This Is What Happens When a Civilian Challenges a 230-Pound Navy SEAL Black Belt to a Grappling Match

When I saw Jocko Willink enter the building, I felt a sense of dread like I’ve never experienced before.

Willink, a legendary Navy SEAL commander and black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, isn’t just an physically intimidating specimen at 230 pounds, he’s also “probably the dangerous dude” in all of San Diego, according to well-known submission wrestler Jeff Glover.

And I challenged him to a grappling match.

Credit: TheBlaze

Am I suicidal, you ask. No. Stupid? Maybe a little. But my true motivation behind the challenge was two-fold.

Firstly, I wanted to honor our service members and show in vivid detail just how elite they really are. They train tirelessly for combat throughout their careers and then carry that grit and determination into their post-military lives. Willink told me he’s been training BJJ for over 20 years. Though every service member I've ever met has been too humble to say it, they are just on a different level than the rest of us.

Secondly, I wanted to entertain TheBlaze’s audience and introduce as many people as possible to Willink, who hosts the highly popular and motivational "Jocko Podcast."

The outcome of the grappling match was decisive. Predictably, Willink manhandled me as if I were a small child.

But I can say that went several rounds with the highly-trained Navy SEAL and never gave up — until he choked me unconscious, that is. Watch the beatdown below:

After the “match,” Willink told me that his size and strength had little to do with his ability to dominate me on the mat.

“Honestly, it’s just because I’ve been training for a long time,” he said. “It’s something that anybody could get. It’s not because I’m special, it’s just because I’ve trained for a long time doing this. And if the roles were reversed, and he’d been training longer than me, he would be doing that right there to me.”

Willink then offered to have a “135-pounder” to prove his point to me — an offer which I declined.

Get more information on the "Jocko Podcast" here and his book "Extreme Ownership" here.

The entire grappling match was aired live last Thursday and can be viewed in its unedited form below:

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