Erik Paulson

Erik Paulson's formal entry into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu began in 1990, when Rickson Gracie — one of the most respected figures in the art's lineage — awarded him his blue belt. Training under Rickson Gracie placed Paulson inside a prestigious and demanding tradition at a pivotal moment, when BJJ was still establishing its foothold outside of Brazil. That foundation would shape the technical framework he spent the following decades refining and expanding.

In 1995, Paulson competed in WCC 1, one of the early no-holds-barred events that embodied the collision between BJJ and the emerging mixed martial arts landscape. His appearance without academy authorization proved costly: Rickson Gracie expelled Paulson and forbade him from continuing to train BJJ. The break was abrupt and forced — not a principled departure, but a severing that stripped him of his training home and compelled him to rebuild from scratch. That rupture, disruptive as it was, ultimately redirected Paulson toward a broader and more eclectic martial arts path than he might otherwise have pursued.

Grappling and Wrestling Development

Following his expulsion from the Rickson Gracie academy, Paulson found a new grappling home with the Machado brothers, embedding himself in the Southern California BJJ community. Rather than narrowing his focus, he used this period to construct one of the most comprehensive independent training regimens of his generation — simultaneously pursuing wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai, and grappling at a reported cost of around $650 per month.

His wrestling development came through work with Rico Chipperelli, who sharpened the takedown and top-pressure skills that would become hallmarks of his hybrid approach. Evening grappling sessions at the Machado school anchored his ground game, while sparring at Boxing Works — where he trained alongside Chad Stahelski, the stunt performer and filmmaker who would later direct the John Wick franchise — illustrated the remarkable overlap between elite combat sport training and Los Angeles's emerging action film world.

Striking and Cross-Disciplinary Training

On the striking side, Paulson trained with multiple boxing coaches — Nikolai Sonia, Charlie Gergen, Marvin Cook, and Battalia — drawing from different technical traditions rather than committing to a single school of thought. His Muay Thai education came through Rob and Lucy Aker and Ajarn Chai, with morning sessions at North Hollywood Muay Thai and the Inosanto Academy providing both striking depth and weapons context within a broader martial arts framework.

His daily rhythm reflected the intensity of this period: hard morning striking sessions gave way to evening grappling and sparring, each discipline reinforcing the others. During this same stretch, Paulson competed extensively in Japan, where the early MMA scene operated in a largely informal and fragmented way. Many bouts from this era went unrecorded or untelevised — a common reality for fighters navigating Japan's mixed martial arts circuit before the sport developed the infrastructure to document events systematically. Amid that active competitive life, he captured gold at the 1996 Pan Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship at blue belt, a result that validated his unorthodox, multi-discipline approach on a recognized competitive stage.

Out of those years training across Los Angeles, Paulson distilled a hybrid combat methodology that synthesized Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, catch wrestling, Muay Thai, boxing, and wrestling into a single cohesive framework. He formalized that system as Combat Submission Wrestling — known as CSW — and established its headquarters in Fullerton, California. The school became the hub from which his instructional philosophy spread outward, with instructor certifications and structured curriculum development anchoring an international affiliate network.

CSW grew steadily from a single location into a global operation. As of early 2026, the network encompassed approximately 150 affiliate schools worldwide, making CSW (Combat Submission Wrestling) one of the more expansive hybrid grappling systems operating outside the traditional BJJ academy model. The reach of that network reflects both the practical utility of Paulson's methodology and his commitment to codifying the kind of cross-disciplinary training he pursued during his formative years in Southern California. The system is, in many respects, a direct product of his own biography — every discipline represented in the CSW curriculum traces back to a specific training relationship he built while constructing his game across Los Angeles.

Decades after establishing himself as a coach and system builder, Paulson returned to active competitive coaching to work with Kade Ruotolo and Tye Ruotolo in preparation for their ONE Championship appearances. The Ruotolo brothers rank among the most dynamic and technically adventurous no-gi grapplers competing in the modern era, and Paulson's involvement in their camp reflects a significant degree of trust in his technical depth and his ability to prepare athletes for elite-level submission grappling.

Paulson discussed this coaching chapter on The Fight Guys podcast in an episode released shortly before January 9, 2026, offering a window into his approach and the nature of his collaboration with the Ruotolo camp. The conversation framed his return to high-level coaching within the broader arc of his career — a figure who built a global instructional system continuing to apply that methodology at the sport's highest competitive tier. His work with the Ruotolos in ONE Championship underscores that the CSW framework, forged across decades of cross-disciplinary training and competitive experience, remains a living and evolving system rather than a finished artifact of a previous era.