Jeff Monson is a BJJ black belt and ex-MMA athlete who has had over 80 fights in his career. His hometown is Olympia, Washington, USA. His greatest achievement in grappling is being a two time ADCC gold medalist in 1999 & 2005 respectively. Monson was a wrestler in college but discovered there was no wrestling in Olympia after he had moved back to his hometown. This led to him joining a BJJ school in Seattle aged 27.
It took him approximately 7 years to reach black belt which he received in 2005.under professor Ricard Liborio.
He trains under American Top Team and his typical competition weight is 240lbs (108kg~). When training BJJ Monson is well known for his half guard sweeps, knee slice passing and double unders. His favorite submission is one we have seen him perform many times – the north south choke.
Monson has had his fair share of injuries saying “many” and goes on to list “2 torn biceps, torn pectoral muscle, eye surgery and a hip replacement”. He mentions that the grappler with the biggest influence on his style is the legendary grappler Pablo Popovitch. When speaking about his hardest opponents, they really are an allstar lineup, with MMA battles against Chuck Lidell and Fedor Emilianenko and the toughest grappler being Fabricio Werdum.
Monson has one goal for the future which is to have a grappling match against Gordon Ryan.
You can find Jeff on the following platforms:
Q & A
Why did you move to communist political beliefs?
“In university we had a guest lecturer from India who came in and talked about how other countries funds were used for groups (rather than war and other things that didn’t help society at all). He had charts explaining how much money went on military spending, social spending and homeless. It opened my eyes and made me think this isn’t right.”
“The big eye opener for me was when I won a fight in Rio De Janerio, I was feeling really good about life, walking along the beach at 2 or 3 in the morning. I was on my way back to a really nice hotel. When I was almost there there was a lady [sitting] on a cardboard mat with a 6 year old girl and a 2 year old boy. The girl came up to me and asked for about the equivalent of around 30 cents [in US money].”
“It broke my heart, I still get teary thinking about it”.
“These kids who have never done anything wrong in their life are begging for money. I went back to the hotel and I got free food and I was staying in luxury because I was a fighter. That night changed my life. That was the first time I saw it [massive poverty & inequality] with my own eyes, I saw the difference between have and have nots.”
What Is It Like Living In Russia?
“In some ways it’s exactly how I envisioned it and in some ways the exact opposite”
“I was able to come to Russia when I fought Fedor, I went to Russia and it was exactly how I envisioned it. The people [at first] seemed not so friendly and stern. The more time I spent here the more time I realised these people were honest and quite open.“
“People are absolutely generous here, people are always trying to give you stuff, generosity and taking care of people who are needy is really valued here. The government needs to do a better job of it, but the people are really considerate”.
“During the preparation for a fight [In Russia] I did lots of press conferences. After the fight I had one free day and I was with a translator. A 70 year old man flagged me down and said “I saw the interview you did 2 weeks ago, in it you were talking about how you like Russia but you wanted to be home, because your mother had cancer. The old man said “The interview touched me. You won’t understand this but I love your mother and Russia loves your mother.” He gave me an icon of Jesus and Mary and said “I made this for your mother. I had been trying to track you down for a week.”
Monson adds, “This wasn’t in front of cameras and not for publicity. This to me is the epitome of Russia.”
The Infamous Clash With Pe De Pano (Arnold Classic)
“I was fighting Pe De Pano in the final, we had fought in ADCC, The UFC (after this match) and had a pretty big rivalry. We made an agreement beforehand that we would split the prize money, no matter what happened in the match.”
“During the match, I did a can opener to open the guard and he tapped. He didn’t even pretend he was hurt, he tapped because he said it’s against the rules. At some point I said let’s just restart at that point, it’s 0-0 anyway, lets see who’s going to win, he refused. One week before I beat him in a superfight match in Florida. He knew at this point he wasn’t going to beat me and refused to go.”
“The referee and Relson Gracie tried to talk him in to restarting the match but he was threatening that if he was not made the winner, he would never compete or bring his students to this tournament again.”
“The video of the rules meeting showed it was legal to can opener – to open the guard, after the legs open you have to release it.”
“Even though I won the fight I was willing to go back on the mat and continue the match.The referee (Relson’s student) raised Pe de Pano’s hand. At this point I takedown the referee and all hell breaks loose. I got banned for one year after that.”
“Pe de Pano, to his credit, did split the money with me as promised.”
“After two years it was pretty much all forgotten, He [Pe de Pano] was completely in the wrong, he didn’t want to fight and that’s all that came of it. Now I look back on it, it’s kind of crazy and I laugh about it.”
For those that don’t know about the incident it is summarised in the video below:
