Gene Simco Controversy - Why Do Gene Simco Fraud Rumors Exist?

Why is Gene Simco labeled as a Fraud by someThere are many people of questionable integrity who
members of the BJJ Community? Why does thewear their Karate or Judo Black Belts while holding a
controversy surrounding Gene Simco exist?lower rank in BJJ, creating the illusion that they are a
Gene Simco is a victim of "verbal cancer".BJJ Black Belt. Gene Simco is not one of these
Gene Simco began training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu aroundpeople and never has been. He has always been
the time of MMA's birth in the US. At this time, veryforthright with his students and is only being criticized
little instructional information existed on the art ofby his competitors who have failed in business where
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Simco, already a life-long martial artshe has succeeded.
enthusiast and teacher, began training diligently in BJJ.See
Because it was so new in America and schools wereQuick Facts about Gene Simco
few and far between, Simco would travel to seek- Gene has been training in the Martial Arts since he
top-notch instruction, and take notes of his trainingwas 9 years old.
sessions with some of the top instructors in the- Gene Simco was the first American to author BJJ
world. He would then bring the information back toBooks.
his students to make the martial arts program at his- Many of Gene's students have gone on to fight in
school better.High Level MMA competitions, such as the UFC and
As years passed, Simco began employing Brazilianhis current students are winning at the World and
Black Belts to teach at the school regularly, along thePan Am Championships of BJJ.
way, he would earn belts from them as he deserved- After ten years of training, Gene Simco received his
them. The act of having many different instructorsBlack Belt in BJJ on June 18, 2005 from Marcelo Nigue
was seen by Simco and his students as a way toSandes.
obtain the most information possible and create a- Gene Simco is highly respected by the Military and
diverse learning environment, but unfortunately, theLaw Enforcement communities. His products are used
sportive side of BJJ, which consisted of "teams" andby SWAT teams, Special Ops and the Department
aggressive competition didn't see it the same way.Of Defense.
Simco is a martial arts instructor and began trainingOutrageous Claims
long before sport jiu-jitsu existed on a large scale. HisYou may have read that Gene Simco claimed to fight
reasons for training were for self defense, interest1,000 people or that he climbed Mt. Everest, but like
and recreation. His only objective was to createmost of the rumors they are untrue and/or
better students and in order to do that, he wouldexaggerated to suit the smear campaign against him.
have to get all the information he could from asBy feeding a very hungry BJJ community, Simco
many places as possible.became very popular in a short period of time. The
This same philosophy then translated to his booksdemand for his products exceeded his ability to meet
and DVDs, where he would compile techniques andthem. Many years ago, Gene was forced to partner
information from several instructors and years ofwith companies who could finance and market his
experience training with them. Obviously, hisproducts. During that time, some biographies were
tremendous success in the martial arts industrywritten about him that were not completely untrue,
proves that people appreciate the amount ofbut hyped more than Gene would have liked. As
knowledge he has gathered and now offers in hissoon as Simco raised enough capital to purchase the
products and services. However, there is a part ofrights to some of his products and websites, any
the BJJ community that has twisted what most feelhyped marketing or biographies were corrected by
to be a good thing and tries to make it look as if hehim. This is something that he has always been
were "belt shopping" and spread rumors about hisforthright and honest about. Because of this, you will
relationships with certain instructors.not find any hyped claims made by Simco in current
The fact of the matter is that Gene Simco trainedpublishings or on the web. Although it is not possible
with many of the greatest instructors in the worldfor Gene Simco to control every person selling
for the purpose of learning and earned his belts alongproducts that he licenses the rights to, he sticks to
the way. The idea that he would seek speedythe facts in his own marketing, products and personal
promotion or buy a belt is proven untrue by twowebsite.
facts: Simco trained for ten years before earning his"He doesn't need it (marketing) to sell his books
black belt and when Gene Simco was promoted tobecause quite frankly his books speak for
Purple Belt in BJJ, he voluntarily removed his Blackthemselves, they are excellent.
Belt in traditional Jiu-jitsu and never wore it again.