– [Interviewer] introduce yourself, and your background in martial arts. – My name is Hardee Merritt. I own and operate Chapel
Hill Quest Martial Arts in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I got interested in martial
arts as a really young kid, maybe about five years
old when I saw "GI Joe". And there was a character
called Snake Eyes, and immediately I wanted to be a ninja. I bought every martial arts
book I could find as a kid. I'd never heard of jiu-jitsu
until the first UFC happened, but it just, as it
happened, a friend of mine, his dad got the UFC on pay-per-view. And when I was a young kid, I
was able to actually watch it. And I saw Helio Gracie, and recognize jiu-jitsu is a thing, and that stayed with me
throughout my journey, but I got into To-Shin Do, which is a modern adaptation
of the ninja martial art.
And I was fortunate to have
that as a background to start because it's a very broad martial art. And there was a lot of grappling
techniques and a lot of… For martial arts that were not jiu-jitsu, there was a lot of ground-based stuff, so I had a little bit of an introduction. A jiu-jitsu school moved
a couple of doors down from our dojo and I
wanted to check it out. And I'd had a couple
of introductory classes at some jiu-jitsu places, so I had a little bit of a
sense of what was going on. But my real motivation with
beginning a jiu-jitsu practice was to test out what
I had already learned. My initial impressions of jiu-jitsu were not always positive.
I was showing the Gracie in
action videos very early, and I had associated
martial arts with humility and composure. And what I saw was fighting,
you have something going on, throwing each other down on the ground, and it was just very eyeopening . These real fights looked a lot different than what I spent most
of my time practicing. I started to jiu-jitsu
to see how I would fare against jiu-jitsu.
And I kept going and kept going. And I sort of realized, instead
of trying to beat jiu-jitsu, I should probably learn jiu-jitsu. And that was the beginning of my journey into Brazilian jiu-jitsu. (intense upbeat music) (men thudding) (upbeat music) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Hardee thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett thudding) (Brett thudding) (Brett thudding) (Brett thudding) (Brett thudding) (both breathing heavily) (Hardee taps Brett) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (fists bumps) (Brett thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (intense upbeat music)
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(both men thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett thudding) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (Brett taps out) (both men clapping)
(audience clapping) So, early in jiu-jitsu, I competed in jiu-jitsu
tournaments fairly regularly.
The group that I trained with, we went to a lot of tournaments. So I competed all the way
up through purple belt having not done any competitions
as a brown belt or higher, but I have had two MMA fights. I wanted to see how I would fare under the pressure of someone
trying to hit me and hurt me and not just in a jiu-jitsu match. So I fought two times in Kansas. Back then when I fought, it
wasn't legal in our state, so I had to go out of town.
I had an associate, a friend in martial arts
named Steven Crawford, and he ran a school called Crawford's MMA, and I would go there and
train with him occasionally. And he was part of a group
that promoted fights. And so, one time when I was there, he said, "Hey, if you wanna fight, next week we've got one coming." So he came back and did it.
And then the next fight, I had a little more preparation time, but I was very fortunate to
win both of my MMA fights. And I was fortunate not to
sustain a whole lot of damage while I did it. So I decided I would retire
undefeated (chuckles). (funky music) (dramatic music) (both thudding) (Hardee grunts)
(Hardee breathes heavily) (both breathing heavily) (man speaking faintly) (audience clapping) (tense music) (both thudding)
(audience clapping) (Hardee grunts) (intense upbeat music) (both breathing heavily) (both breathing heavily) (both thudding) (audience claps) (man breathes heavily) (man grunts) (audience clapping) – [Man] Go ahead and slow it down.
Slow it down. Good.
(audience clapping) (man taps out) – Main thing that I've gotten out of all of my martial arts practice
has been the people that I get to interact with. I've interacted with the
absolute best of the best people. And jiu-jitsu has a really cool way of showing you the real person when someone's really pressured and they can't escape a situation. You see their soul when
they're doing that. And so, it's just been
such a great clear lens to view the character of the people.
And I've been so lucky to be around people of the best character. (lively upbeat music) (both breathing heavily) (both thudding) (Hardee breathes heavily) – [Referee] Tap.
(Hardee exhales) (audience clapping) – Hey. (man thudding)
(audience clapping) (Hardee thudding)
– Well done. (both breathing heavily) (man grunts) (man grunts) – [Man] Yup.
(audience clapping) Okay.
(audience clapping) (Hardee breathes heavily) – The black belt in jiu-jitsu, there's certainly an
air of accomplishment, but I say this to our other students, that once you get a black belt, it's not like you're a black belt.
You've gotta be a black belt every day. And so I'm honestly, I'm quite excited about
the additional push and motivation I'm expecting
to feel once that's on to make sure that I live
up to the expectation of a blackbelt. (tense music) (Hardee thudding) (audience clapping) (Hardee breathes heavily) (man taps)
(audience clapping) (Hardee grunts) (Hardee breathes heavily) (Hardee breathes heavily)
(audience clapping) (both breathing heavily) (man taps out) (audience clapping) (man grunts)
(audience clapping) (Hardee breathes heavily) (audience clapping) (man grunts) (Hardee breathes heavily)
(audience clapping) (both grunting)
(audience clapping) (both breathing heavily) – [Man] Just relax. Just relax. (Hardee grunts) Here you go. (both breathing heavily)
– [Lady] Keep working.
(intense upbeat music continues) (audience clapping) (man grunts) (Hardee breathes heavily) (Hardee grunts)
– [Man] There you go. (audience cheering)
(hands tapping) (audience clapping) (soft music) (audience clapping) – [Master] It's been a long time coming. Please turn around. It's a pleasure to
introduce Hardee Merritt as a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. (audience cheering)
(audience clapping) (hands tapping) (hands tapping).
