What if ... Rigan Machado Camp!

"As far as I am concerned he is a blackbelt, he was awarded a second and third degree." The story of his 2nd and 3rd degree is more than shady, it's downright impossible. It's one of the most obvious signs he's a fraud. You get a degree for 3 years spent training and teaching, no shortcuts. And it took Robson something like several *months* between degrees.

Bjjprim, I do agree it seems like the simplest solution (calling to check out, that is). I don't know how doable it is though. Also, you could call Rigan to tell him about it as well, just as Duck could, right? But I do not expect you to - the point I'm making that bickering over who should do what leads absolutely nowhere. Also, Duck did call according to his story, and also, Louco describes some of the problems with just calling and having it done - I think it's not that simple as well.

Stipe, He said he could stop by Rigans camp, but won't because he's injured? What is his injury that he can't talk? I will be seeing Rigan soon enough and I will speak with him about it when I do. I know Marcos as well and will stop in and talk with him about it very soon.

The DOD is back! Great work!!!

Bjjprim, I don't know what his reasons for that are... but I also don't want to speculate about it.

BJJmadmonkey, I remember you stating that you have allegiance to Grace Barra, well Rigan is Gracie Barra and you seem to be okay with this guy throwing out accusations, but doing nothing to get to the bottom of things. I don't know how you define loyalty, but I don't define it as telling DOD he is doing good work. STIPE, Anyone who hides behind accusations, but won't confront the people he is accusing when given the chance ia a fraud.

I'm not blind to the politics enveloping our beloved BJJ. I'm totally down with Gracie Barra and will always be GB. Nevertheless, my disdain is for Robson and his unethical claims to fame. Additionally, if any other person(s) were involved in this seeming impropriety, even members of GB then they should be exposed for fraudulent behavior just the same as any other BJJ practicioner no matter their affiliation.

bjjmadmonkey, Being involved and being a victim are two different things. DOD has done nothing to get to the bottom of this but post on message boards. Rigan may be a victim in this. Rigan is a very laid back and trusting guy and it wouldn't surprise me if someone took advantage of him. I would bet Rigan would fall into the victim catagory before ever calling him a fraud. The problem here is DOD is doing nothing but throwing out accusations and bad mouthing Rigan and company. Instead of actually sitting down and presenting his evidence and speaking with Rigan he just runs a smear campaign on the internet. He stated he has the opportunity to take care of this at this camp, but decided against it because he is injured. I would like to know what kind of injury prevents him from sitting down and having a conversation and presenting his evenidence. There are ways to go about this without constant character assasination of Rigan on the internet, but that would bring an end to this one way or another. I'm going to bet DOD has a personal problem with Rigan and is trying to give him a bad name instead of clearing this up.

Don't know Rigan and I understand what you're saying respecting Rigan but this ROBSON is a turd!

^^^^ I don't know him, but he probably is and like a lot of brazilians may be very charismatic and a con artist/fraud. That is why I say Rigan may be in the dark here and DOD seems to have an agenda beyond Robson.

bjjprim8,

Here's a little background:  A little over a year ago, the following letter was posted as Robson's "credentials" on the Rat Pack Fighting Systems site:

_________________________________________________________________________________

January 30th 2006

To whom it may concern;

It has come to our attention that certain individuals are questioning the legitmacy of the black belt rank of one of the members of our association, Mr. Robson Pereira.

Please be advised that Mr. Pereira was awarded a black belt in brazilian jiu jitsu prior to moving to this country in 1995, from Mr. Maurice Sakata of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he trained and competed for 10 years and we give full recognition to his belt and rank.

He and the academy at which his is currently instructing, Rat Pack Fighting Systems of Palmerton, PA, are now members of the Marcos Santos/Rigan Machado association through which Mr. Pereira was recently awarded his second degree black belt.

Any further questions may be directed to The Blitz Center...

Very truly yours,

Rigan Machado                Marcos Santos

_________________________________________________________________________________

The scanned letter was printed on Blitz Center letterhead and bore the signatures of both Rigan and Marcos; the Blitz Center is where Marcos teaches.  As you can see, the letter clearly states, "Any further questions may be directed to The Blitz Center..."; the Blitz Center phone no. was on the letterhead.  Well, since no one had heard of Maurice Sakata, I decided to phone Marcos and ask about him.  Marcos was very evasive, kept asking what I wanted, and I had to keep telling him--as if explaining something to a dull-witted child--that since he and Rigan had signed a letter recognizing the rank conferred by Maurice Sakata, and that since the letter clearly stated to direct questions to The Blitz Center, that that was exactly what I was doing.  I explained that a lot of people had never heard of Sakata and doubted that he even existed, and that it would help clear things up if I could find out a little more about Sakata--get contact info on him, find out who gave him his black belt, etc.  Marcos got upset, blurted that he didn't know Sakata, but that Grandmaster Mansor did, said that if he and Rigan said that Robson was a black belt that that made him one, and told me to go fuck myself.

I later phoned Grandmaster Mansor and asked him if he knew Maurice Sakata, and he said that  he didn't.  I once again phoned Blitz Center, spoke to the lady who answers the phone, asked for Rigan's phone no., and was told that she couldn't divulge that information.

So, bjjprim8, the ball is in your court now.  Since you say you know Marcos and Rigan and will be talking with them soon, ask them about the letter they signed recognizing Robson's original black belt awarded by Maurice Sakata.  Ask them why there is nothing about Sakata on Robson's web site now.  Since the letter was taken off the Rat Pack site when Robson left the Rat Pack, ask Rigan and Marcos why they haven't composed and signed another letter recognizing Robson's original black belt granted by Sakata so that Robson can put that up on his site.  Ask them what year Robson was the Brazilian Nationals winner in Rio de Janeiro.  We eagerly await your reply...        

             

DOD, You proved nothing. I can say I spoke with president bush yesterday that doesn't make it true. I will speak with Marcos in the next 6 weeks about this and see what this is about. Either way shut the fuck up if you don't plan on going and speaking with these people yourself because you are a coward who has no intention of getting to the bottom of this instead you want me to do it for you because you are a coward.

I tape recorded my conversation with Mansor and sent a cassette of that conversation to Marcos.  Ask him to play it for you.

There's something else you should know, bjjprim8.  It's been mentioned on a couple of other threads, but you might have missed it.  A writer friend of mine who rolls a bit it is working on a draft of a murder mystery set in the BJJ community, and he bounces ideas off me a lot.  Martial arts fakery is a theme in the story, and since he wanted to make an allusion to a real-life BJJ scandal in passing, I obliged him by turning him on to the Robson Pereira business.  I just talked to him about your recent posts, and he says he'd like to give Rigan the benefit of the doubt.  Here's the deal.  If in the next six months Rigan strips Robson of his rank and kicks him out of his association, my friend will alter his draft to reflect Rigan's integrity for doing the right thing.  If this doens't happen, my friend will leave his draft as planned, portraying Rigan as a willing participant in the scandal.  There's no guarantee that my friend will get his book agented and published, but then again, one can never tell.  So when you meet with Rigan, let him know that the time frame in which he must act is with six months of the date of this post.           

DOD, So you managed a tape recording of the Mansur convo, but not the alleged Marcos one? That seems awfully convienent for you, now doesn't it? I was waiting for this to come out. You do have an agenda. Your friend a nome de plume for yourself is looking to write a book. You are going to use Rigans name in which to start and build up contraversy to help sell the book. I mean what better than to have one of the biggest and oldest names in the community to bash than a Gracie or Machado? Here is the problem with your ultimatum, what if Robson is legit? Have you rolled with Robson to know the extent of his skills? Who are you to state that he isn't a black belt if you have not trained with him? I once again will speak with Marcos when I have the time and see what this is about. It's obvious that you are not trying to get to the bottom of this because it doesn't work well for your book if you did. You would rather have this be presented as true, even if it isn't because it makes for better writing. I see a libel suit in your future if you aren't careful. I knew you had an alternate agenda which is why you are doing this. I see one other problem with your statement. Robson was promoted to third degree by Mansur according to you, correct? Well how can Rigan strip him of his rank if he didn't just promote Robson, Mansur did? You are a coward and a fraud and it makes me sick to even have to speak with you. You have zero integrity and will use character assasination to get what you want. The Karma merry go round is a bitch you coward and it will come back to get you one day.

"Robson was promoted to third degree by Mansur according to you, correct?"

