gracie barra members : fraud checking
3 week(s) ago • 674 views • 23 replies
"this guy (nicolas vinet) pretend to be a 5th degree black belt NOBODY in belgium ever saw him train" I am not finding evidence to support his claim of his degree. No IBJJF information that I can find either. I also found that there were fraud issues in boxing, and he was or is banned from coaching or promoting by the Belgian boxing federation. I also see random instagram photos of him in the same year, wearing a zero degree BB, 2nd Degree BB and then 5th degree. Also he is in the GB GI in most of his photos, then on some searches he is the "head" of a Amaury Bitetti location. The spider web is growing, where is Johan when we need him! |
"I am not finding evidence to support his claim of his degree. No IBJJF information that I can find either. I also found that there were fraud issues in boxing, and he was or is banned from coaching or promoting by the Belgian boxing federation. I also see random instagram photos of him in the same year, wearing a zero degree BB, 2nd Degree BB and then 5th degree. Also he is in the GB GI in most of his photos, then on some searches he is the "head" of a Amaury Bitetti location. The spider web is growing, where is Johan when we need him!" Gracie Barra unfortunately is a black box when it comes to lineages. It is as if they themselves are working towards erasing lineages through individuals and replacing them with a general "Lineage: Gracie Barra". Very non-transparent, even between GB academies. I have a former GB academy (not GB academy any more) and I'm sure there are hundreds of former BG academies world wide. Leaving varying and limited amounts of traces after them and some 5-10 years after closing, it might not even be possible for an outsider to track down information who were the promoting instructors of that academy, if they were legit to promote also BB:s and who in turn were their promoting instructor for their BB. There are also those who claim a new lineage after getting time served degrees on BB from someone new. Which, as we've seen on Beltchecker, can be time served from a BB which was never legit and the legit promoting instructor might not have done much due diligence him/herself but just trusted the claimed BB degree date. So we'll end up with e.g. a "laundered fifth degree BB of GB lineage" but with non-disclosed promoting instructor for the original BB and not even disclosed which individual or even exact academy (which might or might not still exist, under the GB umbrella or otherwise). Don't know if that has happened her, but we really can't know. And that's the whole thing with BB claims - anyone can make one and it doesn't really take that much insight into the BB community to come up with something that can't effectively be falsified unless you yourself choose to disclose more details than an unspecific "GB lineage". And Gracie Barra (and other teams and academies trying to make lineage about teams and academies and not individual BB:s) really facilitates that and that's really not something I'm a fan of. Which my votes reflect, when someone claims to be a BB under a lineage which can't effectively be checked and with claimed promotions which can't really be checked if they occurred. |
Yes it does appear that he is affiliated with Amaury Bitetti somehow as well as with Marcelo, but not thru any belt or degrees that I can find. Just because one has a photo with a specific belt on does not mean that belt is valid. The questionable information that I have found on fraud and no other information makes this hard to verify. Amaury Bitetti promoted one of my professors to his 5th degree and there is photo and video and certificates to prove it. Maybe Olivier has other facts that can help. |
Non don't. The fraud in boxing is also in mma. We suspect that pics with bitteti are AI, as we found photo of the seminar where it appears to have been taken and this guy is not there. We are absolutely sure he is a fraud and never even trained as a white belt. I hoped that GB members /gym owners here will do something with the informations |
"Took a deep dive into this, there are no pictures of him in a Gí before 2025. No images of him in an other belt color before 2025. I put the image of him with Amaury through some edit software and it says it was altered. This kinda reminds me of that guy in Arizona." To be fair, his 2:nd degree BJJ BB tattoo is seen in this post from Feb 2 of 2022: https://www.instagram.com[...]eWghUImB5/ Not very forward looking to tattoo your current number of stripes, as you will hopefully survive and gain more stripes. But if we take it at face value, counting back from 2026, that tattoo should had been outdated with a third stripe already in 2016 at latest. With 2:nd degree at latest 2012 (or perhaps a month or two into 2013). So original black belt around 2006. Just two years short of joining the European "dirty dozen" (first 12 BB:s in Europe). Skipping stripes (e.g. jumping directly from 3 to 5 on the belt), I don't really see a problem with as long as the total time since the original BB checks out. That's more humble than self striping, if you don't have an instructor to stripe you continuously. But I see no BJJ BB tattoo in Jan 14 of 2022: https://www.instagram.com[...]tGBs7o3sC/ (or earlier) So the tattoo seems to have been made in the second half of January 2022. He could have claimed a fourth degree BB through Beltchecker by then, but still tattooed a second degree BB. Quite odd and not very anticipating, but isn't real evidence in any direction other than that BJJ at least was on his radar in 2022. Would be even more odd to get a BJJ BB tattooed all around your right forearm but not leaving a single trace online of your previous 16 years as a BJJ BB. Also, if your vain enough to get that enormous tattoo of your BJJ belt on your forearm, would you not had been the slightest interested to document your previous 20+ years in BJJ with at least a photo or two together with a promoting instructor? Still not evidence in any direction, but there are red flags here, to say the least. |
