Former UFC champion and BJJ black belt Jose Aldo is firmly against BJJ instructors promoting MMA fighters without prior experience in Jiu-Jitsu and without having trained in the Gi, straight to black belt.

Aldo trained BJJ and earned his belts the old fashioned way. Jose Aldo trained under the legendary coach André Pederneiras from Nova Uniao (home of Vitor “Shaolin”, Robson Moura, Ramon Lemos, Gustavo Dantas). Jose Aldo’s career in Jiu Jitsu was great and he won the Copa do Mundo at brown belt.

MMA fighters getting honorary BJJ black belts is getting more and more common with examples of Rashad Evans, Wanderlei Silva, Stanislav Nedkov, Daniel Cormier (straight to brown belt) and many more. Aldo says that he sees no problem in giving the belt to famous MMA fighters. However, he stressed that training with the Gi is paramount to achieve the maximum degree of the sport. He also talked how he is against earning belts online (Gracie academy).

In a interview with tatame, Aldo criticized MMA fighters who receive a black belt without in depth knowledge and experience in Jiu-Jitsu and training with the Gi: