You wouldn’t expect to see a tribe of dedicated martial artists in middle-of-nowhere Mt. Vernon, Illinois, to be making waves on the competition scene. You wouldn’t expect that their star student and model athlete is not from Brazil, but instead from Drummond Island — just south of the Canadian border. And you wouldn’t expect jiu-jitsu to be in their DNA.

But Andrew Wiltse and the Pedigo Submission Fighting crew are not like anyone I’ve ever met in this sport — they stand out.

One quote that caught my attention while I was watching the newest FloGrappling documentary series Daisy Fresh is from Andrew, and not only sums up his fierce competitive spirit but also the spirit of his team.

“I’d rather be hungry than lose.”

If you’re wondering who exactly is Andrew Wiltse and why you’ve been hearing his name more and more recently, then you’ve come to the right place. 

Andrew with his brother Bird (left)

For the last five years Andrew Wiltse has been terrorizing the colored belt ranks with his furious passing style and ferocious finishing instincts. He’s dominated his way through four gold medals at the Chicago Open every year he’s attended and constantly finds himself on the podium at the world’s biggest competitions. From white through brown belt, Andrew Wiltse has been one of the most consistently successful competitors out there. 

Andrew has a tenacious toreando pass and a brutal ankle lock and has swept some of the best competitors out there. Andrew has been competing against the 2019 ADCC World Champion Kaynan Duarte for years and has big wins over guys like Ronaldo Junior and Roberto Jimenez. But it’s the peculiar upbringing of both him and his brother that really makes him stand out from the crowd.

In Daisy Fresh episode one, Andrew reveals some very untraditional aspects about his childhood and social life while growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It gives us great insight into what created this relentless submission hunter.

“I lived on Drummond Island for 10 years . . . the weather gets down to negative 20 or negative 20,” said Wiltse when describing his living arrangements before Pedigo Submission Fighting came into his life. 

“There are only about 1,000 people on Drummond Island,” he said. “My senior year of high school I started traveling to a boxing gym in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, about an hour and a half from us. I would take the ferry boat off the island and over to the mainland.”

Wiltse also wasn’t born in a hospital; his dad delivered him at their house. Which is making obtaining the proper documentation a little difficult for Wiltse. He’s turned down multiple opportunities to train compete or teach in other countries because he is still unable to obtain a passport. 

See what I mean about peculiar? But maybe the strangest part about Andrew are the magical powers... that he thought he had.

“I’m not kidding at all. My parents raised us telling us we were wizards and had magical powers.They would tell us they saved Australia from the wildfires, doing these chants, and that dark wizards were casting spells on us.” 

Andrew is an unconventional jiu-jitsu player, so it’s fitting that his upbringing was as well. 

Somewhere in the midst of all the spellcasting and chanting, Andrew began to take an interest in combat sports but only had his younger brother “Bird” to wrestle with at home.

Everything changed for Andrew when he met Heath Pedigo at a seminar in Michigan. 

Heath Pedigo 

After training together Heath invited Andrew out to Mt. Vernon to live in the gym and train full-time. He told Andrew, “I want you to give me one year of complete dedication. Everything you have every day."

It turned out those words were exactly what Andrew needed to hear to start to reach his full potential. From then on out Andrew became addicted to getting better and doing anything he could to improve faster than those around him. 

He would stay up all night drilling moves, asking Heath questions and breaking his brother's grips thousands and thousands of times. He would put his mind to a move and drill it non-stop until it became second nature.

“I’ve never regretted doing 10,000 reps because those moves stay with you forever. You go from an OK closed guard armbar, to now you have a world-class closed guard armbar.” 

From there Andrew burst on to the competition circuit winning the IBJJF World Championships at white belt and then blue belt. He piled up win after win, gold medal after gold medal. 

Finally last December at the 2019 No-Gi World Championships, after winning his bracket at brown belt, Wiltse earned his black belt from Heath Pedigo. Making him the first ever to go through the entire belt system under the Pedigo Submission Fighting banner.

This moment is serendipitously captured in the most recent episode of Daisy Fresh. Which, if you still haven’t watched, stop what you’re doing and watch this right now! 

Every grappler dreams of one day achieving their black belt and watching someone so deserving reach that milestone is fantastic to watch. What’s even better is how surprised and shocked Andrew looks in the moments after; he was not expecting to walk out with a black belt. 

It’s official someday very soon you’re going to be seeing Andrew Wiltse on the big stage competing against some of the best black belts in the world. And if it’s your first time seeing this human buzzsaw compete, you’re in for a wild ride.

Watch: 

Daisy Fresh: An American Jiu-Jitsu Story Ep.1

Daisy Fresh: An American Jiu-Jitsu Story Ep.2