Let's make this clear: no. Derek Moneyberg's BJJ black belt is absolutely not legit.

The only people defending Moneyberg's black belt are people he has paid. The rest of the Jiu Jitsu community unanimously agrees that this is a highly cringeworthy case of a bought and paid for belt.

Here's the backstory...

Self proclaimed business guru (more on this later) Derek Moneyberg recently posted about how he "earned" his Jiu Jitsu black belt in just 3.5 years. The announcement post came with a star studded picture of him receiving the belt next to BJJ and MMA legends Jake Shields, Frank Mir, Lyoto Machida, and Glover Teixeira.

Now 3.5 years to black belt normally would be an insanely impressive feat reserved for phenoms like BJ Penn - who proved his Jiu Jitsu worth by winning the world championships (and becoming the first non Brazilian to do so). We surveyed nearly 2,000 Jiu Jitsu practitioners and the results showed on average it takes 13.3 years to earn a black belt in Jiu Jitsu.

As expected, the Jiu Jitsu community went nuts over Derek Moneyberg's promotion to black belt. Basically all of the feedback was negative and implying he bought his belt. All of the feedback that is, aside from top athletes who were coaching Derek along the way (like Gordon Ryan and Mikey Musumeci).

Now the feedback from those coaches... was it legit? Or are they too financially tied to the situation to give an objective opinion on whether Derek Moneyberg truly deserves a BJJ black belt in just 3.5 years. Craig Jones posted some receipts showing that Moneyberg was paying solid money (by Jiu Jitsu standards) just to drop by for an interview:

Well, there is a saying in Jiu Jitsu that "the mat's don't lie." At the end of the day, this is a sport where you have to put your skills to the test for everyone to see.

Derek Moneyberg claims to have earned a black belt entirely through 1-on-1 private training with elite athletes. The whole appeal of Jiu Jitsu is that it is a practical martial art that you use against a resisting opponent. If you are training exclusively with people who are better than you, you never get the opportunity to see if any of your techniques actually work.

Jake Shields, who is a very legit and established MMA and Jiu Jitsu athlete, was the person who gave Moneyberg his black belt. On a recent podcast with Matt Serra, Shields said that Moneyberg kept asking him for belt promotions (a big no-no in the Jiu Jitsu community).

Shields then gave Moneyberg a list of things to do to get his black belt: learn specific techniques, tap certain people out etc. We'll just walk right past the absurdity of using tapping a certain person out in the training room (Moneyberg does not compete of course) as belt promotion criteria, especially when you're paying those training partners.

Well, I guess Moneyberg tapped out the right people and memorized the right moves... and voila now he's a black belt.

For someone like Derek Moneyberg who posts an insanely high volume of social media content, it is very curious that there is super hard to find any footage of him rolling. He claims to have been training over 2 hours a day, every single day, for the past 3.5 years.

We were able to find just two clips of Derek Moneyberg actually training Jiu Jitsu. This one on Instagram:

and this one on YouTube:

Does this look like a black belt rolling? Of course not, and even Mikey Musumeci agreed with that sentiment in his debate with Craig Jones on Demetrious Johnson's podcast:

"I've seen the videos... he definitely does not look like a black belt" - Mikey Musumeci at 28:35 in CRAIG JONES vs MIKEY MUSUMECI IN HEATED DEBATE on UFC BJJ & CJI!

Derek Moneyberg has been chiming in on the comments, and let's just say he's not happy with the Jiu Jitsu community's response to his promotion.

To understand more about what is going on here, you have to dive into the question: who is Derek Moneyberg? Let's start with his claim to be 255 pounds and 7% body fat, which is a good perspective to put everything else he's trying to sell you in:

Totally.

Derek Moneyberg is a financial guru who claims to crush the stock market and be a real estate mogul. But instead of launching the most successful hedge fund in the history of the universe, he's generously decided to take the business model of selling you $5,000 courses on these topics.

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, search "Moneyberg Scam" on YouTube and get your popcorn out. Highlights include:

• Accusations that he doesn't let people continue past the first few weeks of courses unless they provide a video testimonial
• Tax evasion (this came out when he sued a YouTuber for shedding light on his business practices, and inadvertently exposed that he was dodging Illinois residency to avoid paying income tax)
• Arrest records including domestic battery and drug related activity - is this really a guy you want to be teaching martial arts to?
• Fake Instagram followers that result in basically all of his posts having the same amount of likes and bot comments

His latest angle is to co-opt the reputation of MMA and Jiu Jitsu athletes, who he pays to appear on sales pitches to buy his courses. It's sad to see these athletes lend any credibility to a lowlife like Moneyberg.

Anyways, the answer is clear: Derek Moneyberg's black belt is fake as hell and is an embarrassment to the sport.