Gordon Ryan, Keenan Cornelius and Jeff Glover. Not only are these legends of North American grappling – they’re also great entertainers on the mat. However, before them was a different name, Cameron Earle. Earle was a black belt under Ralph Gracie during the early 2000s and trained alongside Kurt Osiander. This was a different era compared to the BJJ of today.
There was no real social media, matches weren’t as televised and grappling in general, was quite different. Step forward Cameron Earle who was one of the first big names coming out of North America. Whilst he wasn’t the very best in the world – he was a very solid grappler.
To put it into context, he competed three times in his career against Marcelo Garcia. A middleweight, Earle defeated Garcia two out of three times. This should put no doubt into your mind that he was up there with the best. To this day, Garcia is considered one of the best to ever do it. Yet against Earle, he struggled and was made to look ordinary. One example of his prowess was competing in ADCC, just days after spending a month in jail.
This makes you wonder how good he could have been with a better upbringing and mindset. It also shows the wild lifestyle lead by Earle which would later be his downfall.
With this in mind, how did such a prestigious grappler such as Cameron Earle end up serving 25 to life in jail? This happened through a convicted rape case in 2006 which ended his BJJ career and his life as a free man. So, where did it all go wrong?
According to those close to him – Earle was always wired differently. Supposedly he had a strange relationship with his mother which may have shaped his view on women. In short, his home life was tough. This included his mother’s boyfriend at the time being violent which lead to Earle spending large amounts of time in foster homes. For those wondering, foster homes can be a brutal environment for kids with abuse being rife in such institutions. The result was that Earle was not like most normal people.
These accounts can be found from his one-time friend Alan ‘Gumby’ Marques – another Ralph Gracie black belt who used to live with Earle. According to Gumby, Earle’s mother once joked with Earle that she was thankful she didn’t end up aborting him due to him winning medals in BJJ. This sums up their bizarre relationship.
However, Gumby also stated that Earle was also very dedicated to BJJ. Apparently, he even slept outside of Ralph Gracie’s gym in a cardboard box to be as close to the gym as possible. Training three times a day, Earle was obsessed with BJJ and after hearing about his sleeping arrangements, Ralph eventually let him sleep in the gym during the night. Oddly enough, Earle even taught the kids class for a time – of course, this was long before his erratic behavior spiraled out of control.
Back to Gumby, he claimed Earle was always in trouble with the law and often fought people…and due to his BJJ skills often won. He was known for winning bar fights and not backing down. One story from elsewhere was that he even believed to have killed someone with a chokehold, and planned to flee to Venezuela as a result. As it happened, he did not kill the individual. However, this shows his wild lifestyle which was often on the edges of chaos.
Gumby also claimed that Earle was a massive hit with the ladies. According to Gumby, he would often have several women on the go and had multiple girlfriends. Perhaps it was due to his mentality, but he had no trouble getting beautiful women but he did have trouble with keeping relationships. At one point, one girlfriend filed a domestic abuse claim against Earle which was eventually dropped.
However, Earle’s previous actions were only the tip of the iceberg. At one point he was jailed for the supposed robbing of a woman at knifepoint. He was DNA tested and released due to the test returning negative. However, in a chilling twist, this convicted him for a rape in 2003. During Christmas time, he broke into a woman’s home and raped her whilst her family slept upstairs.
He did this crime at knifepoint and then fled after stealing a coffee pot and money. As Gumby put it, he never believed that Earle was a saint, but with DNA evidence proving undisputable – there was no doubt that Earle has committed the unthinkable. Although Gumby hadn’t spoken to Earle in years, he claimed he broke down in tears when thinking that his old friend had done such a horrible act.
To this day, Cameron Earle is in jail. He is serving a 25 to life sentence and may never be released. Arguably he should never be let out due to such crimes. However, the BJJ community can also learn from this issue. Even though Earle was a black belt, a champion, and a teacher – he was still an awful human being. Too often in BJJ, people are hero-worshipped due to their skills on the mat.
This doesn’t always translate to being a good person off the mat, however. With this in mind, the story of Cameron Earle is dark and has a nasty ending – as someone who was on the verge of greatness was equally a chaotic individual who ruined not only his own life but countless other lives.
