Miami Martial Arts Instructor Ruben Alvarez Outed ‘Fake Black Belt’ — Berates Him To Wear White Belt If He Wants To Return

When it comes to the men and women of the U.S. Military, Americans generally honor and respect them for their service to their country. Because of this fact, some people take advantage of such a position by pretending to be U.S. military personnel. This is known as “stolen valor,” and it is a growing problem to the point true veterans like Lindsey Faith Lowery and Robert Ford are accused of such over petty details that lack evidence.

The martial arts world has a similar problem with “fake black belts,” people who parade around as earning a black belt in a martial art, though it is not true. Thankfully, there is a surefire way to test if a black belt holder is fake or not, and that’s by training. This is how a fake black belt holder was outed by martial arts instructor Ruben Alvarez.

Before the fake black belt man was berated, he showed up to Ruben Alvarez’s Black House claiming he was a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Macaco, as reported by Miami New Times. Alvarez welcomed him, eager to have a student of such a high caliber in his class. However, Alvarez started to doubt the man due to the fact he lacked knowledge in basics such as shuffles and rolls.

Eventually, Ruben Alvarez contacted other martial artists who knew Macaco, learning the the fake black belt and the Brazilian jiu jitsu master never met. Another student added to Alvarez’s suspicions when he recognized the fake black belt as the same man who claimed to be an experienced tattoo artist, yet botched $600 worth of ink. As a final show of mercy, Alvarez asked the fake black belt to do 20 arm-bar drills. When he didn’t know what an arm-bar drill was (which is a basic move), that was the last straw for Alvares as shown in the video uploaded on LiveLeak.

After the video went viral, Ruben Alvarez was upset over the fact he lost his cool, behavior often viewed as not associated with black belt holders. Alvarez is at least happy for the righteous exposure of fraud that was caught early on, way before the fake black belt was seriously hurt. And despite all that has happened, Ruben Alvarez would be happy to teach the man Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so that one day, he could be a legit black belt.

“If I taught him a lesson and he could come back and better himself through Jiu Jitsu, that’d be great. Maybe one day I’ll be able promoting him to black belt, and he’ll be a legit black belt.”

[Image via BJJ Eastern Europe]