TEMPE, AZ — Chad Burroughs, 31, a self-described grappling lifestyle creator and two-stripe blue belt, announced Monday that his #NoDaysOff journey has officially entered its 18th consecutive month, a milestone he marked with a 47-minute documentary-style recap video covering mat time statistics, product partnerships, and what he called “a deepening understanding of my game.”
The library: 2,840 drilling tutorials. 619 gear reviews. Zero competition results.
“Month 18 is a huge deal,” Burroughs told his 847,000 Instagram followers, speaking directly to camera from a ring-lit home studio flanked by two walls of hanging gis. “I’ve put in the work. I’ve tested the equipment. I’ve drilled the movements until they are part of me. The journey has really just begun.”
The journey, by all documented evidence, has not yet included a tournament registration form.
Burroughs launched the #NoDaysOff campaign in November 2024, vowing complete transparency in his grappling development. He has delivered. He posts near-daily. His Patreon, “The Grind Inner Circle,” has 1,400 members paying $12.99 a month for early-access drilling tutorials and gear recommendations. GrapplePro Gear and RollFuel supplements both sponsor him. Their products, Burroughs says, are essential to “peak mat performance.”
In that same 18 months, Burroughs has attended zero NAGA events, zero local submission-only tournaments, zero open mats at unfamiliar gyms, and zero competitions of any kind under any ruleset at any experience level or weight class.
“I don’t want to rush the process,” he said in Episode 211 of his podcast, The Grind Within, recorded shortly after completing gear review number 614, a 28-minute breakdown of a single spat. “Competing at the wrong time can send your development backward. I’m building a foundation.”
The foundation, at current pace, is unfinished.
Desiree Holsworth consults on digital engagement for several combat sports brands and has been watching accounts like Burroughs’ for years.
“The numbers are real,” Holsworth said. “Consistent posting cadence, high completion rates on the long-form stuff, strong Patreon retention. He reviews more gear in a month than most practitioners own in a lifetime. The community engagement is there. It’s just that nobody in his comment section can confirm whether he has ever grappled with a stranger who was actively trying to submit him.”
Burroughs’ manager, a man identified in his content only as Rogan, declined to discuss the competition calendar but forwarded a press kit describing Chad as “one of the most dedicated students of the art” and “a practitioner’s practitioner.”
Pedro Villanueva, Burroughs’ head coach at Desert Grind MMA and a second-degree black belt who has competed more than 200 times across four decades, has been careful.
“Chad is in here a lot,” Villanueva said before a Thursday evening class. “I see him all the time. He’s very dedicated to the filming side of things. He knows what he wants.”
Villanueva paused.
“I do think about it sometimes. There are local tournaments every three weeks. Beginner divisions, $40 entry, mats 22 minutes from here. White belts, blue belts, every level. And I watch Chad set up the tripod and I think: what is a tournament, really. What does it mean to compete. What does anything mean.”
He excused himself to start warmups.
The 18-month video was Burroughs’ highest-engagement post in six months. Most of the action came from a single comment thread, which had accumulated 4,200 replies under a post from follower @jab_and_grab_tomas:
“Bro I’ve been watching you for A YEAR AND A HALF. When are you actually competing?”
Burroughs pinned his reply: “Competition roadmap coming soon! Fine-tuning the plan. The mat doesn’t lie. #NoDaysOff.”
It was his seventh publicly announced Competition Roadmap.
The first, posted in month 2, targeted a local submission-only event in Scottsdale. The event occurred. Burroughs did not. The second Roadmap, released in month 5, cited a shoulder situation and set a revised target of “late Q4.” The third launched in month 7 after Burroughs announced a sponsorship conflict had affected his timeline. It had not. The fourth introduced a “periodization model” requiring four additional months of drilling before the competitive phase could responsibly begin. The fifth was quietly deleted. No explanation was given. The sixth, published in month 14, stated that Burroughs had chosen to “reevaluate his timeline in alignment with his development as a holistic athlete.” The seventh is described as imminent.
His 619 gear reviews cover 47 variations of rash guard, 31 mouth guard evaluations, nine separate assessments of competition track pants he has never worn to a competition, and a 55-minute breakdown of a tournament travel bag he has never used for that purpose.
His most-viewed video, with 2.1 million views, is a time-lapse of him drilling a single-leg takedown entry for eight consecutive hours. He mentions it in nearly every video he has ever made, including, once, an unboxing video for a new phone mount.
“The eight-hour drill day is who I am,” he told the camera in Episode 219, pausing a review of a brand-new white gi to press his palms together and look slightly off-camera. “When people see Chad Burroughs compete, they’ll understand why it took this long. Every rep has a reason.”
He then held the gi up to the light and discussed the weave construction for eleven minutes.
At press time, a new event listing appeared on the Desert Grind community board: a beginner-friendly submission wrestling tournament in Phoenix, 22 minutes from Burroughs’ apartment. White and blue belt divisions. Entry fee: $45. Registration open through the end of the month.
Burroughs posted a story showing the flyer, overlaid with a progress bar and the text: “Studying the landscape. Roadmap update coming soon.”
The story had 44,000 views before it disappeared at the 24-hour mark.