It Was Never About the Belts

Fact Check Me: It Was Never About the Belt — Or the Fight

To say a kid can’t earn a black belt

is to admit that you care more about belts than skill.

That’s the truth right there.

And I’m not calling you out.

You worked hard for that belt.

You want it to mean something — something earned, something shared with the people you came up with.

That’s human. That’s fair.

But the moment you start judging others for doing it differently,

you’re not protecting tradition —

you’re protecting your ego.

Get off your back and go do what they do.

Train like that kid trains.

Move like that kid moves.

Focus like that kid focuses.

Because that 12-year-old will out-kata you all day long.

So who looks like the black belt now?

And for those of you who still see this as a controversy —

who still think how you do it makes you better — forget it.

A lot of MMA fighters started in karate or taekwondo.

They didn’t reject those arts.

They fell in love with something — and it took them somewhere else.

But they still value the path that got them there.

Talk to Georges St-Pierre.

He loved karate so much it’s tattooed on his chest.

And what’s he doing now?

Promoting Karate Combat —

a full-contact karate league.

That matters.

But here’s the part people don’t like to hear:

Most martial artists today don’t want to fight.

They don’t need to test themselves that way.

And that’s fine.

Rank isn’t about leveling up for competition

or proving where you belong in a hierarchy of violence.

Rank is about training.

Endurance.

Sticking something through when it stops being exciting.

It’s about marking progress and growth.

Meeting expectations — technical and personal.

Showing up.

Improving.

Not quitting.

That’s what rank measures.

And if you’re still arguing about belts,

you were never talking about martial arts in the first place.