For journalists
Everything you need to write about Knots & Collar, Professor Binish Sukhija or ABJJF India — boilerplate you can lift as it stands, facts you can check, and a lineage you are welcome to verify independently. Professor Sukhija is available for interview, comment, class observation and photography, in Delhi or remotely.
Approved as written
Three lengths, cleared for publication exactly as they appear. Take whichever fits the space.
Knots & Collar is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in Defence Colony, New Delhi, led by black belt Professor Binish Sukhija of the De La Riva lineage.
Knots & Collar is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts studio in Defence Colony, New Delhi, founded in 2021 by Professor Binish Sukhija. It teaches Gi and No-Gi jiu-jitsu, kids’ classes from age three, boxing, kickboxing and fitness, seven days a week. Professor Sukhija received his black belt in October 2025 from Professor Waqar Ahmad, in the lineage of Grandmaster Ricardo de la Riva. The studio operates under the philosophy “Kindness Over Toughness” — the belief that an academy is judged by how it treats its newest and most apprehensive student, not its most accomplished one.
Knots & Collar was founded in Defence Colony, New Delhi, in October 2021. It offers Gi and No-Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a kids’ programme beginning at age three, women’s classes, boxing, kickboxing and fitness training, running seven days a week. Every first class is free, and beginners are lent a gi.
The academy is led by Professor Binish Sukhija, who trains in the De La Riva lineage — Grandmaster Ricardo de la Riva to Professor Waqar Ahmad to Professor Sukhija — and received his black belt on 25 October 2025 at KC Manthan, the academy’s annual residential retreat, held that year in Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand.
Beyond the studio, Professor Sukhija founded ABJJF India (Agrya Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation of India), a Section 8 non-profit working on rank verification, tournaments, and inclusion programmes including women’s instructor certification and adaptive jiu-jitsu. Knots & Collar also manufactures a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi made entirely in India, from thread to final packaging.
The checkable version
- Founded
- October 2021
- Founder & head coach
- Professor Binish Sukhija
- Rank
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, awarded 25 October 2025
- Lineage
- Ricardo de la Riva → Waqar Ahmad → Binish Sukhija
- Experience
- Approximately 17 years in martial arts
- Operating days
- Seven days a week
- Google rating
- 5.0 across 140+ reviews
- Students represented from
- 24 countries
- Affiliated federation
- ABJJF India — Section 8 non-profit
Six stories, six desks
Each is written for a specific desk. Take one — they do not need to be told together.
India makes its own gi
Almost every Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu uniform worn in India is imported — from Pakistan, China, Brazil or the United States — and lands at ₹8,000 to ₹10,000 after freight and duty, often with two-week delivery. Knots & Collar has produced a gi made entirely in India: thread, weave, cut, stitch and packaging.
Why it is a story. Import substitution in a small, fast-growing sport nobody has covered. The Indian textile industry has manufactured for foreign martial arts brands for years without a domestic brand of its own. Also a supply-chain story — sourcing a competition-legal cellulose weave in India was not straightforward.
What we can offer. Factory and process access, cost breakdown against imports, the technical constraints of competition-legal fabric.
How a black belt is verified
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is young in India, and there is no single registry a student or parent can consult to check an instructor’s rank. Verification works by tracing the chain of promotions — who promoted whom, back through the lineage and across countries — and that record is not currently gathered anywhere easy to reach.
Why it is a story. It is a practical problem with a practical fix, and someone is building it: ABJJF India is assembling a verification registry and digital rank records, so a promotion can be looked up rather than taken on trust. The story is the mechanism and the registry, not an accusation.
What we can offer. An explanation of how lineage verification actually works, the international registries that already exist, and the questions a parent can usefully ask before signing up anywhere.
From kushti to jiu-jitsu
India has one of the world’s oldest grappling traditions in kushti and malla-yuddha. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which arrived barely two decades ago, is a grappling art built on the same fundamental idea: technique and leverage defeating size.
Why it is a story. Heritage continuity rather than foreign import. Why does a country with deep grappling roots import its grappling? What do akhara wrestlers make of BJJ, and vice versa?
What we can offer. The historical parallels, and the perspective of an Indian black belt on where the two traditions meet.
Three-year-olds on the mat
Knots & Collar teaches jiu-jitsu to children from age three — younger than most martial arts programmes in India, which typically begin at six.
Why it is a story. It prompts the obvious question — what can a three-year-old possibly learn? The answer is not fighting. It is falling safely, listening, taking turns, and the physical confidence to be held and to get up. Also an anti-bullying angle: jiu-jitsu is a control art with no strikes.
What we can offer. Class observation with guardian consent, age-progression curriculum, and honest limits on what is appropriate at each age.
Leverage over strength
Women’s self-defence in India is usually taught as a workshop — a few hours, a few techniques, rarely revisited. Jiu-Jitsu is built for a smaller person against a larger one and is trained against live resistance, which is what makes it hold up under pressure.
Why it is a story. The gap between self-defence as an event and self-defence as a practice. ABJJF India’s inclusion programme trains women as instructors rather than only as participants — the difference between teaching a hundred women and creating someone who can teach thousands.
