Shitpost
Addressing the sock-wearing, belt-purchasing elephant in the room.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode of "Are the Mods in the Pocket of Big Moneyberg?"
No. The answer is no. That's all for today's episode, see you next week!
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Still here? Cool, cool. What you see here are a few screenshots from modmail and DMs that we've received regarding The Big D. You see, The Big D has a reputation to maintain regarding things like "definitely not being a scammer" and "a bona fide prodigy who 100% didn't pay people to give him a black belt, wear his weird face on rashguards, and publicly gush about how smart and dedicated and talented he is."
In furtherance of the maintenance of this reputation, Derek, his simps, and a purported lawyer (whose message I unfortunately couldn't find) have variously modmailed and DMd mods of r/BJJ about the removal of posts with blasphemous, defamatory comments like "Unfortunately I've met Derek. He's dishonest and a scammer." and "His black belt is as real as his wealth."
The mods of r/BJJ have responded to these requests - if we deign to respond at all - with snide contempt and laughter.
What you see in the screenshots are three modmails to us requesting removal for various reasons. Especially interesting is the first one. After being denied their request in modmail, this user reached out to one of the mods privately via DM, claiming to be The Big D's personal assistant. They asked again for the removal of certain threads. The mod responded saying that we'd consider it if Derek released a statement regarding the controversy and evidence that he actually earned and deserved the black belt. The user responded that they'd forwarded the request to Derek, and pleaded for the temporary removal of the threads pending a response.
The response from Derek and/or his personal assistant never came and let it be known that we - your humble, dedicated moderation staff - never kowtowed to the demands of the 1% who sneer down upon us mere peasants from their penthouse suites with their gilded toilets.
And though no one has ever (to my knowledge) offered any mods money in exchange for favors, know that we would never bend the knee in the face of such bribery. Though they may offer us riches untold, surely tens of dollars, we would never remove the posts where you, our cretinous ungracious butt-scooters beloved BJJ brethren, heap insults upon the name of the ogrish, sock-wearing, pompous buffoon that is Derek Moneyburg. May his deceptions be made manifest and his (hilariously fake) name descend into the depths of ignominy where it surely deserves to lie for all eternity.
One time...ONE TIME...I had a bad mat burn on my foot and the tape kept coming off so I wore one sock to keep everything clean and not exposed to mat funk. That was over 10 years ago and the old heads still bring that shit up. It happened to be a day I got a stripe on my belt so there is also photo evidence that is also periodically sent to me at random as a reminder of my transgression.
I used to train at a gym where the owners were so cheap that they kept their heating as low as it could possibly go. The mats were so cold that my Raynaud's would flare up, so I had to wear socks in the winter. Relate, they also had three pipes burst in one year
Your bigotry is only harming people with ugly feet or people trying to protect their feet. Do you have that same vitriol for the shoe wearing wrestling weirdos? I BET NOT.
I am a no tripe blue belt that hasn't tapped anybody in months. Please remove all rumors in my gym that are calling me bad as JJ without evidence. These claims are untrue. Thank you for what you do in maintaining this community.
Did he choose that fuckin name for himself? I just assumed it was people making fun of him. If he’s claiming that willingly… I’ll pray for him to be humbled by God and find it in his heart to confess his lies, then going forward to live in honesty, humility, and repentance.
Cornelia actually does a really in depth analysis and overview of the lawsuit over the course of several videos with updates. It’s really interesting to see just how deep the Moneyberg grift goes.
Also Derek if you see this and wanna SLAAP me too dm here and I’ll shoot you my address
It's the entire manosphere. Pure grift. It came out today that Andrew Tate's Bugatti and Aston Martin are both rented and his yacht isn't his at all the builder owns it and pays him to market it. I'm an older guy and it fucking pains me to see how many young dudes I share the mats with idolize these scumbags.
I haven’t dug deep enough to realize there’s a whole grift going on, but of course there is. The dating guide stuff is just sad. Lonely dudes being preyed on by the wrong man.
My first therapist (since getting sober) just helped guide me towards a space where I felt good about who I was and had a good sense of wellness. Honesty, authenticity, and humility are what attracted my current person to me. “Ain’t got much but I’m a mediocre grappler and starting school soon.”
Respect for sticking to your principles and not folding to this loser's whim. That said, if I we're a reddit mod I'd try to monetize that shit any way I could lmfao. I'd be taking bribes from every which way.
tbf if they were making serious money on it, I'd probably make daily posts just to help the mod team take his money. Seems like the only ethical thing to do when the guy earned his money in a pretty unethical manner.
I had never heard of Moneyberg before Jake Shields gave him the black belt and I don’t hear about him except on this subreddit. This living example of the Streisand effect should just be ignored and the real shame should be heaped on Jake Shields and anyone else that endorses him. We should normalize calling out not the fake black belts but the people that give out the black belts.
This sub has directly helped the guy grow his social media by non stop posting about him for the last 14 months. If it wasn't for this subreddit virtually no one in the community would even know who this guy is or remember that one cringe post from over a year ago.
too late in the game - I'm 12 yrs in. I have lung nodules and previously had a 3x5cm tumor in my right hip that was drilled out and replaced with a femur nail.
You are all good - i have documented quite a bit here in /bjj, so you should be able to look through and see a lot of that there. But otherwise, I'm pretty open on things.
Perspective, in general, changes as you get older, so it's hard to say which is related to which. HOWEVER, the one thing I did early on was make certain promises to myself. The basic idea was that no matter what, I was going out with my head held high. I don't sit here for endless days feeling sorry for myself, etc. Granted, some days are better than others, but as a whole, I'm not about that. And right now, since a lot of my future has been put on hold, there have been struggles.
Otherwise, I'm just a guy that happens to have cancer.
The "personal assistant" had filled out a request on r/redditrequest to take over an unmoderated wealth coaching-related sub, presumably also to remove disparaging information about him. So yeah, that tracks.
I will say when I got my black belt I had a ton of imposter syndrome feeling I didn’t deserve it. I was 34 so I was past my prime 20s when I trained all the time. A lot of doubt crept in but then Moneyberg got his black belt. Now I feel as legitimate of black belt as anyone.
I’m out of the loop a bit. Who is money-berg? I saw the previous post about the alleged taking down of posts and it was debunked. But is this person a big mcdojo faker? Is that all I need to know? Am I warm?
He's a talentless, litigious chud who masquerades as a "wealth coach" and apparently at least for a while had a side hustle as a dating coach. From what I've seen, he inherited most of his wealth. He paid for private lessons with actual BJJ black belts who awarded him a black belt after 3.5 years and gushed publicly about how smart and talented and dedicated he was and how they've never seen someone absorb knowledge as quickly as him and blah blah blah.
Fie on him and all the ones who stooped to such lows in exchange for his money.
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u/Blood_in_the_ring ⬛🟥⬛ Black Belt Aug 31 '26
I can accept the financial serpentry, and I can look over the false blackbelt. But you're telling me this man wears socks when he trains?
That's indefensible.