Rigan Machado knowingly promotes convicted rapist to BJJ black belt

[Raycetpfl]

Facial hair tho'?

LOL...

Indeed. That mustache is also proof, in my mind, of the validity of the victims accusations against him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I wonder if it is possible that one of Rigan's subordinate black belts,
who was perhaps a long time friend of Paul's,
promoted Paul to black belt without asking Rigan first,
thus leaving Rigan with a situation.
Especially if the black belt who promoted Paul may not really have had the correct black belt rank to promote Paul,
thus leaving Rigan as the head of the network with a double situation.
This I have seen happen before...
And perhaps, Rigan was not informed for a while, if at all,
because the two friends kept it their little secret when outside their own training rooms,
like two school yard girls keeping it their BFF secret,
Until it got back to Rigan and he had to decide whether to censure the other guy for it or not or just let it go as a matter of what is done is done, don't do it again.

[BackFistMonkey]

Not cutting ties when he claimed he would is not something I have an issue with.
It looks bad at the very least.

I have a serious issue with liars and having a sex offender teaching and I am surprised you don't have an issue with it.

[Mr.Miyagi]

I wonder if it is possible that one of Rigan's subordinate black belts,
who was perhaps a long time friend of Paul's,
promoted Paul to black belt without asking Rigan first,
thus leaving Rigan with a situation.
Especially if the black belt who promoted Paul may not really have had the correct black belt rank to promote Paul,
thus leaving Rigan as the head of the network with a double situation.
This I have seen happen before...
And perhaps, Rigan was not informed for a while, if at all,
because the two friends kept it their little secret when outside their own training rooms,
like two school yard girls keeping it their BFF secret,
Until it got back to Rigan and he had to decide whether to censure the other guy for it or not or just let it go as a matter of what is done is done, don't do it again.

I get where you're coming from, but now we need to stop trying to make explanations/excuses for Rigan, he's got to defend himself with answers to the photos of Saudico being there, that should be fairly easy to do even with Facebook live video or anything else if he has issues translating that to writing, yeah?

E.g. "Saudico should not have been at the Academy, I did not endorse his presence there at all, I have failed to protect the integrity of the facility and his presence at the Academy and presence in photos of the Academy are not done with my support and were done without my knowledge or approval."

Or

"I fucked up, I've failed the community, my academy, and myself and...<further comments to show remorse and pathways back to some form of credibility>"

[ChenPengFi]

I have a serious issue with liars and having a sex offender teaching and I am surprised you don't have an issue with it.

"That people have an issue with it" is not an issue with me, ie I agree.

I think Saucido should be barred from teaching in any capacity.

[Michael Tzadok]

I concur Rabbit.

What was the Open date of The Academy in 90210? Think you could hop around the interwebs and scare that up?

According to their Facebook, June 2012.

[Crafty Dog]

I am a long time friend of Rigan (a student since 1990) and at one point was a brown belt under him (due to injuries and age I no longer feel worthy). Could someone please summarize the situation here so I do not have to read 22 pages?

Thank you,
Marc Denny

[Pship Destroyer]

Facebook doesn't tell the whole story...remember how "fake news" came to be a thing?

You said very early on in the thread "Martin Wheeler teaches out of Rigan Machado's club, and while I do not have details on exactly how those finances work, what is clear is that Rigan Machado benefits financially from Martin Wheeler's presence and success. So when Rigan is promoting Martin Wheeler and making unverifiable claims about his ability to hang with MMA heavy weights in fights because of his superior Systema(I try not to laugh as I write that, but Rigan said it), people are going to call BS."

I don't think that is necessarily true, the part about "Wheeler teaches out of Rigan's club".

I think Wheeler may actually own the business/property, or at least co-own it. According to this he's suggesting he does, and that the Academy "houses" Machado as its in-house BJJ instructor.

http://wheelersystema.com/1882/the-a...-beverly-hills


This 2016 seminar flyer says he does: http://www.ncsystema.com/events/2016...port-to-street

Martin draws upon decades of experience in a wide range of sport and street arts - including judo, kenpo, jiu jitsu, and MMA. He currently owns and teaches at The Academy, Beverly Hills, along with BJJ legend Rigan Machado. In seminars, he teaches his highly effective combat solutions to civilians, SWAT and Special Operations Units around the globe.

Martin Wheeler's own bio says it's "his training facility": http://wheelersystema.com/martial-ar...ial-artist-bio

After over a decade of training in Systema Martin now teaches his highly effective combat solutions from his training facility at The Academy Beverly Hills.

There are quite a few more articles and forum posts out there suggesting Martin Wheeler has significant ownership of the Academy.