What we can offer. Women who train regularly, the instructor-certification model, and an honest account of what self-defence training can and cannot do.
A black belt in the Himalayas
In October 2025, at a residential retreat in Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand, Professor Sukhija was promoted to black belt by Professor Waqar Ahmad, in the lineage of Grandmaster Ricardo de la Riva — one of the most influential living figures in the sport, whose name is attached to a guard position used at every level of competition worldwide.
Why it is a story. Roughly a decade of training for a rank most people never reach, and a lineage story that connects a Delhi studio to Rio de Janeiro. The retreat itself — training at altitude, away from the city — is visually strong.
What we can offer. Photography from the promotion and the retreat, the lineage explained, and access to the next edition.
Professor Binish Sukhija
Three lengths, cleared as written. The longer profile lives on his page.
Professor Binish Sukhija is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt in the De La Riva lineage and founder of Knots & Collar, Defence Colony, New Delhi.
Professor Binish Sukhija is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt in the De La Riva lineage — Ricardo de la Riva to Waqar Ahmad to Sukhija — promoted in October 2025. He founded Knots & Collar in Defence Colony, New Delhi, in 2021, and has around seventeen years in martial arts. He also founded ABJJF India, a Section 8 non-profit working on rank verification and inclusion in Indian jiu-jitsu. He has taught paramilitary personnel, corporate groups and community programmes.
Professor Binish Sukhija founded Knots & Collar in Defence Colony, New Delhi, in October 2021, after roughly seventeen years in martial arts. In October 2025 he was promoted to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt by Professor Waqar Ahmad, placing him in the lineage of Grandmaster Ricardo de la Riva.
He teaches Gi and No-Gi jiu-jitsu, kids’ classes from age three, and women’s classes, and has run programmes for paramilitary personnel, corporate teams, schools and community organisations. He writes extensively on jiu-jitsu — technique, belt progression, and training as a beginner in India — through the studio’s Mat Notes series.
He also founded ABJJF India (Agrya Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation of India), a Section 8 non-profit focused on rank verification, tournaments, women’s instructor certification, adaptive jiu-jitsu and scholarships.
He teaches under the principle “Kindness Over Toughness” — that an academy is judged by how it treats its most apprehensive student.
The verifiable chain
Promotion: 25 October 2025, KC Manthan, Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand.
Ricardo de la Riva is among the most influential living figures in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; the De La Riva guard, named for him, is used at every level of the sport internationally. Photographs and dated documentation of the promotion are available on request, and journalists are welcome to verify the chain independently — being checkable is the point of publishing it. The same lineage stands behind our affiliation for other schools.
In his own words
Cleared for attribution to Professor Binish Sukhija as they stand.
An academy is judged by how it treats its newest student, not its best one. Anyone can look impressive teaching a talented athlete. The harder test is the frightened person who has never trained.
In most martial arts a black belt takes two or three years. In jiu-jitsu the average is ten. That isn’t a flaw. It’s the most important thing about it.
A parent should be able to ask who promoted you, and get a name they can check. If the answer isn’t clear, that’s the answer.
India has made uniforms for foreign brands for years. There was no reason we couldn’t make our own.
Jiu-jitsu was built for the smaller person. That isn’t marketing — it’s the mechanical premise of the art.
I’ve never met anyone who regretted starting at forty. I’ve met plenty who regretted waiting until forty-one.
Images and usage
High-resolution files are available on request — email or call the media contact below and say which subjects you need. A public selection is on our gallery.
- Professor Binish Sukhija teaching — studio, gi
- Professor Sukhija — portrait
- The black belt promotion, Mukteshwar, October 2025
- Adult Gi class in session
- Adult No-Gi class
- Kids’ class, ages 3–6 Guardian consent confirmed for each image before release.
- Women’s class
- KC Manthan retreat, Mukteshwar
- The studio interior, Defence Colony
- The Made-in-India gi — product and manufacturing
Professor Binish Sukhija teaching a Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class at Knots & Collar, Defence Colony, New Delhi. Photograph: Knots & Collar.
Usage
Images may be reproduced free of charge in editorial coverage of Knots & Collar, ABJJF India, or Professor Binish Sukhija, with the credit line “Photograph: Knots & Collar.” Not licensed for advertising or commercial use. Images of children may not be published without written confirmation from us that guardian consent covers that specific use.
A separate organisation
Agrya Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation of India is a Section 8 non-profit founded by Professor Binish Sukhija. It is legally independent of Knots & Collar.
- Rank verification and digital rank records
- Tournaments
- Women’s instructor certification
- Adaptive jiu-jitsu classification and divisions
- Scholarships
It is not a government body and does not describe itself as the official governing body of jiu-jitsu in India; India has several organisations operating in this space. Separate press materials are available on request. More on our ABJJF India page and at abjjfi.com.
Media contact
Available for interview, comment, class observation and photography, in person in Delhi or remotely. To see a class before you write about one, schedule a visit.