According to BJJ Heros, he got his Blue Belt within a month of training with Leo Dalla after training with some dudes who had no official instructors. Then it said shortly after he got his blue belt, Leo Dalla moved back to Brazil, and Lloyd opened up his own school and was only training with himself and his students. Within three years, he goes to Brazil to visit Dalla who awards him a black belt.
So his path was white to blue in two months. Who gave him his purple and brown? Then he was given the black 3 years after he started. Did he compete regularly and win? Timeline shows he should have been in the adult class back then at around 29 years of age.
I would love to hear Dallas perspective on this, and even Yamasaki's since they were partners back then. Would this scam have been perpetrated at this level had had to wait 10 years for his black belt?
http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/lloyd-irvin
Step 1. Get Blue belt from Dalla
Step 2. Open gym and start teaching when Dalla goes back to Brazil.
Step 3. ?????
Step 4. PROFIT!!!
pretty sure anyone who's ever trained/rolled with lloyd will tell you how good of a grappler he is
That history has always been odd to me as well. However he did well at competitions
bmorela3 - pretty sure anyone who's ever trained/rolled with lloyd will tell you how good of a grappler he is
That's besides the point. I have a white belt that is really good, should I give him a brown belt?
bmorela3 - pretty sure anyone who's ever trained/rolled with lloyd will tell you how good of a grappler he is
I'm not questioning his ability, I'm questioning his path. I think most serious practitioners would agree that to get the BB in BJJ, you do it the right way. Call them standards if you will. I think his path is related to the recent events, in that he wanted the BB FAST so he could make money off of it. Terrible motivation for getting a BB. Would anyone have signed up for his grappling blue print if he were a purple belt? Etc.
Corrected:
Step 1. Get Blue belt from Dalla
Step 2. Open gym and start teaching when Dalla goes back to Brazil.
Step 3. Rape!
Step 4. PROFIT!!!
Lloyd trained with Dalla when Dalla used to run a gym with Mario Yamasaki. He got his blue belt at that time. When Dalla left DC to go back to Brazil, Lloyd split and opened up his own gym, taking some of Yamasaki's students with him. This is what caused the rift/rivalry/feud/whatever you want to call it between Yamasaki and TLI that exists to this day.
At that point, apparently Lloyd still "trained" under Dalla, despite the fact that they were 5K miles apart. I think trips were made back and forth between DC and Brazil and that's how and when Lloyd was belted. That's at least the story I've always heard. Lloyd Irvin and shady business practices are not something new.
RGoodfellow - Corrected:
Step 1. Get Blue belt from Dalla
Step 2. Open gym and start teaching when Dalla goes back to Brazil.
Step 3. Rape!
Step 4. PROFIT!!!
Gah, every time, I always forget to include the rape, coersion, adultery, manipulation, and greed! Thank you sir.
djsolar36 - Lloyd trained with Dalla when Dalla used to run a gym with Mario Yamasaki. He got his blue belt at that time. When Dalla left DC to go back to Brazil, Lloyd split and opened up his own gym, taking some of Yamasaki's students with him. This is what caused the rift/rivalry/feud/whatever you want to call it between Yamasaki and TLI that exists to this day.
At that point, apparently Lloyd still "trained" under Dalla, despite the fact that they were 5K miles apart. I think trips were made back and forth between DC and Brazil and that's how and when Lloyd was belted. That's at least the story I've always heard. Lloyd Irvin and shady business practices are not something new.
Ah, ok. The BJJ Heroes site made it seem like he flew there once to train with Dalla and got the promotion. Still extremely fast though, do you know if he ever won the Worlds or any other big tourny at the time at brown or black ala BJ Penn?
I posted on another thread that I am curious as to how Leo Dalla will react to all of this. Carlson Gracie "expelled" several of his students for much less serious behaviors.
TristanESP -djsolar36 - Lloyd trained with Dalla when Dalla used to run a gym with Mario Yamasaki. He got his blue belt at that time. When Dalla left DC to go back to Brazil, Lloyd split and opened up his own gym, taking some of Yamasaki's students with him. This is what caused the rift/rivalry/feud/whatever you want to call it between Yamasaki and TLI that exists to this day.
At that point, apparently Lloyd still "trained" under Dalla, despite the fact that they were 5K miles apart. I think trips were made back and forth between DC and Brazil and that's how and when Lloyd was belted. That's at least the story I've always heard. Lloyd Irvin and shady business practices are not something new.
Ah, ok. The BJJ Heroes site made it seem like he flew there once to train with Dalla and got the promotion. Still extremely fast though, do you know if he ever won the Worlds or any other big tourny at the time at brown or black ala BJ Penn?
