It has been a long time since I started my Brazilian Jiujitsu training in 1996 when Crolin Gracie lived for 6 months in south Florida.

15 years later I got promoted by my BJJ Instructor, Marcos Santos, to my Brown Belt. Marcos is a direct BJJ Black Belt under legendary Brazilian Jiujitsu Master Rigan Machado. The promotion took place at Sam De Jesus’s school in Rockaway NJ this Friday. After an intense training session that included a 45 minutes round of rolling non-stop, yes None Stop 45 minutes , against Marcos himself…at the end of the round my Purple Belt was no longer around my waist and Marcos said : Mike Lee , put your belt on! So I turned around to reach for my Purple Belt but I didn’t realized Marcos threw a Brown Belt on the mat ! I was so exhausted I wasn’t even sure what I was looking at !

I must thank a few people for getting here: first and foremost Crolin Gracie, my first BJJ Instructor who pointed me to the Machado brothers after completing my six months of training with him as a BJJ white belt. Second, Rigan Machado, who pointed me to Marcos Santos for being my direct BJJ Instructor. Third Johnny Guerrero , who spent time on the mat with me helping me. Fourth , Stan Beck, from Renzo Gracie Weston in Florida, for letting me be a student in his mat for an entire year so I could train and roll….and last, Jean Jacque Machado , for being my inspiration in BJJ!

It’s been a long road to get to my Brown Belt ;-) special shout out to Sam for letting Marcos and I use his school to train and roll, I hold this session close to my heart since I ended up being promoted to my Brown Belt during that session…