Those who have trained at the Nick Diaz Academy in Stockton, California, know that the gym is notorious for how tough it is to earn BJJ belts. And it goes deeper than that, new students coming into the gym have been demoted from blue belt to white belt when they haven’t met Nick and Nate Diaz’s high standards.
It’s safe to say, it isn’t easy to impress the Diaz brothers.
Nate Diaz Demotes Blue Belts
Speaking to ESPN, Mikey Singh Hothi, one of the Diaz’s students, shared a humorous story about his sensei demoting blue belts from another gym, who had come to train under his guardianship.
“Our Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym at Nick Diaz Academy is notorious for belts and how challenging it is to get one,” Hothi said. “A lot of people from other gyms were transferring over to ours because obviously they wanted to train with Nate and Nick. So we’d have a bunch of these blue belts from lesser gyms coming through, and [our gym was] kind of notorious for demoting them.
“There were three of us white belts on the mat, and there were three blue belts from different gyms that were there. He had a white belt roll with each of the blue belts from the other gyms. And every single blue belt got tapped out by a white belt. Afterwards, he had everybody line up and he said, ‘OK, everybody take off your belts.’ We all put our belts on the ground. I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is the moment I’m going to get my blue belt.’ I was really excited.”
“[Nate] came over and picked up the three white belts that were on the ground and he gave them to the blue belts, like, ‘OK, you guys have gotta wear these now. And he picked up the three blue belts on the ground, looked at us and was like, ‘You guys have to buy some new [white] belts’ and just walked off the mat.”
Diaz, who last competed against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244 in 2019, returns to the Octagon against Leon Edwards this weekend at UFC 263.
Do you think Nate Diaz beats Leon Edwards at UFC 263?
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