Hi everyone: after stirring up trouble for years on here, it's my first promotion announcement on the forum. Thanks for everyone on here for enabling me to have a fun place to "go" all these years, after training was done for the night. There have been some tough times the last few years, including a neck injury when I couldn't drive for months last summer, was in constant pain, and barely avoided a full disc replacement, so it's always been nice to have a place to "talk shop" even when I couldn't train. Thanks guys!
Awesome acchievement! Much respect! 
Awesome acchievement!
Did Relson combine the belt ceremony with a crazy streetfighting story?
That would've been even more awesome!
Nice job
That's fantastic man. Great accomplishment, congratulations.
congrats!
That's so great man, huge Congratulations!!!
congrats
congrats!
Congrats Steve! Posted on your FB thread.
Congratulations, that is a great achievement.
Man, long time coming. What is total training time? You've been brown a while.
thanks everyone!
To answer some of the questions above:
1. yes Relson always has crazy streetfighting stories lol.
2. as far as my total training time, I don't count the several years I started with videotapes (Rorion and Royces, Pedro Carvalho, Mario Sperry, etc.) before official instruction - I first joined an official school in 1998, so that makes about 14 years. I started training with Relson in 2001, so with Relson, a little over a decade.
congrats man! the most coveted black belt in MA's!
Congrats! And whatever happened to Pedro Carvalho ... I bought his tapes on ebay, they were awesome (from my white belt perspective at the time).
Congrats!
congrats... Id appreciate if Relson would go ahead and promote Leandro from fightertech to bb.. Im not looking forward to facing him in any more open weight brackets for a while...
Relson guys are BEASTS!!!!!!!
awesome congrats man!
Relson is the man. attended a seminar from him couple weeks ago and his stories were amazing.
at the end he taught a heel strike to the chest from guard and said "put john jones in my guard and i kill him" everyone giggled so he said it again with a straight face and no more giggles.
10 years with this man i envy.
^ lol, yep, that's Relson. He has a brutal efficiency from every position, which makes for a very interesting fighting system. It's rare to have someone who's very analytical and technical but gears all that focus towards brutalizing a bigger, stronger opponent, and who has the practical experience to back up his system of fighting. I've been fortunate to have been able to spend a good part of the last decade dissecting and organizing his system.
Congrats!