Josh Saunders came to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu not through the traditional pathway but from the rugby league fields of Australia, carrying with him the physicality and competitive mindset forged through years of high-level contact sport. He began training BJJ in 2020, and what followed was one of the more remarkable development arcs in recent memory: a black belt earned in under four years — a timeline that stands in sharp contrast to the decade or more the journey typically demands.

Saunders has cited Kit Dale as a formative inspiration, with Dale's unconventional, accelerated approach to skill acquisition shaping Saunders' own philosophy toward learning. That philosophy, fused with his athletic foundation in rugby league and a willingness to train with singular focus, produced a grappler who progressed at a rate that drew genuine attention across the BJJ community. His story became something of a case study in what dedicated, structured training can compress when applied with the right mindset.

Saunders announced himself on the global grappling stage at the 2024 ADCC World Championships, delivering one of the more striking debut performances in the +99kg division. His quarterfinal match against Damon Ramos lasted just two minutes — Saunders secured a rear-naked choke to advance with emphatic efficiency.

The semifinal brought a sterner test in Felipe Pena, one of the most decorated heavyweights in submission grappling history. Saunders lost the bout via penalties, a competitive result that nonetheless underscored how far he had come. He then faced Dan Manasiou in the bronze medal match and was submitted by inside heel hook, finishing the tournament in fourth place. For a competitor making his first appearance at ADCC Worlds, the performance validated his rapid development and established him as a credible presence among the sport's elite heavyweights.

The path to the 2024 ADCC World Championships ran through a stretch of regional competition in which Saunders was virtually untouchable. At the 2024 ADCC Oceania Open, he claimed gold in both the +100kg division and the absolute, defeating world-class heavyweights across multiple matches in a single day. He carried that form directly into the ADCC Sydney Open, repeating the double-gold performance — again taking both the weight division and the absolute.

Four gold medals across two marquee regional events did more than secure his qualification for the World Championships; they demonstrated that his results were reproducible and that his level of play held up against serious opposition. Alongside those Open appearances, Saunders challenged Gordon Ryan for the heavyweight title at FloGrappling's Who's Number One event — WNO 24. He lost by heel hook to the reigning champion, but the experience of competing against the sport's dominant figure at that level proved invaluable preparation for the ADCC campaign that followed.

Two years after his debut, Saunders returned to the 2026 ADCC World Championships and produced a performance that surpassed even the promise of 2024. Competing again in the +99kg division, he navigated the bracket all the way to the final, where he met Victor Hugo for the world title. Saunders came up short in the final, finishing as runner-up — but the result represented a meaningful step forward and confirmed that his 2024 showing was no anomaly.

Back-to-back ADCC World Championship appearances, capped by a silver medal in 2026, cemented Saunders' standing as Australia's premier heavyweight grappler and placed him firmly among the sport's global elite in the over-99kg division.

Parallel to his competitive career, Saunders built a coaching identity through the High Performance Unit — known as HPU — a brand and platform he founded with the explicit goal of accelerating grapplers' development. Serving as director of HPU, he offers online training programs and instructional content, sharing technical insights through YouTube and social media.

The HPU concept draws directly from Saunders' own experience: his rapid rise from beginner to black belt to ADCC finalist lends the brand particular credibility with practitioners seeking to compress their own learning curves. The platform blends competitive authenticity with entrepreneurial structure, positioning Saunders as both a practitioner active at the sport's highest level and a commercially engaged coach with a developed curriculum to offer.

Saunders attracted significant controversy within the BJJ community after posting explicit videos and photos of Nazi salutes on his Instagram Stories and highlights. The posts drew widespread criticism, with prominent BJJ black belt and educator Stephan Kesting publicly calling attention to the content. Kesting characterized the posts as displaying enthusiasm for Adolf Hitler and admiration for Nazi-era German ideology and the Wehrmacht.

In video content that circulated across grappling media, Saunders alluded to Hitler as his favorite historical figure while stopping short of naming him directly, explaining that doing so would result in removal from the platform. The posts and associated behavior generated sustained criticism across BJJ outlets, including coverage by BJJEE and BJJProblems. Despite the documented controversy, Saunders continued to compete at high-profile events and operate HPU Coaching.