Just posted on another forum by Keith Owen about Ari
Keith Owen talks about Ari Bolden - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gear Forums
My name is Keith Owen and I'm a black belt under Professor Pedro Sauer.
Ari Bolden of Submissions 101 is one of my new BJJ Gi Affiliates! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to the Submissions 101 group and to clarify some discrepancies in a press release that I had made public earlier.
I have wrestled with Ari extensively and watched him roll in my class and I had originally told Ari that I would test and most likely promote Ari to a 4 stripe blue belt. Ari has been training for over 6 years in grappling and jiu-jitsu,I have seen numerous videos of his moves and I was comfortable in my assessment of him.
I have since reluctantly reconsidered my position on this matter and called him and told him that for now he needs to start out at a lower belt level. I haven't decided how many stripes that Ari will test for but as it stands it will not be four, even though he is a 10th Planet Purple shirt.
Ari was fine with this. He has never brought up the subject of rank or even given me his feelings on where he should be ranked. He has merely reported what I told him and then I went and changed my mind. It is by no means his fault, but mine and I apologize to Ari for the discrepancy.
The reason I changed my mind is because Ari is going to have to do things the way hard way even though his level is very high. Ari has received much unfair criticism from a few malcontents who will stop at nothing to lie and make things up about him and his background. It crosses the border on slander and libel!
An example of this is when they said that only white belts were allowed at Ari's seminar he had at my school a few months ago. In reality we had one brown belt from out of town, two purple belts, a whole group of blue belts, a couple MMA guys and just a few white belts. These keyboard warriors will stop at nothing to make up fabrications. One should put a question mark by everything they post. They kept saying they were going to show up to see for themselves. Nothing. Too busy typing I guess.
Ari and I have decided to take the teeth out of these liars by making his journey harder then the average students so there can be no debate!
Eddie Bravo and I have informed Ari that he will need to compete in tournaments and provide video on the internet. As a show of solidarity I have decided to return to competition as well so that no one can dispute the validity of Keith Owen and Pedro Sauer Jiu-Jitsu.
In the distant end Ari will be "legitimized" with a black belt from two legitimate bjj instructors and will have a successful website and these liars will have about 9000 posts on some bjj forum to their credit. They should be out training or with girlfriends but people do what they do.
Let me say that Ari Bolden is one of the most honest and decent people I have met. It is my proud honor (and really a no brainer) to take him as a student. I see a lot of physical potential in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for Ari and you will be seeing good things out of him in the future.
This will probably be my last letter on the subject of Ari. We are now going to get down to the business of getting he and his students tuned up! I will be in Victoria on August 21st for a seminar and testing. Its very exciting time!
Yours in Jiu-Jitsu,
Keith Owen
Pedro Sauer Black Belt
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Moves
Keith Owen talks about Ari Bolden - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gear Forums
My name is Keith Owen and I'm a black belt under Professor Pedro Sauer.
Ari Bolden of Submissions 101 is one of my new BJJ Gi Affiliates! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to the Submissions 101 group and to clarify some discrepancies in a press release that I had made public earlier.
I have wrestled with Ari extensively and watched him roll in my class and I had originally told Ari that I would test and most likely promote Ari to a 4 stripe blue belt. Ari has been training for over 6 years in grappling and jiu-jitsu,I have seen numerous videos of his moves and I was comfortable in my assessment of him.
I have since reluctantly reconsidered my position on this matter and called him and told him that for now he needs to start out at a lower belt level. I haven't decided how many stripes that Ari will test for but as it stands it will not be four, even though he is a 10th Planet Purple shirt.
Ari was fine with this. He has never brought up the subject of rank or even given me his feelings on where he should be ranked. He has merely reported what I told him and then I went and changed my mind. It is by no means his fault, but mine and I apologize to Ari for the discrepancy.
The reason I changed my mind is because Ari is going to have to do things the way hard way even though his level is very high. Ari has received much unfair criticism from a few malcontents who will stop at nothing to lie and make things up about him and his background. It crosses the border on slander and libel!
An example of this is when they said that only white belts were allowed at Ari's seminar he had at my school a few months ago. In reality we had one brown belt from out of town, two purple belts, a whole group of blue belts, a couple MMA guys and just a few white belts. These keyboard warriors will stop at nothing to make up fabrications. One should put a question mark by everything they post. They kept saying they were going to show up to see for themselves. Nothing. Too busy typing I guess.
Ari and I have decided to take the teeth out of these liars by making his journey harder then the average students so there can be no debate!
Eddie Bravo and I have informed Ari that he will need to compete in tournaments and provide video on the internet. As a show of solidarity I have decided to return to competition as well so that no one can dispute the validity of Keith Owen and Pedro Sauer Jiu-Jitsu.
In the distant end Ari will be "legitimized" with a black belt from two legitimate bjj instructors and will have a successful website and these liars will have about 9000 posts on some bjj forum to their credit. They should be out training or with girlfriends but people do what they do.
Let me say that Ari Bolden is one of the most honest and decent people I have met. It is my proud honor (and really a no brainer) to take him as a student. I see a lot of physical potential in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for Ari and you will be seeing good things out of him in the future.
This will probably be my last letter on the subject of Ari. We are now going to get down to the business of getting he and his students tuned up! I will be in Victoria on August 21st for a seminar and testing. Its very exciting time!
Yours in Jiu-Jitsu,
Keith Owen
Pedro Sauer Black Belt
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Moves