IF Martin Wheeler actually own/co-own the facility, if they are actually business partners, that makes all of this fit nicely together...Machado promotes the Systema because he has a vested financial interest in it. The "sparring free" celebrity BJJ as well as Systema is all designed as a money-making system intended to get the best of all worlds in the door:

1 - the legit BJJ crowd
2 - the non-sparring BJJ celebrities who will pay top dollar for "Flow-Jutsu"
3 - the Systema seekers who want teh deadly...
4 - in one of the richest zip codes in America....
...
.....
PROFIT!

[Pship Destroyer]

I am a long time friend of Rigan (a student since 1990) and at one point was a brown belt under him (due to injuries and age I no longer feel worthy). Could someone please summarize the situation here so I do not have to read 22 pages?

Thank you,
Marc Denny

The original question:
Black Belt Promotion Of Sex Offender Paul Saucido – Who Is Responsible?
http://www.bjjee.com/articles/black-...-sex-offender/

The response:
Machados Issue Statement regarding Rigan Machado, Rigan Denies Promotion Of Sex Offender Saucido
http://www.bjjee.com/articles/machad...ender-saucido/

The counter-response:
Photo Evidence Disproves Rigan Machado’s Statement, Saucido Taught For Him At Flagship Academy
http://www.bjjee.com/articles/photo-...gship-academy/

There are two competing theories:

- Rigan Machado is completely unaware that his ex-student brown belt Paul Saucido, a registered sex offender, is teaching as a Machado BJJ BB in Austin, TX. Rigan claims to have cut ties with Saucido in 2013, and claimed it again four days ago. So far, there's no direct evidence of Rigan awarding the black belt to Paul, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that he did. The trouble with this theory is Machado has not addressed the photographic or social media evidence that suggests he has kept in touch with Paul Saucido. Paul Saucido's social media presence specifically claims he was given the BB by Rigan.

OR...

- Rigan Machado may have promoted Paul Saucido to BJJ BB in November 2014, and Rigan appears to have been photographed with him and possibly invited him to train celebrities between 2014 and 2017 at The Academy in Beverly Hills, CA. There is significant evidence to support this: the most significant may be an anonymous senior Machado BB who has not yet been named, but was reported in MMAUnderground. Paul Saucido has also posted pictures of himself teaching classes for famous Hollywood personalities and stunt men at Rigan's school, possibly as recently as 2016, if the dates on the photos are actually correct.

This situation would easily resolve for Rigan if he tells the truth about all the photos BJJEE has collected, especially all the ones suggesting Paul Saucido has been active at The Academy.

Paul Saucido is a whole different enchilada. I really hope the Austin PD is aware he is coaching minors, given he's on a sex registry for rape until 2022. Did I say rape? I meant "INDECENT EXPOSURE x 2"
https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/Se...D_IDN=12321661

[Michael Tzadok]

Facebook doesn't tell the whole story...remember how "fake news" came to be a thing?

You said very early on in the thread "Martin Wheeler teaches out of Rigan Machado's club, and while I do not have details on exactly how those finances work, what is clear is that Rigan Machado benefits financially from Martin Wheeler's presence and success. So when Rigan is promoting Martin Wheeler and making unverifiable claims about his ability to hang with MMA heavy weights in fights because of his superior Systema(I try not to laugh as I write that, but Rigan said it), people are going to call BS."

I don't think that is necessarily true, the part about "Wheeler teaches out of Rigan's club".

I think Wheeler may actually own the business/property, or at least co-own it. According to this he's suggesting he does, and that the Academy "houses" Machado as its in-house BJJ instructor.

http://wheelersystema.com/1882/the-a...-beverly-hills


This 2016 seminar flyer says he does: http://www.ncsystema.com/events/2016...port-to-street


Martin Wheeler's own bio says it's "his training facility": http://wheelersystema.com/martial-ar...ial-artist-bio


There are quite a few more articles and forum posts out there suggesting Martin Wheeler has significant ownership of the Academy.

IF Martin Wheeler actually own/co-own the facility, if they are actually business partners, that makes all of this fit nicely together...Machado promotes the Systema because he has a vested financial interest in it. The "sparring free" celebrity BJJ as well as Systema is all designed as a money-making system intended to get the best of all worlds in the door:

1 - the legit BJJ crowd
2 - the non-sparring BJJ celebrities who will pay top dollar for "Flow-Jutsu"
3 - the Systema seekers who want teh deadly...
4 - in one of the richest zip codes in America....
...
.....
PROFIT!

Same claims are made about Rigan, from Wiki

Rigan Machado currently teaches at his school, "The Academy Beverly Hills", located in Beverly Hills, California.

So while ownership is unclear. Everything I can find shows that "The Academy" opened in 2012. If you can find something else please feel free.

