Izaak Michell is an Australian grappler from Adelaide who trained under John Danaher and Craig Jones before going his own way. He has won the ADCC Asia and Oceania trials three times and competed at two ADCC World Championships. His Instagram follows his no-gi competition and training.

Background

Michell was born on 25 August 1998 in Adelaide. As a child he surfed, skateboarded and did gymnastics, winning two silver medals at the Australian national gymnastics championships, and he played Australian rules football. At 15 he tried a kickboxing and self-defence gym but left because it had little sparring. In 2016 he started at Arruda BJJ, mostly doing Muay Thai at first, before switching his focus to jiu-jitsu after about a year.

Teams and belts

• Leo Arruda: coached him from white to purple belt.
• John Danaher: Michell trained with Danaher in New York from mid-2019.
• Craig Jones: promoted him to brown belt in November 2022. Michell followed Jones out of Danaher's group into the B-Team, then split from it in early 2023.

BJJ Heroes does not list a black belt promotion.

Competition highlights

• IBJJF World No-Gi: brown belt champion (BJJ Heroes gives both 2021 and 2022).
• ADCC trials: won Asia and Oceania trials in 2022 (−99 kg), 2023 (−88 kg) and 2025 (−77 kg).
• ADCC 2022: lost his first match at −88 kg to Vagner Rocha on a referee decision, but won the Match of the Tournament award.
• ADCC 2024: beat Ryan Aitken in the absolute before losing to Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu on points. He lost his first match at −88 kg to C. Negromonte by kneebar.

Notable matches

• Polaris 25 (2023): beat Roberto Jimenez on points, but lost to Kaynan Duarte on points.
• ONE 167 (2024): choked by Tye Ruotolo.
• Pedro Marinho: lost to him on a referee decision at WNO 25 (2024) and beat him on points at AIGA in 2025.

BJJ Heroes lists his record as 27–7. His most common finishes are rear-naked chokes, inside heel hooks and armbars. Follower counts are curated snapshots, not live data.