I've seen Lloyd in an old series of Ralph Gracie DVD's. I've heard rumors that he trained at Ralph's academy back in the day
mmanthebay -TristanESP -djsolar36 - Lloyd trained with Dalla when Dalla used to run a gym with Mario Yamasaki. He got his blue belt at that time. When Dalla left DC to go back to Brazil, Lloyd split and opened up his own gym, taking some of Yamasaki's students with him. This is what caused the rift/rivalry/feud/whatever you want to call it between Yamasaki and TLI that exists to this day.
At that point, apparently Lloyd still "trained" under Dalla, despite the fact that they were 5K miles apart. I think trips were made back and forth between DC and Brazil and that's how and when Lloyd was belted. That's at least the story I've always heard. Lloyd Irvin and shady business practices are not something new.
Ah, ok. The BJJ Heroes site made it seem like he flew there once to train with Dalla and got the promotion. Still extremely fast though, do you know if he ever won the Worlds or any other big tourny at the time at brown or black ala BJ Penn?I've seen Lloyd in an old series of Ralph Gracie DVD's. I've heard rumors that he trained at Ralph's academy back in the day
Makes sense. BJJ Heros says he moved out to Cali because of the availability of BJJ, but found it too expensive so he moved back East. I guess he wasn't making Baller money yet :)
Sub
This will be interesting if either his true path to black belt is revealed OR if Leo Dalla comes out with some response to TLI's basically total shitbaggyness.
I trained at Lloyds around 2000-2001 time frame when he went from brown to black. I don't know many details but he was competing in tournaments in brazil occasionally. I recall there being a tatame article on the wall about him as an up and coming brown belt with pictures of him in tournament in brazil, probably because it was a big deal to see an american competing and likely even more so an african-american.
Edit: and just to be clear I always felt Lloyds skills were legit. There were purple belts there, brown belts from brazil and Rhadi and nothing seemed out of the ordinary skill wise back then. Lloyd rolled with everyone and put himself in bad position to get more practice against lower skilled guys. I was and still am a white belt so what do I know :-)
They used to call him "Zapateiro" in brazil, because of his footlocks.
Definitely legit.
Not a good person, perhaps, but very skilled.
Lloyd's belt progression is legit. He was a blue belt on Ralph Gracie's tapes. Then from what I recall he would train with Big Brothers Team in Brazil with Dalla and Tata. He would go to the mundials every year and from there would do relatively well since he was into foot locks. Back in the late 90's, BJJ and foot locks were virtually non existent and looked upon as cheap so he would win a lot of matches since Lloyd was into sambo. hat's when he got the nickname "Sapatiero". Then he got his black belt from Dalla 1 year before the tournament and Dalla gave a speach about him. There were even pictures from when he got his belt. If I'm not mistaken, that's when Lloyd would still post here. This is way back in the day.
mmanthebay -TristanESP -djsolar36 - Lloyd trained with Dalla when Dalla used to run a gym with Mario Yamasaki. He got his blue belt at that time. When Dalla left DC to go back to Brazil, Lloyd split and opened up his own gym, taking some of Yamasaki's students with him. This is what caused the rift/rivalry/feud/whatever you want to call it between Yamasaki and TLI that exists to this day.
At that point, apparently Lloyd still "trained" under Dalla, despite the fact that they were 5K miles apart. I think trips were made back and forth between DC and Brazil and that's how and when Lloyd was belted. That's at least the story I've always heard. Lloyd Irvin and shady business practices are not something new.
Ah, ok. The BJJ Heroes site made it seem like he flew there once to train with Dalla and got the promotion. Still extremely fast though, do you know if he ever won the Worlds or any other big tourny at the time at brown or black ala BJ Penn?I've seen Lloyd in an old series of Ralph Gracie DVD's. I've heard rumors that he trained at Ralph's academy back in the day
Training with Cameron Earle?..
Pantarei -mmanthebay -TristanESP -djsolar36 - Lloyd trained with Dalla when Dalla used to run a gym with Mario Yamasaki. He got his blue belt at that time. When Dalla left DC to go back to Brazil, Lloyd split and opened up his own gym, taking some of Yamasaki's students with him. This is what caused the rift/rivalry/feud/whatever you want to call it between Yamasaki and TLI that exists to this day.
At that point, apparently Lloyd still "trained" under Dalla, despite the fact that they were 5K miles apart. I think trips were made back and forth between DC and Brazil and that's how and when Lloyd was belted. That's at least the story I've always heard. Lloyd Irvin and shady business practices are not something new.
Ah, ok. The BJJ Heroes site made it seem like he flew there once to train with Dalla and got the promotion. Still extremely fast though, do you know if he ever won the Worlds or any other big tourny at the time at brown or black ala BJ Penn?I've seen Lloyd in an old series of Ralph Gracie DVD's. I've heard rumors that he trained at Ralph's academy back in the day
Training with Cameron Earle?..
i see what u did there