[Pship Destroyer]

2012 is right (although that makes Paul Saucido's LinkedIn claim that he taught there as a brown belt from 2010-2012 dubious...).

Machado and Wheeler are definitely business partners of some sort:

http://www.jiujitsuforums.com/discus...ol-in-bev-hill
https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comment...ma_instructor/

I just found and then lost a thread on Sherdog that I could have sworn claimed Rigan was brought onboard as the BJJ instructor for the school by Wheeler, and not the other way around.

It'd be really interesting to find out which is the chicken and which is the egg.

[Crafty Dog]

Thanks for the effort Pship Destroyer.

It is all kind of hard to square with the Rigan I know.

[Michael Tzadok]

Thanks for the effort Pship Destroyer.

It is all kind of hard to square with the Rigan I know.

Honestly Crafty Dog, that is what has most of us scratching our heads and trying to figure this whole thing out.

Honestly though, with the amount of evidence against him now, it is going to take more than a signed statement saying he really did cut all contacts with Saucido. I get that he has dislexia and so writing is hard, but a face book live, a video, even if it's not his normal high quality type thing, he needs to get out in front of this and address the evidence.

Currently the evidence is seemingly telling one tale. It could be possible that it is being misinterpretted and that this Saucido guy is a con, that managed to sneak into the Academy while Rigan was out, and Wheeler and the other black belts didn't know any better. However, there is sufficient stuff that strongly suggests/seems to indicate an ongoing relationship that Rigan really needs to deal with it.

[Pship Destroyer]

Honestly Crafty Dog, that is what has most of us scratching our heads and trying to figure this whole thing out.

Honestly though, with the amount of evidence against him now, it is going to take more than a signed statement saying he really did cut all contacts with Saucido. I get that he has dislexia and so writing is hard, but a face book live, a video, even if it's not his normal high quality type thing, he needs to get out in front of this and address the evidence.

Currently the evidence is seemingly telling one tale. It could be possible that it is being misinterpretted and that this Saucido guy is a con, that managed to sneak into the Academy while Rigan was out, and Wheeler and the other black belts didn't know any better. However, there is sufficient stuff that strongly suggests/seems to indicate an ongoing relationship that Rigan really needs to deal with it.

One thing is becoming clear: Rigan Machado would have a hell of a lot to lose by being associated with his old student Paul Saucido down in Texas, so the public denials are practically a given. If there is any way he was still promoting/training/inviting Saucido, admitting to it publicly might change his fortunes overnight.

The best case is that he continues to engage the community and talk openly, and it answers the most disturbing questions, and he's vindicated.

The WORST thing he can do is try to hide behind a little signed piece of paper, whether it's true or not. At the very least he could admit that he did it all out of pity and was trying to help an old friend out, or investigate on his own and put some real dates on those pictures.

It's just hard to believe that if those actors were trained in 2016, Rigan didn't know Saucido was there doing it. It's also hard to believe Saucido would travel all the way from Austin TX to Beverly Hills CA just to try to ninja his way into the Academy for some training. That doesn't compute either...there's no way he would show up uninvited.

The only explanation otherwise would be the pictures are actually from 2013 and prior. Rigan Machado should be able to tell the whole world if they are, but for some, silentium est aurum.

[Michael Tzadok]

One thing is becoming clear: Rigan Machado would have a hell of a lot to lose by being associated with his old student Paul Saucido down in Texas, so the public denials are practically a given. If there is any way he was still promoting/training/inviting Saucido, admitting to it publicly might change his fortunes overnight.

The best case is that he continues to engage the community and talk openly, and it answers the most disturbing questions.

The WORST thing he can do is try to hide behind a little signed piece of paper, whether it's true or not.

Agree 100%

At the very least he could admit that he did it all out of pity and was trying to help an old friend out,

If he had said this from the beginning, yes I know there would be a lively YMAS debate about training with/asscociating with a sex offender, but I wouldn't have a problem with it. Sticking with your friends when they mess up and trying to help them is what being friends is all about. My problem is the denials while not addressing the photo evidence.

or investigate on his own and put some real dates on those pictures.

That would help. If it is a long con, Rigan needs to show that. He needs to explain how there are pics of Saucido at the Academy in a black belt, and what is going on with those other pics.

It's just hard to believe that if those actors were trained in 2016, Rigan didn't know Saucido was there doing it. The only explanation otherwise would be the pictures are actually from 2013 and prior.

That is a possiblity, a slim possibility but a possibility. I couldn't find info on when those various actors started training BJJ. Also why was Rigan and other black belts from his org teaching seminars at Saucido's school? Again if they can prove that those things were faked, then OK, but it is going to take some serious proof at this point.