thats not Mike White, then who is it and why are they claiming to be him teaching BJJ?

**Kisujede** · Posted On: 10/02/2009 12:50pm

Well, if it isn't Mike White, it seems a little weird that the same time these videos started floating around different boards, he suddenly edited the word "Brazillian" out of his website.

Also, I've heard from other people that his bio used to have even more outlandish claims that he ended up editing out (supposedly mentioning Royce by name, etc).

**Punisher** · Posted On: 10/02/2009 6:38pm

Originally Posted by Kisujede

Well, if it isn't Mike White, it seems a little weird that the same time these videos started floating around different boards, he suddenly edited the word "Brazillian" out of his website.

Also, I've heard from other people that his bio used to have even more outlandish claims that he ended up editing out (supposedly mentioning Royce by name, etc).

I'm calling troll.

IMO, removing "Brazillian" was a good thing. You can't call him a fraud for NOT claiming to teach BJJ.

As far him saying "My first Jiu Jitsu instructor was Royce Gracie", I don't see that as being "outlandish" in any way, especially if it is true.

Since Royce has an official affiliate program, Royce might have a problem with Mike White's website saying "Royce Gracie". Like I said, I've former instructor ask for money simply because I had a similar factual statment on my website.

**EternalRage** · Posted On: 10/03/2009 4:07pm

Originally Posted by Punisher

The purple belt that you said was "suspicious" about his promotion is simply a guy saying that even though he was promoted to purple he still felt like a blue, despite a record showing he did well in competition. The guy never casts doubt on Mike White or the legitmacy, just the purple stating he didn't feel worthy of of his rank yet. Many other posters in the thread say they felt the same when they got there purple.

My bad, I mistyped, it was the guy who posted further down the page that who was suspicious about the purple, stating that the OP may have gone to purple with 1 yr of training. Even if it's true, without prior knowledge of the OP's grappling history, guess we can't really tell anything.

The "call out" thread is poster called "MW" sound like he's trying to organize a tournament. This is his entire post

Which is why I wrote "supposedly" - it was other members of that board in a different thread who took that as a call out, perhaps because of the tendency to jump on the fraud bandwagon.

Finally if his students are able to compete sucessfully against people from known legit schools such as Lloyd Irvin's it weighs in his favor.

Maybe. Though it doesn't necessarily take a black belt to pump out decent blue and white belts. Couldn't find anything on more advanced students - certainly if they do well in competition it would look more favorable for him.

You raise a good point though. There's no way to tell if those videos are of White and his students. If they could be confirmed (Kisujede, how do you know it's them?), might be something worth looking into. However, it wouldn't be that much different than Sub101 where Ari Bolden wasn't necessarily claiming a BJJ blackbelt, but was still donning BJJ garb and a black belt (for his JJJ rank).

**hl1978** · Posted On: 10/31/2009 8:38pm

http://www.bullshido.org/Royce_Gracie

Shows him listed as one of Royce's students. I don't think he has ever claimed that Royce gave him his black belt, but that he trained under him in the 90's.