There are generally five belts achievable in Brazillian jiu-jitsu: white, blue, purple, brown, and black. There are also red belts but these are reserved for the Gracies (a red belt being a 10th degree black belt which is nearly impossible to reach). Georges St. Pierre joined the UFC in 2004 when he was a purple belt in the sport. His purple belt was awarded to him by Brazillian Top Team Canada leader Fabio Holanda. GSP began training with Renzo Gracie in New York during his first two years in the UFC and eventually achieved his brown belt in 2006. Since then St. Pierre has been training with a variety of BJJ instructors including the Machado family in Brazil. BJJ world champion Bruno Fernandez, who was in Montreal for a seminar at the TriStar Gym, GSP's home base, awarded St. Pierre his black belt on Saturday. GSP is also a black belt in Kyokushin Karate.
good for GSP, black belts are not easy to obtain. Sure there are more and more black belts in BJJ, but that's due to the sports growth, not because the trainers hand them out so easily.
