The so-called 'Dirty Dozen' were the first 12 non brazilian black belts, not sure who all of them are, any BJJ historians out there who can give me a hand?
Definitely in the dirty dozen:
Craig Kukuk (Renzo) - 1996
Bob Bass (Rigan Machado) - 1996
rick Williams (Rigan Machado) - 1996
Chris Haueter (Rigan Machado) - 1996
David Meyer (Rigan Machado) - 1997
John Will (1st Australian BB from Rigan and JJ Machado) - 1998
But what about these guys (not sure if some of them are brazilian)?
Marc "Doc" Baquerizo ( Joe Moreira) 1997
Roy Harris 1998?
Sean Alvarez from Renzo in 1999
Alan Mohler from Rigan Machado in 1999
Chris Poznik from Rigan Machado in 1999
Matt Serra from Renzo in 1999
Nick Serra from Renzo in 1999
John Lewis from Andre Pederneiras (must have been in the 90's)
John De La O?
Peter De Been (From Carlinhos)?
David Adiv (From Royler) ?
Nelson Solari (Uruguayan - from Carlson Sr) ?
Yuki Nakai - (1st Japanese Black belt? from Carlinhos) - 1999
Alan Mohler got his BB from Jacare in Atlanta.
Craig Kukuk got his BB from Royler not Renzo.
off topic, but how do you pronounce Kukuk?
John Donehue, from Rigan, in the late 1990s
I can tell you Bob Bass was and is the shit at BJJ!! LEGEND!!
I would put Dave Ruiz (who teaches in Denver) and Lowell Anderson on that list. Dave took longer to get to BB than many others because he was living in Denver and commuting to LA to train. Even so I believe he was one of the originals at the Torrance academy and was hand picked by Rorion to learn the secret vale tudo techniques from Helio.
I always though Kukuk was pronounced Q-kuk.
dafelst, you know "BB" could stand for "[blue/brown/black] belt" !
but you're right. i think JBW was 12.
"Craig Kukuk got his BB from Royler not Renzo"
Didn't Kukuk get his bb from Rorian originally, then Rorian registered "Gracie" as a trademark or something, then said Kukuk wasn't certified in the Gracie method of teaching. I have an article saying somthing like that in an old ma mag. I think.
I think he was originally under Rorian, but Royler physically promoted him .
Ok so it looks like we have our 12, does any one disagree with any of these entries? John Lewis was mid 90's wasn't he?
Craig Kukuk (Renzo) - 1992 First American Black Belt
Ken Gabrielson (Reylson) - 1992
Rick Lucero (Rickson Gracie) - ?
David Kama (Rickson Gracie) - 1995
Chris Saunders (Rickson Gracie) - 1995
Bob Bass (Rigan Machado) - 1996
Rick Williams (Rigan Machado) - 1996
Chris Haueter (Rigan Machado) - 1996
David Meyer (Rigan Machado) - 1997
Rick Minter (Rigan Machado) - 1997
John Will (Rigan and JJ Machado) - 1998 First Australian Black Belt
Roy Harris (Joe Moreira?) - 1998
any ovf these guys have a claim to be in the 12?
Marc "Doc" Baquerizo ( Joe Moreira) 1997
Sean Alvarez from Nelson Monteiro in 1999
Alan Mohler from Rigan Machado in 1999
Chris Poznik from Rigan Machado in 1999
Matt Serra from Renzo in 1999 First Italian-American Blackbelt?
Nick Serra from Renzo in 1999
John Lewis from Andre Pederneiras (must have been in the 90's)
John De La O?
Peter De Been (From Carlinhos)?
Nelson Solari (Carlson Sr) ? First Uruguayan Black Belt?
Yuki Nakai - (Carlinhos) - 1999 First Japanese Black Belt?
By "Non-Brazilian" are you meaning guys who aren't Brazilian, or people who got their black belts outside of Brazil?
"By "Non-Brazilian" are you meaning guys who aren't Brazilian, or people who got their black belts outside of Brazil? "
People who arent brazilian - i don't think any of the guys on that list are Brazilian are they?
Key ones i'm interested in are Joe Lewis and Baquerizo - is Baquerizo brazilian? when did joe lewis get his black belt?
Roy Harris mentioned over the weekend that when he got his black belt, there were "7 or 8 of us [American BB's]", so he's definitely in there.
randy bloom was pretty early on -
who is jbw? (john will?)
there were a number of guys by the late 90's
mid 90's were the early one
Ridgeback,
I trained under Dave Ruiz.
He trained under Rorion and Royce at the Gracie Academy in Torrance starting from 1994. He told me he still has the record for the most private lessons or most lessons at the academy.
He was also in the Gracie academie's instructor program. So he learned how to teach and how to critique other teachers teaching style. He was actually one of the first people in Rorion's instructors program.
He told me he took several private lesson from Helio himself. I asked him how did he and Helio communicate since Dave doesn't know Portugese and Helio doesn't know english. He told me Royce or Rorion would sometimes be there to translate. He also said Mauricio Zingano (who post on this forum under the name Hostile) was sometimes there to translate as well.
Dave was at the Gracie Academy for 4 years. He left and hooked up with Rigan who eventually promoted him to black belt in 2003 (I think it was 2003).
Anyway Dave knows all thos old school guys like Lowell Anderson and Marc Laimon
m.g - Ridgeback,I trained under Dave Ruiz.
He trained under Rorion and Royce at the Gracie Academy in Torrance starting from 1994. He told me he still has the record for the most private lessons or most lessons at the academy.
He was also in the Gracie academie's instructor program. So he learned how to teach and how to critique other teachers teaching style. He was actually one of the first people in Rorion's instructors program.
He told me he took several private lesson from Helio himself. I asked him how did he and Helio communicate since Dave doesn't know Portugese and Helio doesn't know english. He told me Royce or Rorion would sometimes be there to translate. He also said Mauricio Zingano (who post on this forum under the name Hostile) was sometimes there to translate as well.
Dave was at the Gracie Academy for 4 years. He left and hooked up with Rigan who eventually promoted him to black belt in 2003 (I think it was 2003).
Anyway Dave knows all thos old school guys like Lowell Anderson and Marc Laimon
ed oneil holds the record for most private lessons ,and i dont think anyone could come close jordan for most classes
What about Danaher?
danaher got his in 2002 with shawn, so not close to the list