Not according to me--according to the MMA in PA news link I posted.

"Well how can Rigan strip him of his rank if he didn't just promote Robson, Mansur did?"

Rigan can strip him of the second degree conferred by Rigan and Marcos on the grounds that there's no evidence that Robson got a black belt from "Maurice Sakata" to begin with.  If Rigan was duped by the Maurice Sakata business, he damned well ought to want to revoke rank predicated on the Maurice Sakata business--and kick Robson's ass for duping him.  Now if Robson is under Marcos and Rigan, why the hell is Mansor awarding him his third degree and not Marcos and Rigan?  Print the MMA in PA item, show it to Marcos and Rigan, and ask them what the hell is going on.

"Your friend a nome de plume for yourself..."

My friend thought this was very funny.

"The Karma merry go round is a bitch..."

It sure as hell is.

bjjprim8,

On the 4th of every month for the next six months, I'll bump this thread up for you.  Let's hope Rigan has the sense of a horse that knows enough to run out of a burning barn.

DOD, Why don't you got to mattbattle.com you'll find someone there to take care of your man crush.

"...Rigan honestly doesn't care."  

I believe you're right.  I believe he's so full of hubris that he thinks he can't be held accountable for anything. 

DOD=Trolling Attention Whore

Riganites in denial!

DOD, Why don't you go and speak with Rigan about this at his camp? This isn't a complicated question to answer. Rigan is very approachable and if you go to him with proof I'm sure he'll sit down and listen to what you have to say. I have seen a number of your threads now and you throw out a lot of character assasination, but you don't seem to be in any rush to get to the bottom of this. I know you supposedly spoke with Marcos and Mansur, but why not speak with Rigan? Rigan is a very reasonable and laid back person. If you are afraid that he may want to beat you up nothing could be further from the truth. Go to him with your proof and if you are being honest and have proof then I'm sure he will do something. The only problem I now see is two things 1)Robson just recently competed in a Judo tournament and did very well and his students have competed at Naga and did rather well and 2)You would actually have to finally try and find out what is going on instead of hiding on the internet using character assasinations to help promote a future book.

bjjprim8,

It sounds like you're getting cold feet here.  If Rigan is that approachable, surely he wouldn't mind if a student in his association or a friend clued him in on what is being discussed on the internet.  Since Rigan signed a letter recognizing the black belt supposedly conferred on Robson by Maurice Sakata, Rigan should be able to tell you something about Maurice Sakata.  If Robson is stating on his web site that he won the "Brazilian Nationals," Rigan ought to be able to tell you what year that was.

If Rigan and Marcos had been a little smarter about this scam, they could have simply stated that since there was a problem verifying Robson's credentials, they were going to roll with him and assess his abilities.  They could have then made him a black belt and after an appropriate time interval awarded the second degree.  But no, they "recognized" an unsubstantiated BB awarded by an unsubstantiated "Maurice Sakata," and on the basis of that gave the supposedly injured Robson a second degree, conferring upon him the ability to award rank at his own school.  And if Robson is a con artist who has the ability to award rank, he just might be the kind of person who would stoop to selling rank as well.

Robson Pereira is a metastasizing cancer that needs to be irradiated from BJJ.          

DOD, Cold feet? LMAO not even close. Why do you keep avoiding the question? I have asked you on a number of occassions why you won't ask Rigan yourself instead of stooping to character assasinations on the internet. It's a simple question and yet you seem to be afraid to answer it, why is that? I will ask you once again. Why don't you go to Rigans camp and sit down with the proof you have and find out what is going on? The difference here is when I approach Marcos or Rigan it's going to be with nothing more than me saying I read some guy on the internet saying this about you and some guy named Robson. They will ask me who is making these accusations and I will say Duck of Death? What kind of crap is that? Do Marcos, and Rigan not have the right to confront their accuser? They will ask me for proof that you are correct, but somehow I am supposed to convince them that you are being honest and someone they know isn't? I'd love to see you try and answer these questions, but I'm sure you won't. I will speak with Marcos in a couple of weeks and see what he says for all I know he may tell me it's none of my business, or not to worry about it. Either way it would be so much stronger of a case if you presented it to Marcos, and Rigan yourself, but you seem afraid to do it for some reason. I guess ducks have yellow streaks down their backs after all.