Joe Baize

Born on June 8, 1983, Joe Baize grew up in the Beaver Dam, Kentucky area and began his martial arts journey at the age of eight with taekwondo. His early training was sporadic across an initial four-year period, but a single moment at age eleven permanently redirected his path. Watching Royce Gracie dismantle Ken Shamrock at UFC 1 made one thing clear — kicking was not the answer. Grappling was.

Without access to formal instruction, Baize took a self-directed approach, piecing together knowledge through martial arts magazines and recordings of no-holds-barred competitions. This resourcefulness would come to define his development as a martial artist. At fifteen, he found structured training by enrolling at Louisville Pankration under coach Jason Keaton — commuting two hours each way, a commitment that spoke volumes about his dedication to the craft.

Beyond the mats, Baize channeled his competitive drive into American football, playing varsity all four years at Ohio County High School. During that same period, he pursued powerlifting with enough success to break several meet records — an early indicator of the physical discipline that would later underpin his grappling career.

Approximately one year into structured training, Baize came across a poster for a local MMA event called Hook'N Shoot. On the card was a fighter named Warren Brooks from Owensboro, Kentucky — just a half-hour from Beaver Dam. Baize reached out, the two became training partners, and their partnership eventually led to the co-founding of Nice Guy Submission Fighting, which grew into one of the most respected grappling gyms in the region.

From the moment he first witnessed cage fighting at age eleven, Baize set his sights on professional competition. That ambition was realized just three months after his seventeenth birthday, when he made his professional MMA debut at Hook'N Shoot. The career that followed spanned eight years and concluded with a 100% submission victory record — a statistic that encapsulates his philosophy of finishing fights through technical precision rather than points or decisions.

Regional Dominance and National Recognition

His competitive trajectory extended well beyond MMA. In 2008, Baize captured the Hook'N Shoot Pro World Championship, cementing his dominance at the regional-to-national level. In 2009, he swept three consecutive Hayastan Grappling Challenge events held in Kentucky, New York, and North Carolina within a single calendar year — a remarkable run that demonstrated both the consistency and geographic reach of his submission game.

His ascent into national submission grappling competition was confirmed with a first-place finish at the ADCC USA East Coast Trials in 2010, followed by a second-place result at the same event in 2012. The Copa America Superfight title in 2016 further underscored his sustained competitive relevance across more than a decade at the highest levels of the sport.

Joe Baize stands as a pioneer in applying lower limb joint lock submissions within submission-only and no-gi jiu-jitsu formats — a distinction that places him well ahead of the mainstream leg lock revolution that would later reshape competitive no-gi grappling on a global scale. This expertise was not accidental; it was cultivated directly under the legendary Gokor Chivichyan, under whom Baize earned a Level 5 certification — the instructor level — in the Hayastan grappling system.

A Multi-Lineage Lower Body Attack System

The Hayastan system's emphasis on lower body attacks gave Baize a technical foundation rooted in a rich and battle-tested grappling tradition. That foundation was further reinforced through studies in Catch-Wrestling and Judo — disciplines that sharpened his understanding of mechanical leverage and positional control throughout the lower body. The result was a well-rounded lower body attack system drawing from multiple grappling lineages, proven effective across varied rulesets and competitive environments.

His three Hayastan Grappling Challenge victories in 2009, across three different states, stand as a testament to how effectively he applied these skills under pressure. Combined with an MMA career defined entirely by submission finishes, Baize's legacy in lower limb grappling represents more than a competition strategy — it reflects a deeply held martial philosophy that proved its value long before the broader grappling community caught up.

Joe Baize's path to the BJJ black belt was shaped by an unusually broad network of instruction. The majority of his jiu-jitsu education was supervised by Josh Johnson of the Luiz Palhares Association, who awarded Baize his black belt in 2011 — a milestone built on years of cross-disciplinary training under a diverse roster of mentors. That roster includes Luiz Palhares, Roli Delgado, Max Bishop, Erik Paulson, Josh Hayden, Tom DeBlass, Warren Brooks, and Gokor Chivichyan — a coaching lineage spanning BJJ, Catch-Wrestling, Hayastan, and Judo.

Dual Credentials and Continued Growth

His Level 5 Hayastan certification under Gokor Chivichyan complements his BJJ black belt, providing dual high-level credentials in two distinct but deeply complementary grappling systems. Together, these qualifications reflect a martial education that resists easy categorization and rewards technical depth over stylistic uniformity.

After years representing Nice Guy Submission Fighting, Baize transitioned in 2018 to Owensboro Gracie under Josh Hayden, a gym supervised by Tom DeBlass. By the end of 2019, he formally joined Tom DeBlass's association, connecting him to the Ocean County BJJ lineage. His trajectory — from a self-taught teenager assembling grappling knowledge through magazines and fight footage to a multi-discipline black belt and certified instructor — reflects a career built on deliberate mentorship, intellectual curiosity, and an unwavering commitment to technical mastery.