"Non don't. The fraud in boxing is also in mma. We suspect that pics with bitteti are AI, as we found photo of the seminar where it appears to have been taken and this guy is not there. We are absolutely sure he is a fraud and never even trained as a white belt. I hoped that GB members /gym owners here will do something with the informations" He even posted a picture with Renzo Gracie, which really looks like done with „AI“…. The belt of „Renzo“ looks tied weird, the letters on the Gi Collars are kind of weird, especially on the Gi of that dude. I mean, I suppose the Belgian BJJ community would easily know if there would be a fifth degree black belt around and there would be some proof to find online about lineage, competition record and a 5th degree black belt should have produced some black belts within 25-35 years studying the art…. I don’t have social media and can’t read what that guy posts on instagram or facebook…. it appears kind of fishy though https://www.instagram.com[...]f3jPTDe4N/ |
Who's this guy with the coral belt? Only one on a pic where Nicolas has no stripes on BB? (some AI indications on that pic too) Don't know anything about these organizations, but found Nicolas listed on https://www.lutalivresubm[...]p?fx=preta and https://cbjjd.com.br/faix[...]dos-cbjjd/ Also noticed BJJ mentioned (not ever on the curriculum though?) as a specialty of his already in 2015 on http://web.archive.org/we[...]nghien.be/ . Zumba is also mentioned, without a black belt being implied.  |
"Who's this guy with the coral belt? Only one on a pic where Nicolas has no stripes on BB? (some AI indications on that pic too) Don't know anything about these organizations, but found Nicolas listed on https://www.lutalivresubm[...]p?fx=preta and https://cbjjd.com.br/faix[...]dos-cbjjd/ Also noticed BJJ mentioned (not ever on the curriculum though?) as a specialty of his already in 2015 on http://web.archive.org/we[...]nghien.be/ . Zumba is also mentioned, without a black belt being implied." |
"Maybe its this guy: https://www.instagram.com[...]celonigue/" Doesn't look at all like him and he's not 8:th degree coral belt (red and white). Gi seems to say Azira or Azera. Is that or something similar a gi brand or a 8:th degree coral belt? Nicolas gi text is unreadable, weird shape on chest clothing underneath the gi and very black inside the sleeve, to the extent that I start to suspect AI (also look at e.g. his belt knot and the black mark under the belt, as well as how tight the other guys sleeve is). |
"Here are the inconsistencies the software pointed our. Background appears to be removed. Grain seems to be added. Backgeound Coloring between people inconsistent in Background." Marcelo Nigue has commented on the post. Middle guy is Amaury Bitetti (who was tagged by Marcelo Nigue and is talking about Nicolas in Belgium here https://www.instagram.com[...]I3eBiCBZ1/). So likely a real picture. https://www.instagram.com[...]q5SlBiPnb/ (I found some info that Marcelo Nigue promoted Gene Simco to a controversial BB a lot of years ago, if someone wants to dig or remembers) |
"Marcelo Nigue has commented on the post. Middle guy is Amaury Bitetti (who was tagged by Marcelo Nigue and is talking about Nicolas in Belgium here https://www.instagram.com[...]I3eBiCBZ1/). So likely a real picture. https://www.instagram.com[...]q5SlBiPnb/ (I found some info that Marcelo Nigue promoted Gene Simco to a controversial BB a lot of years ago, if someone wants to dig or remembers)" Bittety is tagged in many of his posts https://www.instagram.com[...]ti/tagged/ |
"Bittety is tagged in many of his posts https://www.instagram.com[...]ti/tagged/" Perhaps Renzo knows him, any one have contact?  |
Link to the post just fyi, but yes thats clearly AI. https://www.instagram.com[...]nzjDaiAI4/ |
"this guy (nicolas vinet) pretend to be a 5th degree black belt NOBODY in belgium ever saw him train" It looks like everyone is minding their own business in the Belgian BJJ community and not very interested in if that guy is legit or not and who promoted him to black and up to 5th degree…. 5 th degree BJJ black belts are a very rare breed in Europe and most of them are well known in the BJJ community and are transparent about lineage. Did no one of the Belgian scene ever made the effort to ask him personally or send him a message? These AI generated pics he posted on social media create the impression of him not being legit…. Why would you rather upload AI pictures instead of real pictures…. Very suspicious |
"It looks like everyone is minding their own business in the Belgian BJJ community and not very interested in if that guy is legit or not and who promoted him to black and up to 5th degree…. 5 th degree BJJ black belts are a very rare breed in Europe and most of them are well known in the BJJ community and are transparent about lineage. Did no one of the Belgian scene ever made the effort to ask him personally or send him a message? These AI generated pics he posted on social media create the impression of him not being legit…. Why would you rather upload AI pictures instead of real pictures…. Very suspicious" I have now contacted GB Europe asking for info, using this email.  |
