It's another random Friday here at the Best Damned Martial Arts Business Newsletter, and I'm sending out today's video to illustrate a point.

Namely, that you shouldn't believe everything you see or read on the internet. This hasn't been triggered by any particular event, but I saw this video and became intrigued by the story behind it...

So, I'm tooling around on YouTube trying my best to avoid getting work done, when up pops this video from 2015 titled, "BJJ White Belt defeats BJJ Black Belt." 

Okay, I'll bite.

Now, being the world's longest-running BJJ white belt (because three months here and six months there do not a blue belt make) I know that there ain't no way a legit white belt is going to tap a legit black belt. Not unless the black belt lets it happen.

So, I cue up the video, and this is what I see:

As anyone can see, that white belt doesn't move like a white belt. So I look into it a little further, and find out the white belt's name is Veselin Dukov, who is a very skilled no-gi grappler.

And he's a beast. Here, you can see him take out an opponent in under 30 seconds with a sick transition from standing, straight into a heel hook:

https://youtu.be/8VoMbyLUQ4g

As it turns out, Dukov wanted to test his skills with the gi, and they had to get permission to let him use a white belt for that match. So, whoever posted that video with that title really did a disservice to Dukov's opponent.

I know this is all old news to the BJJ guys out there. You're used to seeing this stuff pop up on the popular jiu-jitsu sites all the time. But I wanted to bring it to light today for the rest of my subscribers, to prove a point.

This is why you really have to be careful about the stuff you share online. Much of what I see martial artists sharing is nothing more than clickbait, content that is designed to create controversy to get clicks.

I'm as guilty as anyone of sharing martial arts fail clips (because seeing someone find out that their jedi mind control powers don't work is hella funny, if not a little sad).

But often there's an entire story behind a short 30-second clip of someone getting KTFO'd, or submitted in under 30 seconds, or by a white belt, or whatever, that we're not seeing. 

And while those clips are entertaining, we should be respectful of the people involved, and be careful to avoid promoting a false narrative about legitimate and skilled martial artists.

That's all I wanted to say today. 

Now, in the spirit of not being a complete freaking downer, here's a clip featuring some of the greatest martial arts and movie fight scenes of all time: