Most people have been in a circumstance where they have an injury, major life event, change in schedule, etc. that results in time off from the mats. I am a huge advocate of remaining as consistent as possible, even if it that means going to class only once a week to avoid time away from jiu-jitsu. If you have an injury or anything that can be harmful to you by going to class, then use your time wisely while you are recuperating.
Mentally, I believe time off can be very helpful. In my experience, many times I felt like my jiu-jitsu game improved when I had some downtime. It seems as though my brain had time to process and let the info sink in for when I returned. It felt easier to execute moves I had been practicing before I left. I’ve had people ask me if I had been training elsewhere and/or more often when I was actually not training at all. That situation has happened several times when I was taking a break. The clarity that comes when you let go and stop trying so hard can be helpful to your progress.
During this downtime, you can reassess your goals and revisit what has been working and what hasn’t. I like to do check-ins throughout the year regardless, so it’s a great idea during a break. Maybe I’ve been working on a technique that has been progressing slowly and I need to make adjustments. Also, there may have been one submission that I have been hitting and I can move to a new one. While you are away, you can watch videos and do any solo drills to help your game.
Breaks from jiu-jitsu can also help your body get stronger when you focus on strength training to further prevent injuries from happening in the future. Stretching every day during this time is crucial to aid in keeping your muscles pliable and ready for your return. The other benefit of a strength training and flexibility regimen is building the habit of both for when you return. Your schedule may need to be altered when you add jiu-jitsu class to your schedule again, but it is important to continue with both of them to some extent. Take care of your body in any way you can to help heal for your return to the mats. During this time, you can heal any minor injuries that may have been bothering you. With the extra time, you can rehab those minor injuries with any of the forms of recovery that work for you or try new ones.
Upon your return, start with only basic drills taught in class. If anything hurts, then you need to take additional time to heal completely. Having your body feel good for everyday activities is not the same as jiu-jitsu activities. It is better to be off for a longer time period all at once than come back early and end up having longer time off altogether. If everything is fine with the drills for a few days, then you can add live drills with someone you trust. Once that goes smoothly, then you can start rolling with lighter people or with someone who can be gentle. Always assess how you feel the next day before moving on to the next step. Train smart and you will be back again feeling even better than when you left.
Gordon Ryan made his return at Who’s Number One against up-and-comer Jacob Couch on Friday night.
Ryan finished the match by armbar from s-mount after cooking Couch for a little over 10-minutes. Ryan’s size advantage was obvious throughout the fight, but his technique was impeccable and he looked as good as ever, clearly dominating Couch for the entirety of the match, which we have never seen happen to The Hillbilly Hammer before.
Meregali's no-gi debut does not disappoint!@tezos WNO | Presented by @FatTire
Ryan has been known for calling his submissions in the past by handing a closed envelope to commentators before his match. After his victory, the commentary team opens the envelope to find that the submission was predicted by Gordon himself.
This time, Ryan’s envelope read something different, “I know you’re watching Andre, don’t bother leaving the retirement home.” Ryan is referring to Andre Galvao and their ADCC superfight match-up scheduled for September.
Earlier in the event, Nicholas Meregali won his NoGi debut by securing an Armbar with just :30 seconds left in his match. Meregali spent most of his nogi debut on the feet as him and Arnaldo Maidana fought for the takedown for the entire match. In the end, a brief scramble ended up with Maidana on his back and Meregali on top. From this position, Meregali capitalized on the opportunity and secured a kimura grip before switching to an armbar and getting the tap.
Meregali's no-gi debut does not disappoint!@tezos WNO | Presented by @FatTire
Cody Brundage’s spectacular guillotine win over Dalcha Lungiambula on March 12 at UFC Vegas 50 may have netted him a “Performance of the Night” bonus – but it’s the money going toward a purpose far greater than his own glory. His one-year-old daughter, Kingsley, was diagnosed with a rare developmental disability shortly before his UFC debut – which has left Brundage more motivated than ever to ensure that he can support his family’s needs.
“[My daughter] has a gene mutation called ALG13,” Brundage explains to the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “There have only been about forty cases of it, ever, so it’s super rare. Basically, it predisposes kids to untreatable epilepsy, seizures, and things like that, which leads to developmental delays. The prognosis isn’t great because there are so few cases, so it’s a day-by-day thing for us – we don’t really know, long term, what it looks like, but we’re hopeful.”
He’s open about his daughter’s condition, hoping to serve as a source of support and awareness to other parents of children with disabilities: “I don’t mind talking about it, because I feel like I’ve seen successful people who have dealt with similar things, and seeing their success and hearing them talk about it gives me hope, and makes me feel better. Knowing that they’re okay, they’re giving their kid a good life, it makes me feel like I can do the same thing. So if I can be that for anybody else, I want to do that.”
Photo/Instagram: cody_brundage_
So, what went through Brundage’s head the night he won that performance bonus from the UFC? Mostly, the will to impose his game plan, which centered on gassing his opponent out. “The guy I was fighting, he puts on a lot of pressure – heavy, very explosive, very powerful,” says Brundage, “so my game plan was actually just to meet him in the middle. His biggest knock is his cardio, so I felt like if I could just keep a pace on him, the fight would get progressively easier as it went on.”
The fight didn’t start off as auspiciously as it could have. “I was in on a single, and he was in a Whizzer position, and he was able to land an uppercut, which kind of buzzed me a little – it surprised me, you know, because you don’t really expect someone to bring that kind of heat from the knees, but he definitely brought the heat!” Brundage laughs. “So I was like, ‘Okay, so I don’t really want to get back to the feet, because I’m a little bit hurt,’ so I kind of tried to hide in the takedowns a little bit. He was throwing and trying to get me out of there, but a lot of the stuff he was throwing wasn’t landing super clean. And then when we get back to the feet, I had my wits about me again, so I was surviving, and kind of like, ‘Okay, I’m not gonna win this round, I’m getting beat up.’”
However, Brundage remained confident of his cardio advantage – and that if he managed to survive the first round and force his opponent into a second or third, he’d turn the fight around.
“Watching the film, you can tell that he knows his weakness is his cardio, so he’ll really blitz somebody, just so he can put pressure on them and force them to back off, so he can breathe a bit,” Brundage explains. “So I wasn’t going to back up, I was going to meet him in every exchange, I was going to make him exchange.”
In the end, Brundage didn’t need any extra rounds to take the fight back on his terms. Thanks to a well-timed guillotine choke, he won by submission before the first round ended. It’s one of several submission victories he’s claimed in recent memory, but Brundage doesn’t necessarily classify himself as a submission artist by definition. “Wrestling is definitely my strongest suit,” he admits. “I’ve done it a long time, I’ve wrestled all through college, but most wrestlers, their striking is pretty stiff – whereas I feel like I’m a more athletic wrestler, so I’m able to strike pretty well and pull off submissions – and some of [what I did], like jumping guard, most wrestlers aren’t going to do that.” It speaks to a versatility that Brundage has grown comfortable with during the past three years of his tenure in the pro leagues.
“I feel like a submission artist is more someone like Ryan Hall,” says Brundage. “I wouldn’t put myself in that category. I have solid submissions, I have good jiu-jitsu, but not on the level of guys like Ryan Hall or Demian Maia – those guys are the real submission artists.”
That said, Brundage does feel that his strong wrestling foundations allow him to dictate where the fight takes place. He points to the increasing numbers of high-level jiu-jitsu practitioners who have incorporated more wrestling into their practice to gain a competitive edge. “The wrestling is a great foundation for building your jiu-jitsu if you’re willing to go learn,” says Brundage, and adds: “A high-level wrestler with maybe less experience in jiu-jitsu is going to be able to compete with high-level jiu-jitsu guys who maybe don’t do any wrestling. But I think if you put [wrestling and jiu-jitsu] together, that combination’s pretty hard to beat.”
One half of a UFC power couple alongside MMA veteran Amanda Brundage née Cooper, Brundage has worked hard to adapt to his role as not only a fighter but a family man. “The [family life] balance is definitely tough,” admits Brundage. “Sometimes, I only get to see my daughter thirty, forty minutes a night. I feel lucky that my wife understands the grind, she understands the commitment that it takes, especially when you’re fighting the best guys in the world. She’s never pressured me to be home more, and I’m really lucky that she has the perspective [of having been in MMA herself]. Most people don’t get that.” In order to compensate for scant hours together during tough training camps, the Brundage clan makes the most of time between Cody’s camps to maximize quality time together.
“My wife’s a fighter, but she’s really taken a back seat [to take care of the family] – she went and got her CNA license, she’s in school – so she can help our daughter a lot more,” says Brundage. “And that’s paying dividends. We’re in a Facebook group with parents of other children who have the same condition, and they’re like, ‘Wow, [your daughter] is only one and sitting up? My child didn’t sit up until they were three!’ And I attribute all of that to my wife putting in the work and time with her.”
“The fact that she’s putting her own dream – her dream of coming back to the UFC and fighting again – on the back burner, really motivates me,” adds Brundage. “Her willingness to let me take the role of a fighter while she takes on more of the role of parent, definitely makes me want to push myself. Like, if she’s willing to do this, how can I skip a gym session? How can I cheat on my diet? How can I be short of perfect at what I’m doing? She’s giving up one of her biggest dreams and goals for now – so how can I disrespect that by not doing the most I can to be successful?”
Family life aside, Amanda’s own impressive MMA credentials – which in fact predate Brundage’s own – have also proven a tremendous boon to his professional development. “When I first met my wife, she was just my teammate and one of my coaches,” says Brundage. “I had no idea what I was doing, so she was coaching me up, and she was like, ‘Listen, you’re going to be really good, you’re going to get to the UFC, and you’re going to owe me two percent forever.’ I joke that she gets way more than two percent now!”
Their origin story as a couple is the stuff of both romcoms and sports dramas. “I moved to Michigan and was coaching wrestling,” says Brundage. “It was about an hour and a half from the gym where I was training. And I was living in the middle [between my work and my gym]. So I’d go to the gym early in the morning when no one was there. I’d be there for like two hours, hitting the bag, and I had no idea what I was doing.”
That was when Amanda intervened. “She would be there [at the same time] giving private lessons,” remembers Brundage. “Eventually, I was probably there for like three days, not knowing what I’m doing, when she comes up to me and goes, ‘Listen. Have you ever fought before?’”
“No,” Brundage admitted sheepishly.
“Have you ever boxed?” asked Amanda.
“No,” repeated Brundage. “I’ve never done any striking, I’m just a wrestler.” He’d taken a few jiu-jitsu classes by that point but was still a relative beginner.
“Okay, listen,” said Amanda, who was primarily a boxer at the time, “I’m going to help you with your striking. In exchange, you can help me with my wrestling.”
Photo/Instagram: cody_brundage_
Brundage agreed readily enough. “Really, I didn’t help her that much,” he confides, all self-effacing smiles. “She was helping me way more than I was helping her. But the thing was, I didn’t know who she was at the time! I was like, ‘Who’s this girl who’s gonna come teach me how to strike?’
As it turned out, the “girl teaching him how to strike” was, at the time, a professional UFC fighter.
Brundage chuckles when he remembers their first meeting now. “I was all egotistical and arrogant, like an idiot, and then of course, I find out later that she competes at the highest level, and is way better than me at everything! So she helped me a lot with my striking. I would go in the morning, then drive to practice, do the practice, then drive back and do night classes, where she would help me as well.”
“That went on for about six months, and we just got really close,” Brundage continues. “I was with her for her camp in Detroit, when she fought. We were just friends at the time, but we were really close, and one thing led to another. We started dating, got married, and now we’ve got a baby.”
He also gained valuable secondhand experience from observing the trajectory of his wife’s career in MMA. “It’s tough, growing up in the UFC [the way she did],” Brundage notes. “Every fight you have is the toughest fight you’re gonna have. Everyone there has the same story [you] do. You can’t take anyone there lightly.”
“[Amanda] is my confidante,” says Brundage. “Before my fight, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this. This guy is scary, he hits hard, maybe I should just act like I got hurt.’ And she was like, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ And I know I can’t do that, but she’s someone I can talk to about those things, because she’s built the same way. Any person who’s ever fought – maybe they won’t tell you that, because it’s not the cool thing to do, or they want to seem tougher than they are – but this sport is crazy, and it plays tricks on your mind. The mental battle leading up to your fight is almost as hard as the physical one. So to have someone there who knows all the stressors about what you’re going through – and to be able to bounce that off of her, and to know that this is normal and that it’s okay to feel this way – I’m lucky to have her, to have her doing that for me all the time at home. My coach also reinforces it in practice, so they’re a really good one-two punch.”
“Whenever ‘I’ accomplish something [in a fight],” – Brundage uses air quotes here – “I always say that ‘we’ accomplished it. And I say ‘we’ because I would never be there without my teammates, my coaches, my wife – I know that. I would be a wreck without them. I wouldn’t be nearly as successful as I am without them.”
His wife doing occasional double duty as one of his unofficial coaches hasn’t stopped Brundage from sometimes playing the contrarian athlete – even back when Amanda was also his teammate. He smiles, remembering his very first amateur fight: “I remember, before I walked out, my wife was in my corner, and she was like, ‘Listen, we’re just going to wrestle this kid. Don’t throw any punches, don’t get hurt, just wrestle him.’”
“I think I might throw a punch or something,” Brundage protested.
Amanda wasn’t having it. “No! Just wrestle!”
Lo and behold, Brundage knocked his opponent out with the first punch he threw. He laughs. “I was like, ‘This is the greatest sport in the world!’”
Did his wife disapprove of him disregarding her coaching? “I was so over the moon that I won, she kind of let it go,” Brundage admits, grinning.
It’s a sequence of events comedically echoed in his showdown against Lungiambula. “Before this fight, I was like, ‘If he shoots in, I’m gonna jump for the guillotine,’” says Brundage. “And [my wife] was like, ‘Don’t jump the guillotine! That never works!’”
Sure enough, Lungiambula shot in, and Brundage hit the guillotine. “Told you so,” Brundage crowed at Amanda over the phone after the fight.
“I’m glad that it worked,” she relented dryly, “but don’t do that ever again.”
So, what got Brundage interested in MMA in the first place? “It’s kind of crazy – I was always a big fan, I was running fight clubs out of our wrestling rooms,” he remembers, laughing. “And I was terrible! I was horrible. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just knew how to wrestle.” Unlike some of the other fighters he knows, he didn’t have a terribly rough upbringing as a teen growing up in middle-class America, but he didn’t love the sport any less. His wrestling background also instilled a love of competition in him – which was hard to satisfy with anything other than a combat sport. “After college, my mom was like, ‘Do CrossFit!’” recalls Brundage. CrossFit, though, didn’t fill the void the same way fighting did.
“The biggest hurdle was just doing it for the first time,” says Brundage. “Because I remember I would always tell my parents I was going to fight.” Brundage’s parents were less than thrilled at the notion. “You have a college degree, you have all the opportunities in the world, you’re not going to fight,” they’d tell him.
But Brundage fought regardless. He took his first fight on short notice. At the time, he was living out of his car and didn’t even tell his parents that he’d taken the fight. “It was in Ohio. I weighed in, I posted a picture on Instagram, and my dad called me,” Brundage remembers. He sports a slightly sheepish grin. “He was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
Luckily, Brundage’s parents are a lot more approving of their son’s career choice now that he’s proven his mettle as an elite athlete. A family of sports enthusiasts, Brundage is grateful to them for raising him in a deeply physical culture: “I was super lucky. Both my parents were really strong, mentally. My mom was on the Olympic team for biathlon, my dad was Special Forces, my youngest brother plays lacrosse, and my sister plays D-1 soccer.”
Photo/Instagram: cody_brundage_
“I think it’s still tough for them that I fight – for any parent, it’s tough,” says Brundage. He understands those emotions particularly well as a young parent himself. “If my daughter came to me and told me she wanted to fight, I’d definitely be hesitant. I think for my parents, it’s not even that they’re worried about me getting hurt – it’s just tough for them to see their son in a physical altercation, whether I’m winning or losing. It’s tough for them because they didn’t grow up in that world – my wife’s dad, was a boxer, so her mom and dad get that side of the physicality a bit more. But [my parents] are still really proud, and super supportive.”
Brundage’s parents were also initially concerned about the financial stability of an MMA career – so it helps that Brundage is smart with his money. “The UFC is the NFL of our sport, but the net worth of the NFL or NBA is obviously much higher,” he notes. According to Brundage, it’s difficult for a fighter to do anything tangible to advocate for higher pay. Walking out is rarely an option, simply because the talent pool available to the UFC is so deep and young, ambitious fighters so replaceable.
“I’m happy with how I’m being compensated,” he says, “but it is what it is. My friend Dustin Jacoby always says, ‘Listen, if you just win, it’ll work itself out,’ and that’s true. It’s tough when that’s your ultimatum to make money, but it’s true – if you continue to win, you’ll continue to get new contracts, and once you get to the second or third contract, you’re making enough money that not only are you living well, you’re living comfortably – as long as you’re smart with your money.”
That caveat – being smart with your money – is key. “Part of the problem is that a lot of fighters aren’t smart with their money,” Brundage points out. “A lot of fighters aren’t paying their taxes. A lot of fighters don’t know how to invest. A lot of fighters just aren’t doing intelligent things with their money, which is why they have to turn around and fight someone that maybe they shouldn’t fight. It’s happened many times.”
As a result, he’s a big believer in financial literacy resources for MMA fighters. “What I would love to see, in terms of reform, is the UFC maybe investing in financial counseling classes for fighters,” says Brundage. “Because I know a lot of fighters who maybe didn’t make a ton of money from their fights – but made a lot from investing that money after the fight. These guys make good money to fight, but since we get paid in large chunks – which is unusual [for income] – if you know how to invest that money, you can turn it around and have something at the end of your fight career. So I just think there should be more focus on financial advising, honestly.”
Brundage hopes to eventually become an MMA coach in his own right. “My [original] goal was to be a high school teacher and high school wrestling coach,” he says. “I’ve had some really good mentors, some really good coaches to bounce ideas off of, which has taught me a lot about my own game as well. So it would be really cool to be a coach here [at Factory X] and coach alongside the guys I’ve worked with. It would be awesome.”
As for what legacy he’d like to leave behind, Brundage hopes to be a role model for both fans and athletes coming up in the sport. That doesn’t just mean setting a good example – it also means learning from the mistakes of his own youth. “Back when I was an amateur, I thought I needed to [trash talk], and a lot of it just cringed, you know?”
He winces at the memory. “I can’t tell you how many Facebook statuses I’ve deleted, how many callouts of people I’ve deleted, just because it was so fake. I look at it now like, ‘How could you even write that? You were such a fool.’ But I was twenty-three years old, I was younger, and I thought that was what you needed to do to be successful. I just don’t feel that way anymore. And I try to tell amateurs from my old team the same thing, like, ‘Listen, you don’t need to do that to be successful. You can get to the highest level without doing that.’ I try to help people learn from my mistakes.”
Photo/Instagram: cody_brundage_
He laughs, still full of mild but good-natured embarrassment over the antics of his youth. “Thankfully, that’s in the past, I’m not doing that anymore. And it was when I was such a young fighter that thankfully, not too many people got to see it!”
What about the Brundage of the current era – the older, wiser fighter and family man who’s had enough time now to regret the cringey social media behavior of his early career? “As a fighter, I just really want people to see me as someone who wouldn’t quit, who wouldn’t give up on themselves – as well as someone who’s entertaining, and I think those two things go hand in hand,” he says. “Outside of the cage, though, I just want people to see me as genuine. I try to be as genuine as possible. I feel like there’s a lot of fakeness in the game because people think it sells, or for whatever reason – you know, I’m not going to knock anybody from doing what they think they have to do, but for me, I’ve just always tried to be genuine.”
“I’ve always tried to ensure that my ‘character’ is truly who I am,” he continues. “And I take pride in that, and I feel good about that. And I’ve kind of molded that after guys like Anthony Smith, who’s one of my mentors, and has really taken me under his wing, and Dustin Jacoby, who’s done the same. I just think being genuine is the best thing you can be, and that it goes a long way to show people who are fans that you don’t have to be this boisterous, egotistical person. You can just be who you are, and that’s pretty cool too.”
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The arrest took place in the late hours of Wednesday night and Masvidal was charged with one count of aggravated battery in a mask resulting in great bodily harm(a fractured tooth and an abrasion on his wrist) and one count of criminal mischief($15,000 worth of damage to Covington’s $90,000 Rolex watch).
Covington pressed charges against Masvidal after the incident. The police report states that Masvidal ran up and struck Covington without notice while wearing a blue surgical mask and said “you shouldn’t have been talking about my kids”. Masvidal surrendered to police custody where his injured and stitched hands were photographed.
ARREST: MBPD Detectives have arrested and charged Jorge Masvidal with: – Aggravated Battery w/Mask – Felony Criminal Mischief
Masvidal posted his $15,000 bail and was released within 24 hours. His attorney’s only statement reads, “Mr. Masvidal will allow this matter to proceed through the court and does not have any further comment at this time.”
Kenny Kim’s next installment of Mat Made highlights the triumphant story of Air Force veteran Dan Bierne who used Jiu-Jitsu to treat PTSD and Neural cognitive disorder.
For this episode, Kim visits Charleston, South Carolina, and stops into Malchy Friedman’s Black Label Martial Arts for some training. While there, he explores the history of Charleston while enjoying the local foods. They stop at Acme Lowcountry Kitchen for shrimp and grits, and this is where Kenny first meets Bierne.
On the mats, Bierne shares a bit of his history before inviting Kenny back to his farm and really sharing his life.
“I might have a bad anxiety night, not sleep, be distant from my wife, or be distant from anybody else. Then I go to jiu-jitsu and it’s all gone.”
Bierne’s story highlights the all-too-common story of military veterans struggling after their service. However, jiu-jitsu is also becoming a common story for treating these ailments, as shown by the WeDefy Foundation, which sponsors jiu-jitsu training for disabled veterans and victims of military sexual assault. Their work has shown firsthand that jiu-jitsu is an effective form of treatment, and coincides well with most veterans’ needs.
The bio for May Made’s newest episode states, “Kenny visits Charleston to teach and train at Black Label Martial Arts. While he is there, his longtime friend, Kirt, takes him on a history tour downtown and to eat some incredible shrimp and grits at Acme Lowcountry Kitchen.
But the real reason Kenny is in Charleston is to hear the incredible redemption story of 23 year US Air Force Veteran Dan Bierne who has found a new community and purpose in life through Jiu-Jitsu.”
The entire episode can be found at the link below.
UFC welterweight contenders Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal got in a fight at a Miami restaurant late Monday night.
The pair recently faced off in a 5 round fight at UFC 272 on March 5 with Covington taking a Unanimous Decision victory. Immediately after the fight, the two had to be separated by event staff as they continued to hurl insults back and forth.
Monday’s incident took place at Papi Steak restaurant in Miami. Covington was dining with the Nelk Boys after recording an episode of the Full Send Podcast. It is reported that Masvidal did not eat at the restaurant. TMZ reports that Masvidal attacked as Covington was leaving the restaurant.
Video obtained at the scene clearly shows Covington surrounded by police outside of the restaurant, asking how Masvidal knew his whereabouts.
ONE Championship founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong wants to take jiu-jitsu to the next level. “I think that ONE is going to be the game-changing platform that brings jiu-jitsu to the mainstream globally, at the largest scale possible,” Sityodtong tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “So that jiu-jitsu athletes will not only have a bigger fanbase but also more sponsorship opportunities and bigger fight purses than ever seen before in history.”
He’s not afraid of putting his money where his mouth is. The most recent additions to ONE’s grappling talent roster include twin grappling sensations Kade and Tye Ruotolo, as well as five-time black belt world champion Mikey Musumeci. Previously, Sityodtong also signed no-gi king Gordon Ryan, rising star Danielle Kelly, and IBJJF Hall of Fame member Michelle Nicolini.
So, equipped with a talent stable full of jiu-jitsu’s most sought-after superstars, what can we expect from ONE’s matchmakers?
Sityodtong breaks the news that Musumeci already has his first grappling match with ONE booked. “Next month, Mikey Musumeci is fighting [Masakazu] Imanari in ONE,” Sityodtong shares. “Imanari’s obviously the heel hook specialist, so that’s going to be a fun match.”
According to Sityodtong, he and the competition department approached Musumeci and Imanari with the matchup only a couple of days after signing Musumeci. Both athletes signed in a day. The match will be a one-round, twelve-minute super fight, under a submission-only ruleset with no points.
That said, Sityodtong doesn’t think the particulars of the ruleset will matter much. “If you match up the right athletes, the ruleset doesn’t matter,” he says. “If you match up a staller with a staller, no matter what ruleset you give them, they’ll find a way to stall. But if you match up a finisher with a finisher, it’s like two lions or lionesses coming in. Twelve minutes, fifteen minutes – it doesn’t matter, they’ll look for the finish.”
That’s not just Sityodtong’s opinion either. He recalls a recent conversation with John Danaher: “I asked him, ‘Do you think we have the right rules for submission grappling?’ He said, ‘Look, ninety to ninety-five percent of a match outcome is determined by the two athletes. If they are aggressive finishers, you’ll get a finish. The ruleset actually doesn’t matter that much.’”
“At ONE, if I look at our competition department – which organizes all the matchmaking and signs all the athletes – they put on fights with a 70 percent finish rate, which is almost double that of the UFC and Bellator,” Sityodtong notes. “We try to do the most exciting matchups, and all our athletes – in MMA, in kickboxing, in jiu-jitsu – they’re all finishers. So, I don’t think Imanari versus Mikey is going to end with a decision.”
How exactly did Musumeci end up at ONE in the first place? Sityodtong grins, recounting, “Mikey reached out to me a year ago on Instagram, and I didn’t read his message – I literally just read his message two or three weeks ago. He was like, ‘Sir, I’d love to join ONE,’ and so forth, but since Instagram has those filters [for DMs], I never checked his. And one day, I just checked, randomly, and it turned out I’d missed all these messages. So I went through them quickly, and was like, ‘Mikey Musumeci! That’s crazy, I’m a big fan!’” Sityodtong got Musumeci on the phone shortly after and signed him a few days later.
In other words, one of the best grapplers in the world literally slid into Sityodtong’s DMs – quite the testament to ONE’s popularity as a promotional platform.
One way that ONE sets itself apart from other major MMA promotions – most notably, the UFC and Bellator – is through the sheer breadth of its events. Sityodtong has built a true combat sports empire, but one where cage fighting alone isn’t the sole path to superstardom. That’s a tremendous boon for grappling specialists who aren’t certain of – or interested in – donning MMA gloves.
“We always try to work with our athletes about what they want,” says Sityodtong. “Part of the appeal is that they can win world titles in submission grappling, as well as MMA, eventually – be a double sports champion – which you can’t do in other organizations. Like, if you join the other two major global MMA promotions, the UFC or Bellator, you can only do MMA.”
That range of options for career growth is clear even among ONE’s most recently signed jiu-jitsu talent. “Mikey [Musumeci] for example only wants to do jiu-jitsu, and we’re cool with that. I think there are some phenomenal matchups for him,” says Sityodtong.
On the other hand, the Ruotolo twins, also recently signed under the ONE banner, have expressed an interest in adding MMA to their repertoire, which Sityodtong equally encourages. “They want to make their MMA debuts by year-end, so they’re not looking at the slow track for MMA,” he confirms. “They want to go out there, guns blazing. So I think we’re going to first ease them into submission grappling for the next several months, and then MMA toward the end of the year. But apparently, they’ve been doing striking and wrestling and all that stuff already, so it’s not like they’re newbies. They’ve been preparing for this for many years. Of course, nothing’s going to prepare them for the nerves of twenty thousand people in a stadium, and a hundred million viewers – they’re going to be surprised by how much media attention and fan attention they’re going to get, which is a shock to the system – but I think they’ll rise to the occasion. If anything, it’ll inspire them to perform at a higher level than they’ve ever performed.”
Sityodtong also wants to give the twins space to develop independently as athletes, depending on their individual needs and inclinations – and thanks to the flexibility of ONE as a platform, he’s well-positioned to do so: “I think of Kade and Tye as separate individuals, and we’ll work with them on what they want – yes, they are brothers, and yes, it’s great for marketing that they’re twins – but I think Kade and Tye are individual human beings with individual needs and wants. Maybe for a moment in time, those needs and wants will be similar, and maybe down the road, one of them decides to only do submission grappling, or only do MMA, or the other decides they want simultaneous world titles in both – you know, there’s a whole platform for them to discover here. Who knows, maybe one of them wants to do a kickboxing fight, or a Muay Thai fight – that’s an option here too.”
What inspired Sityodtong to unite such a wide range of combat sports promotions under a single banner?
“Obviously, my first martial art is Muay Thai, I’ve been doing Muay Thai for thirty-five-plus years, and I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu since 2005, [so] when I started ONE, I had a very simple motivation,” says Sityodtong. “It was literally just because I wanted to share my greatest passion in life with the world. I grew up on martial arts, ever since I was a kid, and I just wanted to showcase it in its most authentic light, with the greatest martial artists in the world – but do it in a way that represents the true martial arts ethos, the bushido code, if you will. The way of the warrior.”
To Sityodtong, that means staying true to the hand-to-hand and self-defense roots of martial arts. “If you look at our ruleset, it’s always about reality,” he elaborates. “At the same time, I really do want all our athletes to give an honest and authentic expression of themselves – but also, the vast majority of our martial artists come from years and years of training and learning and growing and competing and setbacks, and all that: the whole journey of the warrior. So I encourage them, at the end of the day, like, ‘Look, we have the biggest martial arts platform in the world, with the highest viewership numbers – I think the next event we’ve got coming up, ONE X, has a hundred million viewers, that’s the equivalent of a Superbowl – and jiu-jitsu has never had that kind of eyeballs.’”
That kind of viewership, according to Sityodtong, could be a game-changer for grappling as a whole.
“I have a lot of friends in the jiu-jitsu community who are rooting for ONE to help jiu-jitsu blow up all over the world, on a global scale, in the mainstream,” says Sityodtong. Those friends include movers and shakers like John Danaher, Renzo Gracie, Roger Gracie, and Léo Vieira, to name just a few. “All these incredible legends of the sport have given me so much positive reinforcement and encouragement that it really keeps me going.”
It helps, of course, that Sityodtong has a proven track record of showcasing grappling talent on a stage designed to excite – and multiply – their fanbase.
“I think it really started with Garry Tonon, several years ago,” says Sityodtong. “He came to Singapore, we met, and hit it off. I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for a number of years as well, so I love jiu-jitsu. We’re a whole martial arts organization – it’s not just about MMA for us. If you think about it, MMA is really only one vertical of martial arts. We showcase mixed martial arts, kickboxing, submission grappling – we’ve even done world championship boxing on our platform. So it’s a celebration of the greatest martial artists on the planet, and when I first signed Garry, we did a Shinya Aoki versus Garry Tonon submission grappling match – and that’s the first time Asia’s ever seen that in primetime, free-to-air TV, and it was a hit! So the seed was planted.”
During roughly the same time period, multiple-time jiu-jitsu world champion Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida also visited Singapore and had dinner with Sityodtong. “He told me that if he ever did MMA, he’d want to do it in ONE,” Sityodtong remembers. “And then Gordon Ryan came to Singapore as well – had dinner, came to my office, and then we just hit it off. It all happened so organically.”
What exactly does he mean by that? “I think for us, it’s always been organic,” explains Sityodtong. “It’s never been like, ‘oh, let’s just go after [these jiu-jitsu champions]’ – if you look at our jiu-jitsu roster, it is the world’s greatest, but it’s also the world’s most exciting.”
In other words, to sign with ONE, it’s not enough to simply collect gold medals – the way you win matters. “I’d rather not sign stallers or folks who try to win by advantage or folks who try to win by a single sweep in the last thirty seconds of a match,” says Sityodtong. “That doesn’t represent true martial arts to me. You might be winning titles for that, but it’s not what jiu-jitsu [was originally meant for].” Instead, Sityodtong wants to sign finishers – grapplers who aren’t afraid to go in for the kill.
Sityodtong also cares about character. “I just feel very blessed and very lucky, to be honest, that all these great athletes have reached out, and want to be a part of ONE,” he says. Across all combat sports, he describes his preferred athletes as “true martial artists – people who don’t necessarily want to engage in some of the hatred and negativity and racism and things you have to do to promote a fight.”
This isn’t to say that he entirely eschews the notion of trash talk. “I think you can play psychological warfare, but maintain your humanity. You don’t have to cross a line – like you don’t have to go insulting people’s kids. That, for me, is important. I think trash talk is fun, as long as it doesn’t cross that line. When you cross a line, people know it – when you’re going after people’s kids, and insulting their wives and religion, you know?” There’s a sense of honor that Sityodtong likes to see fighters retain.
He cites the Ruotolo twins as a prime example of exceptional athletes whose personalities also appeal to ONE’s brand of integrity: “What I love about Kade and Tye is that they’re such good people, with good hearts. The way they carry themselves, I can’t believe they’re [so young], to be honest. I mean, with their jiu-jitsu, I can’t believe [how young they are], but also on a human level, their maturity, and their emotional intelligence, and what they want out of life – they told me that they have a Bob Marley quote about how life is about how many lives you touch on your journey. And I just thought, ‘wow, at their age, I definitely wasn’t thinking in those terms.’”
A lifelong martial artist himself and veteran of multiple Muay Thai fights, Sityodtong expresses a strong sense of empathy for his athletes. “If I had the genetic talent, I would have gone and tried to become a world champion,” he confides with a self-effacing chuckle. “But I didn’t have that – I’m a world-class striker and reasonably decent at jiu-jitsu, but I’m not a world champion athlete, genetically. So instead, I just do it because I love it, because martial arts is my passion, and martial arts is who I am.” He channels that same love into connecting with ONE’s athletes: “Does [being a martial artist] help me connect? Absolutely. I’m from the Muay Thai community. I’m from the jiu-jitsu community. They’re my brothers and sisters. Of the major global organizations, I’m the only CEO who truly is born from the [martial arts] community, bred from the community, and still a part of the community.”
It grants Sityodtong a unique perspective on certain business issues in combat sports – particularly the matter of pay equity. Thanks to his own combat sports background, he’s more viscerally aware than most of what fighters endure, and as a result, passionate about ensuring that his athletes are well-compensated. “I have a great relationship with all our athletes, and where we can, we try to pay the highest in the world,” says Sityodtong. “We’ve never had a problem with pay with our athletes, and I can tell you that our jiu-jitsu stars will be paid the highest in the world, full stop – there’s no jiu-jitsu promotion in the world that’s even close to our pay scale.”
“It’s about the fact that I’ve been on the mats, and smashed, and had my knees popped, that I know everything they go through – all those things,” he elaborates. “So I really relate, and because I’ve been a martial artist longer than I’ve been an entrepreneur, I want to do right. I want to do right by our athletes. If I was a pure businessman – like my counterparts at the UFC or Bellator – and there’s nothing wrong with being a businessman, you have to be profitable at the end of the day, but being a businessman is only one lens. I like to look through multiple lenses. Because I am a martial artist, and I see how hard people train, and how they get hurt, I’m very empathetic because I’ve been there: weight cuts, injuries, losses, knockouts. Everything that happens on the journey. So for me, it’s not about how little I can get away with paying a fighter – it’s about fairness, it’s about generosity, it’s about trying our best. So I can comfortably say that our athletes are among the highest-paid in the world, in every discipline.”
That attitude also extends to breaking traditional barriers of sexism in combat sports. “When Angela Lee – our atomweight world champion – won the world title at nineteen, I made her the top three highest-paid athletes on our roster, male or female,” Sityodtong remembers. “I posted it on my social media, and I had this huge uproar – I mean, I got so much hate mail from people all over Asia demanding to know how I could pay a woman as much as a man, or how I could pay a nineteen-year-old so much.”
Sityodtong describes the experience as a seminal moment. “At first, I was of course taken aback by all the hate, but I also knew that this was an opportunity to inspire little girls all over the continent of Asia – not just to be a fighter – but to make them realize, ‘I can be the best in the world at whatever I want to be if Angela Lee can do it at nineteen, and be an equal peer to a male.’ So I stood my ground because if you’re the best in the world, it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, you should be paid the best.”
Moments like these, the way Sityodtong sees it, are also an opportunity to shape the broader culture of the world for the better. “What shapes culture? What shapes society for the next generation?” he asks. “It’s four things: family, education, sports, and entertainment. That’s how societal norms are created. So if we create athletes who are racist, or who beat up women, or who beat up old men in bars, or are just despicable characters, that’s what a thirteen-year-old will think is right. So that’s what my team and I think about very deeply: yes, we’re a martial arts organization, but more than that, we’re a platform for humanity. Yes, it sounds corny, but I believe in it with every fiber of my being. This is why we’re doing it.”
He sees jiu-jitsu, in particular, as a sport ripe for growth and influence. “Jiu-jitsu has been growing rapidly for the past ten years, but has not yet hit the mainstream psyche in the way that MMA has,” says Sityodtong. “And I feel that our platform, broadcasting live in 154 countries, with an average viewership of thirty, forty, fifty million depending on the event [will change that]. We’re entering the US market – I’m making a major announcement of our US broadcast partner in the next few weeks, which is also going to be earth-shaking. Never before have we seen jiu-jitsu on a major broadcaster, and you’ll see that for the first time. So, I feel like this is a special moment in time for the entire jiu-jitsu community: athletes, fans, and hobbyists alike.”
So, with that in mind, what can ONE’s audience look forward to in the near future?
Quite a lot, according to Siyodtong. “Stay tuned for big things that Gordon Ryan’s going to do, that Garry Tonon’s going to do, that Kade and Tye are going to do, that Mikey’s going to do, that André [Galvão]’s going to do. You’re going to see that jiu-jitsu is going to blow up – and it’s going to be phenomenal for academies all over the world, which are going to have more and more students. That’s the biggest thing I’d like to share: that a big explosion, a big wave, a big exponential inflection point is going to happen with ONE, and I think we have the right athletes to make it happen as well. And that’s very important – if we just have a big platform, that’s not enough. We have a big platform, but when we also have exciting finishers like Mikey, Gordon, and Garry – it’s going to blow up in a huge way.”
Photo: onefc
Don’t miss ONE X, streaming on Saturday, March 26, via ONE Championship.
Stay Healthy And Safe While You Train Hard With This FREE Series From The Most In-Demand Grappling Coach On Earth, Professor John Danaher, As He Explains How To Maintain The Safest Habits In The Gym
Learn how to avoid the most common injury situations that come up in any Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym with John’s advice on what to look for.
Cultivate the right gym culture for safety and success as John shows you how important lessons like the law of the triad help guide his students to new levels.
Avoid collision and falling body weight injuries as you see what causes these injuries and why you can easily train around these problems.
Make your submission training safe with John’s simple rules that no one talks about!
Professor John Danaher has taught grappling and combat superstars like Gordon Ryan, Georges St. Pierre, Garry Tonon, and many more throughout his illustrious coaching career – with remarkable success with students of all levels of experience and athleticism.
In UFC’s 12th London installment, the card was stacked with UK-based stars and tons of great match ups, making for one of the most exciting fight nights in a while.
Out of 12 fights, there were 5 submissions(all in the 1st round) and 4 KOs, only 3 fights reaching the judge’s scorecards. Every fighter who finished their opponent received a $50,000 bonus.
The 5 submissions were an Armbar from Tom Aspinall, a Rear Naked Choke from Paddy Pimblett, an Anaconda Choke from Makwan Amirkhani, a Triangle Choke from Paul Craig, and a Guillotine Choke from Muhammad Mokaev.
Tom Aspinall finished off the night with his main event win over Alexander Volkov. Aspinall was on point as he picked Volkov apart on the feet and on the ground. The jiu-jitsu black belt was able to secure the submission(which caused a pop in Volkov’s elbow) in the first round. After the fight, he called out Tai Tuivasa for his next opponent.
Hometown favorite Paddy Pimblett showed off his submission skills for the first time in the UFC with his 1st round RNC. The submission is the 9th of his professional career. The crowd went absolutely crazy over his win, as teammate Molly McCann rushed the octagon to celebrate their victories together.
In the final fight of the prelims, Makwan Amirkhani’s Anaconda Choke put Mike Grundy to sleep just :57 seconds into the fight. Grundy’s early takedown attempt turned out to work against him, after he shot in for a single leg just 10 seconds into the fight, Amirkhani reacted by grabbing the neck with an arm in guillotine. After sitting on the ground, Amirkhani switched to an Anaconda and Grundy tried to roll out of the position, but Amirkhani was able to tie up the legs and sink in the choke until Grundy went to sleep.
Paul Craig is becoming one of the UFC’s best fighters to watch fight off of their back, as he finished his fight tonight with a swift Triangle Choke. Krylov is a formidable opponent with a record that boasts 15 submissions and 10 KOs. Krylov gained top position with an early double leg and quickly got to work landing some nasty blows from top half. Craig moved to lockdown à la Eddie Bravo and found an opportunity to retract his inside leg and recover guard, but received some more vicious punches as a reward. Craig was mostly able to maintain his guard, but continued to get hammered with heavy shots that seemed to have enough power to end the fight at any moment. As Krylov was stacking, Craig grabbed a two-on-one grip on Krylov’s and quickly locked up a triangle out of nowhere. He got some payback with a couple of strikes of his own before really squeezing and getting the tap.
Another hometown favorite, Muhammad Mokaev, kicked off the UFC London card with a guillotine finish just :58 seconds into the fight. After feeling his opponent for about :30 seconds, Mokaev surprised Cody Durden with a flying knee that put Durden down and wobbly. Mokaev was quick to jump on the guillotine and Durden reacted by grabbing a high-crotch single leg and slamming Mokaev, but Mokaev never lost his grip, came on top, and finished the guillotine from the mount.
When you are brand new to any sport, you begin by learning the fundamentals. These are the foundation for everything else you learn. If you think of a house with a poor foundation, then that is how someone would be who lacks or is limited in their fundamentals. The rest that is built will be on shaky ground. When you have a solid foundation then everything else built is solid as well and has them to fall back on.
In jiu-jitsu, learning and reviewing the fundamentals can not happen enough. Yes, if you are advanced, then you also want to learn advanced techniques. At the same time reviewing the fundamentals is always helpful to your game. They make everything more advanced in your game improve since the “foundation” is stronger.
Some can rush to want to get to the advanced technique, yet staying longer than planned with the fundamentals will have a much greater benefit to your game. Going back to the fundamentals will improve your game at any level. At the start of the advanced class, there are the same warmups that are done every time. Doing these repeatedly will not only help your game but put them in your muscle memory. The result is having to think less and less during your rolls over time.
Whenever there is a person that hits the same submission all of the time, it was repeated thousands of times. Any sub or sweep or position can become your go-to if you practice it enough. Looking at the fundamentals like that can help appreciate why they need to be continually practiced to become like a go-to sub, etc.
Everyone has different schedules and priorities when it comes to attending jiu-jitsu classes. If you are new then obviously you want to be going to as many fundamentals classes as possible. After 3 months to a year(depending on how often you train), you may try a mixed levels class. It is not until blue belt for most that it would be a good idea to go to an advanced class, while still attending fundamentals classes for the majority of your time. After time at blue belt and belts above, is it beneficial to mostly attend advanced classes?
The classes you choose are also important when it comes to rolling. If there is live rolling at the end of class, then you want one appropriate for your level. It is ideal to be able to work on offense with someone at a lower level, defense with someone at a higher level, and both with someone at your level. Sometimes you may have to go to a mix of classes to get all of these options. If you are just starting, then obviously you don’t have all of those options. It is good to keep them in mind though for when it might change in the future.
I don’t feel like it is that common, but you also don’t want to always be in the fundamentals when you are at an advanced level if your schedule allows for advanced classes. Even though fundamentals are always important, your progress will be slower. To keep in mind is to not ever discount the fundamentals regardless of your level.
Erin Herle has conquered her fair share of high-level jiu-jitsu competition – as well as an amateur MMA victory – but come April, she’s setting her sights on her first pure striking competition: the US Muay Thai Open West in Phoenix. “The thing is, when I did my MMA fight, I felt like I needed to figure out what it felt like to get punched in the face so that I didn’t [rely on] my jiu-jitsu right away,” Herle tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “This will obviously be different – because these will be actual strikers who won’t be thinking about anything other than striking.”
Herle may not be the first elite jiu-jitsu black belt to have tried her hand at MMA, but she’s one of the few who’s open about just how non-MMA-friendly her specific grappling style is. “Almost none of my jiu-jitsu really applies to MMA jiu-jitsu,” Herle says, laughing. “In [sport-jiu-jitsu], I’m always on the bottom. In MMA, not only am I supposed to be on top, I’m really supposed to pressure down.”
The decorated Alliance black belt describes herself primarily as a guard specialist – a far cry from the “wrestle-Jitsu” aficionados who typically have an easier time transitioning to MMA, thanks to powerful top game and heavy hands. In contrast, when Herle first expressed an interest in MMA, her declaration sparked immediate alarm from her training partners. “They were like, ‘You’re going to do MMA? Um, you play spider guard, and you haven’t taken anyone down in like twelve years. Why would you do this?’”
The answer? “Because it’s hard,” says Herle bluntly. “Because it’s completely different, and requires a completely different skill set.” Never one to take the easy path forward, Herle constantly seeks self-improvement. “There are so many times that I was so comfortable hitting resistance on a takedown attempt [in jiu-jitsu] and just accepting guard – and I wanted to do something where I couldn’t just rely on that.”
Herle may spend a lot of time pulling guard in pure sport jiu-jitsu, but that didn’t stop her from winning her first MMA fight in 2019 – with a ground and pound knockout, no less.
Unlike many jiu-jitsu players turned MMA fighters – who often take on a few kickboxing matches prior to their first tango in the cage – Herle has never entered a pure striking competition. “When I said, ‘maybe I’ll just do a kickboxing fight first,’ [my coach] told me it would be traumatic,” Herle explains. “He was like, ‘In jiu-jitsu, you can tap out. In kickboxing, you’re going to get hurt no matter what. It’s nonstop. I don’t want to put you in that situation, and make you shy away from it, and be traumatized’ – that was the word he used, ‘trauma.’ And I’m really glad he did.”
In MMA, at least, Herle would have the option of falling back on her grappling skills. “With MMA, if I had chosen to, I could defend, defend, and just look for my shot,” Herle acknowledges. “But this was [an amateur MMA fight], and I wanted to learn what it was like to get punched.”
Now that she’s experienced the thrill and fear of the cage, Herle wants to get truly comfortable with striking – and by eliminating the option of going to the ground, Herle will be forced to exchange blows. It’ll be the first combat sport she’s entered where leveraging superior jiu-jitsu skill simply won’t be an option.
“This tournament is a really easy tournament, in terms of the class I’m entering – there’s class A, class B, class C, and I’m class C, which means zero to three bouts. So basically, that means I’m the novice – like I’m in the equivalent of the white belt division of Muay Thai,” she explains. “I’m obviously going to look at it through the lens of jiu-jitsu, but it’s not jiu-jitsu. It’s going to be a different feel, and I’m looking forward to that, but at the same time, I’m not one of those people who wants to be a Muay Thai champ.”
Taking the pressure off herself is a relief in some ways for an elite black belt – but keeping that pressure off is another matter. “I have literally no pressure on me, but I always put pressure on myself,” she confesses. “Ever since I signed up, I told myself it was going to be fun, but it’s a tournament, and I have all these preconceived notions of what a tournament is.” A bit sheepishly, she adds, “I know my coach would never say this, but I’m like, ‘what if you’re embarrassed by me?’”
Thankfully, her coach – Antoni Hardonk of Dynamix MMA – is good at talking Herle down. When Herle expresses her fears, he gives her the kind of straight talk she needs.
“Is this a career move?” she remembers him asking.
“No,” responded Herle.
“Are you gonna go out there and suddenly have your career depend on this fight?”
“No,” repeated Herle.
“Are you gonna have fun?”
“I hope?” offered Herle timidly.
She grins at this point, as she finishes recounting the no-nonsense exchange. “He’s really good at talking me down off a ledge and adjusting to my anxiety. He knows it always comes from the fear of not being good enough. He wouldn’t put me out there if he didn’t think I was ready to do it.”
According to Herle, Hardonk and her other coaches know that she’s prone to overthinking – so they respond by simplifying things for her. “I can take my competition experience and all the things I’ve learned in jiu-jitsu and apply that to this situation because it’s just a tournament,” Herle adds. “Whether I win or lose, it really doesn’t matter.” After all, flight time is flight time, and what Herle’s looking for, at the end of the day, is a learning experience.
“At first, I was like, I’m not going to tell anyone I’m doing it,” says Herle. She laughs. “Obviously, I changed my mind.”
Not everyone in Herle’s fanbase is thrilled about her seemingly newfound interest in striking. “I would post some striking photos, but people would stop following me, or didn’t like those photos, because they followed me for jiu-jitsu.”
The truth is, there’s nothing actually newfound about Herle’s desire to kickbox – she was simply dissuaded from doing so earlier, thanks to the all-consuming nature of a budding competitive jiu-jitsu career. “I wanted to go into MMA early on,” she says. “I remember telling myself, ‘When I’m a solid purple belt, I’m going to do MMA,’ and it’s like, what the f*** does that mean?” She shakes her head. “Once you get deeper and deeper into the comp scene for jiu-jitsu, you have to spend every waking hour thinking about jiu-jitsu, doing jiu-jitsu, and I came from gyms that would probably literally scoff at me if I said I was doing striking. They’d be like, ‘Aren’t you doing Pans? Aren’t you doing Worlds? Aren’t you doing Abu Dhabi? Then you should probably do the thing you’re competing in.’”
Herle shrugs. “And so I just went full-on, and dedicated myself to jiu-jitsu.”
It wasn’t always the healthiest choice for Herle. “I love training different things because training the same thing over and over again burned me out,” she explains. “And I trained through a lot of that feeling. When I started getting more serious, and I was a purple belt, and I was training full time, I went out there and I lost my first match, and I was suicidal. My mom asked me if I wanted to call a hotline. I did everything, and knowing that it wasn’t enough, putting all your eggs in one basket – I will never do that again.”
Being forced to confront her darker feelings about jiu-jitsu, however, also led to one of Herle’s most rewarding passion projects: her nonprofit organization, Submit the Stigma, which aims to improve mental health awareness in the martial arts community.
“Submit the Stigma was something I had to do,” says Herle. “I had to speak up. I always had – but in an immature way.” She remembers seeking attention – even with something as seemingly inane as posting “emo song lyrics” online – but not having the tools to articulate why she needed that attention. “I needed attention because I was f***ing drowning,” she explains now. With a wry-humored grin, she adds, “But I didn’t have the words. I had emo song lyrics.”
Jiu-jitsu, according to Herle, gave her the confidence to seek out help – which made her wonder why others didn’t. “I started seeing signs of burnout in my training partners – but that’s a badge of honor at some gyms,” says Herle.
It was a thorny issue to tackle. “I’m in a sport and performance psychology program for grad school right now, and basic psychological needs theory for self-determination necessitates competence – the feeling that you’re good at something – autonomy, and relatedness. In jiu-jitsu, you get all three,” explains Herle. While jiu-jitsu can be immensely therapeutic, she acknowledges that the sport also has a way of forcing deeper mental health issues to the surface – particularly in a highly competitive environment.
“Sometimes, you have to be okay with losing,” says Herle. “Sometimes, you have to be okay with not being able to control the outcome.”
That sense of equilibrium has been key for Herle as she works on her striking game – a humbling experience, as a beginner kickboxer, for an athlete who’s competed at the highest levels of another combat sport. She welcomes anonymity, in some ways. “Antoni loves telling my partners they’re going with a jiu-jitsu black belt, but within just the standup, [my jiu-jitsu] isn’t anything at all,” says Herle. “It’s different, it’s completely different. I initially made a lot of mistakes, trying to close in, eating a lot of knees, eating a lot of punches. It’s not forgiving, and people don’t give a s*** where I came from.”
It’s been a steep learning curve. “There’s so much conditioning that goes on in kickboxing,” says Herle. “I saw my body change. My feet have gotten some muscle – because when I kick, not only do I have to hop on one foot, I also have to rotate, and do these precise movements.”
Her body has also taken a thorough beating as a result of that conditioning. Laughing, Herle exclaims, “Dude, I went and I kicked a bag, and my shin got so bruised – because normally we wear shin pads in training – I was like, ‘man, I’ve got p**sy shins. This is dumb! My legs are dumb!’”
And then there’s the matter of the warmup. “Ten o’clock in the morning, I wake up by having someone punch me in the face, which is way different from jiu-jitsu – there are literally things flying at your face. And it’s not your partner’s fault if you don’t check or slip in time! So you build up the timing. And it’s so, so tiring. It’s a different type of cardio from jiu-jitsu.”
She also had to undo certain habits specific to her own jiu-jitsu style. “I was a guard puller, spider-guard player, gi player, so I had to learn to adapt my grips and find those angles,” explains Herle. “And footwork. Footwork is huge. I had no footwork in jiu-jitsu. In striking, I really have to either be in striking range or be outside and able to shadow them. That’s really hard – it’s probably the hardest thing about striking for me, having that instinct and that timing.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, Herle excels in the clinch, which is the closest she gets to use her jiu-jitsu. “Being able to react to what the person is doing, with frames, and being very responsive to what your partner is doing – I feel like it’s jiu-jitsu on the feet,” she says.
Still, she has no illusions about the dangers unique to a striking-specific sport: “Even though for this tournament, we’re wearing protective gear, these girls are going to come at me. There are immediate consequences – and when you lose focus, it’s devastating. It’s hard to just stay in it. I call it my Spidey senses – those are way more important in a striking environment than a jiu-jitsu one.”
One big fan of Herle’s budding striking career is her friend Shane Fazen of Fight Tips fame. Herle – who previously appeared on the Fight Tips YouTube channel demonstrating a playful live roll with then white belt Fazen – has confirmed that she’ll be teaming up with the Fight Tips team once more for an upcoming seminar. “I truly believe that what [Fazen] is doing is super important,” says Herle. “I love that he’s not about competition – he’s a great competitor, but people don’t judge him on his ability to fight, they judge him on his ability to teach.”
Teaching is also a major passion of Herle’s. As both a jiu-jitsu professor and mental health advocate, she truly loves coaxing greatness out of her fellow athletes. “What you need is already inside you,” she firmly believes. “You just need someone else to help bring it out.”
While she may not be terribly keen on turning pro in a second combat sport, she believes that training – and competing – as a kickboxer and MMA fighter will reap benefits for her career goals off the mats. Herle is currently working toward her certification as a mental performance consultant through the Association of Applied Sports Psychology. “Once you get your master’s, you go through a mentorship, and then you take an exam, and then there’s continuing education,” says Herle. “It’s a certification, similar to an EMT, but on a higher level. There’s a lot of freedom – you can work with athletes, with dancers, with anyone who has to do something physically and emotionally taxing.”
Herle’s aim is to specialize in working with combat athletes – which, for her, means developing better insight into MMA and striking sports from a competitor’s perspective.
As a female athlete in a male-dominated sport, Herle has also been motivated to develop a stronger understanding of gender politics on the mat. “I just did a literature review – it was ‘Mindfulness As a Mediator for Mental Toughness for Female Combat Sport Athletes,’ so I read a lot. There’s one called ‘Pink Gloves Still Give Black Eyes.’ First of all, there’s a baseline, there’s a group of selective traits that are already within women who find combat sports and seek out combat sports. They’re non-conformists. They don’t believe as much in gender roles. For [those] women, they seek out masculine qualities because those are literally required to excel at these sports.”
In short? “By stepping into a combat sports gym, you are automatically putting yourself out there as questioning your femininity,” explains Herle. As a result, female combat sports athletes often “protect their femininity” – whether with braids, pink gloves, or Muay Thai skirts.
For Herle, it all boils down to the right for an athlete – of any gender – to express authenticity. “I want to be in a space where I don’t have to put on a mask,” she says. “And I’m trying to make sure that people can feel comfortable being authentic.”
Authenticity, after all, is also one of the major tenets of Submit the Stigma. Beyond any physical victory – whether in the ring, the cage, or on the mat – growing a better environment for empathy, inclusion, and healthy authenticity in combat sports is Herle’s true aim: “The more open you are, the more open others are.”
And that trickle-down effect, at the end of the day, is what pays dividends within the culture of a gym – and the mental health of its athletes.
Gordon Ryan will make his return on March 25th’s Who’s Number One, when he steps in for his younger brother Nicky to take on Jacob ‘The Hillbilly Hammer’ Couch.
Nicky Ryan was scheduled to take on Couch, but was forced to drop from the match-up and WNO was left searching for a new opponent.
Within hours, the new opponent was announced: the best grappler on the planet, Gordon Ryan. Heath Pedigo made the announcement with Couch in front of the gym. He spoke highly of Gordon and assured teammates that Couch will be looking to remind fans why he’s called The Hillbilly Hammer, “Listen, this guys the greatest grappler in the world, and this is what dreams are made of… To get the opportunity to put yourself in the fire with the best. We respect Gordon and appreciate him, but Couch is gonna come after him and try to leave his name on the jiu-jitsu world forever.”
Who’s Number One: Couch Vs. Ryan takes place on March 25th and streams on FloGrappling.com
Andrew Wiltse broke the news of a sponsorship deal with Panda Express, claiming the position of jiu-jitsu’s first athlete to be sponsored by a major restaurant chain.
Wiltse has been hinting toward the sponsorship deal with cryptic social media posts for months, and at times, it seemed as if he might just be making a joke. However, on Tuesday, March 15, he made the official announcement,
“Today… is one of those days that just shouts ‘Victory Panda’
It’s all coming together.
After a decade of living in the gym, sleeping on the mats, foraging for scraps to make it to tournaments… it’s finally happened.
Panda Express is Officially Sponsoring Me!
We did it!
I am now the first Jiujitsu Athlete in History to be sponsored by a Major Restaurant Chain! By far the best one! Huzzah!
Turns out Dreams really can become Reality
Success and Panda Express!
None of it would have happened without Pedigo Submission Fighting and Heath Pedigo pushing me to be the best I can be athletically.
And of course, FloGrappling and all of the fans constantly tagging Panda Express at every opportunity. You all rock.
Huge, special shout out to Jonathan Ortega for genuinely making it happen. He’s been working hard behind the scenes pushing this forward for a while. He’s been on every call and email, going massively out of his way, to get us to this point.”
Wiltse is a black belt under Heath Pedigo and competes for Pedigo Fighting Submission. He is a 5x IBJJF world champion at brown belt and under, and won Pans his first year as a black belt.
The details of his sponsorship are yet to be revealed to the public, but in a previous statement, Wiltse acknowledged the deal as a full sponsorship, “I was starting to think it wasn’t going to happen because the guy said I swear a lot.”
While Wiltse might swear a lot, his grappling is nothing but professional and he might be one of the toughest competitors in the sport. Now, he’ll be doing it all while rocking a Panda Express deal.
Maybe we’ll start seeing a Panda Express stand next to the Açai at tournaments.
UFC-veteran Ryan Hall is officially set to compete in the 2022 ADCC 66kg division.
Hall is one of the most well-known Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialists in MMA. He earned a bronze medal in the 2009 ADCC worlds at -66kg, and has a list of other medals and accomplishments through various promotions.
In MMA, Hall holds a record of 9-2 with 3 submission wins. 2 of those submissions were heel hooks. Perhaps his most popular submission is a heel hook victory against B.J. Penn in 2018.
This will be his 3rd ADCC appearance, and he’ll be the most experienced grappler in the 66kg division.
It all goes down at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 17-18.
In the spirit of Batman’s theatrical release, UFC’s Kevin Holland is yet again fulfilling his vigilante quota. This time, by stopping an active gunman inside a Houston Restaurant.
In the late hours of Monday night, inside a local Houston restaurant, a gunman reportedly opened fire on a crowd of 40-50 people. Per Ariel Helwani, Kevin Holland and 2 others sprang into action to detain the gunman until authorities arrived and placed the shooter under arrest. No one was injured, including the gunman.
The incident comes just months after Holland chased down and stopped a carjacker in a Texas neighborhood. Apparently, he’s finding a niche for this sort of thing. Either way, the people of Texas must be grateful for his community service.
Almost exactly two years ago, many jiu-jitsu gym owners had to ask themselves a question they’d never had to ask themselves before: “How do I continue to do what I love, keep my business open, and keep my students safe in a very close-contact sport during a pandemic?”
For Weiss Sakhizada of Sucker Free Jiu-Jitsu, the answer was clear: make safety the first priority, then adapt, adapt, adapt.
Sakhizada started his jiu-jitsu training at a local gym in the summer of 2011. He told the Jiu-Jitsu Times he was “hooked after [his] first day,” and the passion only increased after competing in his first tournament four months thereafter. “I was never good at sports,” he says. “I don’t think I ever won anything in my life. I was hyped to win a NAGA, and I have never seen my dad so proud of me. I lost fifty lbs. after four months and fell in love with jiu-jitsu.”
Like many jiu-jitsu students, Sakhizada began taking on more responsibilities and development after earning his purple belt. For him, this meant coaching a few classes every week at his original gym and training at Marcelo Garcia’s academy in NYC. From there, the opportunities only increased. He got another teaching opportunity, this time at a UFC Gym, a year later. Finally, he was able to live the dream of making a living through BJJ, and better yet, he also met his friend and future business partner, Tyrone Garcia. “We worked together as instructors, and at the end of our shifts, we would just chill and talk about what it would be like if we had our own gym,” says Sakhizada. “A few months later, we decided to quit our jobs and went through the process of opening a gym. We opened Sucker Free to have our own place to train so that we could do things differently. We wanted to build a chill, informal, inclusive, and challenging place to train. No politics, just jiu-jitsu. Most gyms at the time forbade cross-training, and we wanted the community to know that we were all about it.”
Three years later, things were going well for Sakhizada and Garcia in their ventures with Sucker Free — so well, in fact, that they were planning on opening a second location in Brooklyn. But then — as the unofficial tagline for 2020 goes — COVID happened.
“We cut our memberships a week after the pandemic began and closed our doors because we felt it was the responsible thing to do,” says Sakhizada. In September 2020, with a need to support himself and stay connected with his students, he began teaching at pop-up locations, from basements to bodegas to cigar shops to backyards. While the team didn’t have a consistent place to train, the sense of community was still there: a reminder that a jiu-jitsu academy is more about the people you train with than the building you train in.
Image Source: Weiss Sakhizada
In January 2021, Sucker Free’s luck changed in a positive, but unexpected way. Two of Sakhizada’s friends offered to rent him space in the back of their Boost Mobile store. While training jiu-jitsu in the back of a wireless shop was hardly conventional, it provided Sakhizada and Garcia exactly what they needed for Sucker Free. “The Boost Mobile gave us a more consistent place to teach, train, and continue building the brand. It was an incredible experience,” says Sakhizada. “All that mattered was that we had each other, some great tunes, and the desire to improve. We never gave up on our brand, even when things got really hard. I was just happy to still be able to do jiu-jitsu with my friends.”
While there was a certain novelty about having such a unique training space, it also came with its own unique set of challenges. “The back door didn’t have a good lock, so one time we got our speaker and Roomba stolen,” Sakhizada recalls. “Sometimes training got tight and people collided into one another.”
Image Source: Weiss Sakhizada
Despite the struggles, though, the temporary accommodation allowed Sucker Free to stay true to its values while giving the students a place to train. “I was mainly trying to accommodate the students we did have, but I kept it referral-based,” says Sakhizada about his student base at the time. “If you were cool and responsible with COVID, you were welcome.”
Remarkably, despite the lack of space and unique circumstances, Sucker Free managed to not only survive during that time, but also thrive. “I took silver and bronze at American Nationals and won a few IBJJF tournaments training in that little space in the back of a Boost Mobile store,” says Sakhizada. “My students did really well in local competitions. Everyone’s jiu-jitsu improved, and they got into better shape. Most importantly, we had fun and shared a lot of laughs.”
As of January 2022, Sucker Free’s time in the Boost Mobile came to a bittersweet end when Sakhizada and Garcia were able to open their own academies in New York and Bogota, Colombia, respectively. “We are going to continue to work together and grow the brand,” says Sakhizada. “I am excited to start offering free training to children who can’t afford it. I think if I could change the cultural landscape of jiu-jitsu, it would be to inspire other gym owners to prioritize providing a safe place for everyone where people are held accountable.”
With two locations set to open and an affiliate gym (Academic Grappling) supporting their mission, Sucker Free Jiu-Jitsu is once again on the upswing. While the pandemic hit them hard, they’re back on their feet thanks to a dedicated community, a strong sense of determination, and yes, a little “boost” from some friends.
Megaton received his Coral Belt from Royler Gracie at Gracie Humaitá Temecula with friends and family in attendance this weekend.
Megaton has been a world class black belt competitor since 1996. He competed in the first 16 consecutive World BJJ Championships. His nickname, ‘Megaton’, was earned due to the loud sound that comes when he slams his opponents. His daughter, Mackenzie Dern, is an ADCC world champion, IBJJF world champion, and the #5-ranked UFC women’s strawweight fighter. She was also in attendance at his promotion.
A true contributor to the game out of Rio de Janeiro, he is largely responsible for the BJJ footprint in Phoenix, Arizona.
A grown-*** man has set strict parameters about where you, a fellow grown-*** adult, are allowed to train, according to a report sent to the Jiu-Jitsu Times.
The man, who is not your father, reportedly believes that this is a normal and healthy demand for a coach to make of a student.
The Jiu-Jitsu Times has also learned that you pay this man real money and that he is not your employer.
When contacted for comment, the man explained his reasoning for the rule.
“I don’t want my students to go to other gyms because they might give away my secret techniques to rival gyms,” he said.
An investigation by the Jiu-Jitsu Times revealed that the coach did not know any techniques that were not available to learn for free on YouTube.
The coach insists, however, that his rules are not totalitarian, as he will occasionally grant requests for his students to train at pre-approved academies provided that: 1. There are no classes taking place at his own academy at that time 2. He is friends with the other instructor 3. You address him as “Master,” “Professor,” or “Daddy” when making the request
The man, who told the JJT that he would not expect to be banned from his local supermarket if he chose to get his groceries elsewhere, says that he doesn’t fear you leaving him after discovering that another gym offers better service and more freedom.
“That’s not what this is about,” he says. “I’m protecting my students. No one else would treat them as good as I do. Have you seen other coaches these days? If my students left, they’d never find another nice guy like me. So no, I’m not worried. As long as they obey my rules, they’ll be fine.”
The Jiu-Jitsu Times has requested that you blink twice if you need help.
Saturday night treated fans to some high level grappling with a bit of combat jiu-jitsu mixed in.
Faitma Kline almost became Medusa’s 1st Double Champ, as she made it to the Combat Jiu-Jitsu 135 lb. Final Round against Aislin O’Connell. The two battled it out into OT, with referee Master Vic biting his knuckles through most of the match. In the 2nd OT round, O’Connell got the RNC tap on Kline in just :20 seconds. With Kline tasked to get a submission in a quicker time, she had her work cut out as she had yet to submit O’Connell in nearly 15-minutes of grappling. Kline chose to start on the arm and quickly jumped onto a deep armbar that seemed as if it were going to get the tap. Somehow, O’Connell survived and slipped out just seconds before the :20 mark, earning her win. She won all 3 of her matches on the night by RNC.
Earlier in the night, Sophia Cassella, a Tom Deblass product, earned the strawweight title under EBI rules in a final match against Kiaya Jackson, winning by straight ankle lock in less than 30 seconds.
Magomed Ankalaev fought his way to victory in a 5-round battle against KO-artist Thiago Santos during Saturday night’s main event.
It was expected for Ankalaev to grapple early, but he chose to keep it on the feet until late in the fight. With both of the Light Heavyweights on their feet, it seemed as if the fight could end at any moment should one of the strikes find the right home. In the final moments of round 2, Santos landed a shot that dropped Ankalaev, who had been holding a decent lead through the round. However, Ankalaev was able to recover and come back to clearly win the 3rd round. In round 4, we saw Santos slowing down and taking deep breaths, not seeming to do much to hide his fatigue. Ankalaev did just enough to take advantage and win the rest of the fight without putting Santos away.
#6-ranked Ankalaev improves his record to 17-1 and his win streak to 8, while #5-ranked Santos falls to 22-10. We should expect to see the Light Heavyweight rankings change next week.
In the co-main event, Song Yadong defeated veteran Marlon Moraes in the just two minutes into the 1st round, earning himself a performance bonus for the night. Yadong was swinging for the fences out of the gate and landed a vicious combo to put Moraes out for a walk-off KO.
Other bonus earners on the night were Khalil Rountree Jr. and Azamat Murzakanov who also finished their opponents by KO, and Cody Brundage who submitted his opponent by guillotine in the first round.
Brundage was changing levels early, looking for takedowns as Lungiambula was throwing a lot of power into every shot. Lungiambula was defending takedowns and continuing to throw big strikes, eventually finding his mark and landing a barrage of heavy punches and knees. Out of nowhere, through the chaos, Brundage jumped on Lungiambula’s neck with an arm-in guillotine during a double leg attempt. From there, Brundage jumped guard and they fell to the mat, with Lungiambula tapping in seconds.
// MAIN CARD //
Magomed Ankalaev def. Thiago Santos via Unanimous Decision
Song Yadong def. Marlon Moraes via KO
Sodiq Yusuff def. Alex Caceres via Unanimous Decision
Khalil Rountree Jr. def. Karl Roberson via TKO
Drew Dober def. Terrance McKinney via TKO
Alex Pereira def. Bruno Silva via Unanimous Decision
// PRELIMS //
Matthew Semelsberger def. A.J. Fletcher via Unanimous Decision
JJ Aldrich def. Gillian Robertson via Unanimous Decision
Javid Basharat def. Trevin Jones via Unanimous Decision
Damon Jackson def. Kamuela Kirk via Submission (Arm Triangle Choke)
Miranda Maverick def. Sabina Mazo via Submission (RNC)
Cody Brundage def. Dalcha Lungiambula via Submission (Guillotine)
Evan “The Phenom” Elder has had a very good year – or more accurately, years, plural. The twenty-four-year-old’s undefeated win streak currently spans his entire seven-fight professional career, plus his most recent four amateur bouts. That streak extends from 2017 to present day, spanning half a decade in total. Not bad, especially for a guy still in the first half of his twenties.
What’s next for The Phenom? Hopefully, if the powers-that-be smile upon his next fight, the UFC.
Elder comes by the fight game honestly – his father was an early MMA aficionado in the nineties and raised his son in the sport. “I would say I’m definitely one of the people who kind of grew up in MMA,” Elder tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “[An MMA career] was always my goal. My dad, being a slightly knowledgable MMA fan, did have a little bit of insight into seeing that wrestling was very dominant, so he wanted me to start wrestling before I started doing MMA – which looking back on it now, was an amazing idea.”
While Elder’s father wasn’t a fighter himself, he was both a highly observant and passionate fan and instilled a genuine love of the sport in his son. Elder smiles, recalling, “We used to watch the fights together – me and him, that was always our thing. I’m sure that I started loving it probably because my dad loved it. But it’s a fortunate thing: even if I loved it because my dad loved it, I’m really grateful, because it’s made me who I am, and I found my real passion.”
Elder only wrestled for about two to three years and doesn’t consider his own wrestling pedigree particularly noteworthy. However, he’s grateful for the foundation the sport provided for fighting. “[Wrestling] was a great place to start,” says Elder, whose focus shifted exclusively to MMA after those first couple years of wrestling.
In many ways, Elder is part of the new guard of MMA fighters – athletes who came up in the sport after the 1990s era of style-versus-style and always trained MMA as a discipline in its own right, distinct from kickboxing, wrestling, or jiu-jitsu alone. “I would just say that I’m a mixed martial artist – I don’t really have any real pedigree or super-specialized background in any one specific martial art.”
“I think that – while I wouldn’t say that I gravitate towards a specialty – I really love blending it all together,” Elder elaborates. “You can’t really afford to have holes in your game, these days, or they’re going to get exploited. I think Kamaru Usman said it best – I remember hearing him say, after he beat Tyron Woodley, right after they gave him the belt, ‘I might not be the best pure kickboxer, I might not be the best pure wrestler, I might not be the best pure jiu-jitsu artist, but when it comes to putting all this s*** together, I’m the best there is.’”
Putting it together is easier said than done, perhaps – even for a fighter as formidable as Elder. “I’m definitely still working on [perfecting that blend], and always will be,” says Elder. “By no means do I think I’ve got it figured out, but I do think I’m getting better, and that’s all I can ask for: progress over perfection. I can’t really look back on a specific time and say, ‘This is when I figured it out – it’s just such a slow, gradual evolution – but I think where we run into roadblocks, for everyone, including myself, is that there aren’t a ton of true MMA coaches.” After all, most of the coaches of the current era came up in a period when MMA was still the province of style-versus-style specialists – and as Elder explains it, of that generation, the true all-rounder generalists remain the exception, rather than the rule.
“If we’re currently watching the first generation of ‘real’ MMA fighters [who grew up training as generalists instead of specialists], the first generation of ‘real’ MMA coaches will be coming along after this,” says Elder. “So you’re still learning in a segmented sense of like, ‘hey, we’re going to do striking, and then we’re going to do wrestling, and then we’re going to do jiu-jitsu’ – and it’s hard because then you have to take those, on your own, and figure it out. I think that’s where creativity comes into play because you kind of have to take it upon yourself to take it apart, and figure out where and how to blend all the arts.”
However, Elder’s hopeful for the evolution of MMA training practices as a whole: “For the most part, we don’t usually do too much MMA training, in the sense of like, using our wrestling to set up our strikes, or our strikes to set up our wrestling or using strikes during transitions in jiu-jitsu. But I think that’s becoming more and more prevalent, and more and more well-practiced. At our gym here at Sanford MMA, I think we do a pretty good job of exactly that – almost all of our training is MMA training. Of course, we still segment it, but we all have the goal in mind of MMA scenarios, and we’re all cognizant of when we could be striking, or when we could be shooting, even if we’re just doing striking or wrestling.”
Elder laughs, remembering his very first amateur MMA fight when he had to put that blend into practice under pressure. “I was terrified,” he says, completely frank. “Literally terrified. Now, I have lost, in my amateur career – but that wasn’t until my third fight. My first amateur fight, I thought I was going to be totally fine because I’d had thirteen or so kickboxing matches, a bunch of boxing, and I’d competed in jiu-jitsu tournaments, so I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just going to be like another competition.’”
As it turned out, MMA was nothing like the other competitions. “I was terrified, with the little gloves – I thought for sure I was going to get knocked out!” Elder grins, shaking his head. “So I kept trying to shoot for takedowns, and I was shooting horrible shots because I was so worried. I think he hit me one time, right off the bat – and it was a really tall dude, I think he was like six-three – and I shot from so far away, that my arms hardly got to his feet. I managed to take him down, I think because he was in such disbelief that I tried to shoot from that far out!”
In the end, it was Elder’s stubbornness that eked out the victory in that first fight. “It was all mindset,” he says. “I was just like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to lose.’” He remembers taking his opponent down during their second round, only to land directly in a triangle. “I remember I landed in this triangle, and it was deep, and I was like, ‘No way. No way am I about to lose my MMA debut.’ That was literally my first thought, and I just went ballistic, and managed to get out of it. I ended up submitting him in the third round, but it was chaos.”
Thinking back on the heady emotions of his early amateur days now, Elder has plenty to reflect on. “I don’t think those emotions – being scared and nervous – ever go away, but you get much, much better at handling them,” he says. “I think that the nerves will always be there, almost indefinitely, but you get better at not just dealing with them, but using them to your advantage – I find that when I’m super nervous, it also gets me kind of excited because that’s how I know I’m doing something meaningful. I’m nervous about it because it matters to me. So now when I get those feelings, though I’m still definitely nervous, it gives me the fuel to really push through and get the job done.”
Getting the job done is precisely what Elder’s been pulling off for the past few years, to the tune of seven professional victories and zero losses. Elder’s bloody, dominant record in the cage may speak for itself, but he’s not just interested in being a good fighter – above all else, The Phenom wants to be a good person. “Who I am is way more important than what I do,” says Elder. “Though I love [fighting] with all my heart, I truly believe that my purpose is to positively impact the world, and everybody’s lives as much as possible. It’s much more important for me to be a good person than to be a good athlete. I think that it’s similar to math – there’s an order of operations. You have to do things in a certain order, or the whole equation’s going to get messed up. I think there’s an order of operations to life too – and I think being a good person is the first step. It doesn’t matter what else you do – if you’re the best athlete in the world, or you have a million dollars – it doesn’t matter if the beginning of the equation isn’t right if you’re not taking that first step correctly.”
Conversely, however, Elder also believes that being great at those other things – whether it’s excelling at sports, earning boatloads of money, or both – can also set a good person up to do more good in the world. “If I meet the best MMA fighter of all time, and he’s kind of a d*** or something, I’d be like, ‘I don’t care that he’s the best fighter in the world, that dude’s a d***!’ But if I met him, and he was super kind and caring, I’d be like, ‘Wow, that dude’s the best fighter in the world, and he’s an awesome person? Holy crap!’ It means that much more. I don’t care about what you do, I care about who you are: what are your morals, what are your values, how do you treat people? How you do one thing is how you do everything, and how you treat anyone is how you treat everyone.”
Elder’s also aware that no fighter is a true one-man army, and stands staunchly by those who have loved and supported him throughout his growing career. Among his most stalwart friends and supporters is jiu-jitsu blue belt Nick Turnbo, who initially reached out to Elder as a fan. Turnbo, a disabled athlete who has developed a unique grappling style to accommodate strength and balance issues caused by cerebral palsy, hit it off quickly with Elder. “He started coming to my fights, so I’d see him at my fights, and then I wound up going out to eat with him, and then I wound up just hanging out with him pretty regularly,” Elder remembers. “Any time I come home, I always try to make it a priority to go see him.”
“I absolutely love Nick and his mom Patty,” says Elder. “They’re just such great people, and Nick is really, seriously an inspiration to me, and many, many others, I’m sure. He’s a phenomenal person with a heart of gold, and he’s got a work ethic that’s unlike any other.”
As a fellow martial artist whose formative years were dominated by a formidable training regimen, Elder particularly admires Turnbo’s tenacity as an athlete. “He’s truly one of a kind, an incredible person,” says Elder. “That guy right there, he’s been given every reason not to want or need to do anything in his life. He was dealt a very poor hand, and he makes the most of it. He doesn’t have any excuses. He doesn’t let anything hold him back. I’ve seen him grow and evolve as a person, and get stronger physically and mentally, even just since I’ve known him for the past several years. He truly doesn’t let anything in life hold him down, and it’s very, very admirable. He’s one of my heroes.”
Elder’s no stranger to hard work himself. “I had horrible self-confidence until pretty recently,” he admits. “So I always had self-doubt, and though my father was always really supportive, and helped a lot, none of us knew what the heck we were doing, so we were always just making it up on the fly. But one thing I can say is that I’ve never not wanted to train. I’ve had plenty of self-doubt – like wondering if I could really be the best in the world like I want to be, whether I could ever really be that good – but I’ve never, ever not wanted to go to practice. I think that’s one thing that’s always set me apart, is that I’ve tried never to allow anything to get in the way of my training.”
It’s a lifelong habit of discipline that Elder carried even in his adolescent years when skipping the gym to go party or spend more time with friends would have tempted any other teenager. “I still liked to hang out with my friends [in high school],” says Elder. “I didn’t do a lot of stuff – like I played video games all the time, and I didn’t care about school – but nothing ever got in the way of practice. That was like my religion.”
Part of that discipline also stemmed from a genuine love for training. “It never once felt like ‘oh man, I’ve got to go to practice,’” says Elder. Gym time never felt like an obligation to him. “It was my element of hope, almost,” he explains. “No matter what was going on in my life – whether I just had a horrible day at school, or family stuff was going on, or whatever – no matter what, I always had the training to look forward to. I always had this element of hope, like ‘man, I can’t wait to go to training.’ It was like this shining light for me – so I think that’s also why I never wanted to miss practice.”
Developing the right headspace is key, according to Elder. “I think I’ve always been fortunate to have a decent mentality, at least in the sense of hard work – but I think especially in the last two years, my mindset has grown exponentially because I’ve put a lot more emphasis on it,” he says. “For most of my career, my emphasis was on the physical side of it, but then I started realizing how important it is to push myself out of my comfort zone when I go to training. I’ve really been working on just callusing my mind – making my mind as tough as possible. Not necessarily just going in to focus on technique, or whatever’s going on in class, but having the intent of always pushing the pace, always being willing to work harder and make myself uncomfortable, and never being okay with stopping. Never feeling like I’m going to quit – and if I do feel like I’m going to quit, that’s good, because it means I’ve found the spot I need to work on.”
He tries, as much as possible, to train smarter, as well as harder: “I’ve been trying to take a more philosophical approach – really understand what I’m doing, instead of just this meathead fighter mentality of beating my head against the wall.”
That combination of intelligence and work ethic paid off for Elder when his undefeated professional record attracted the attention of sports agent Jason House of Iridium Sports Agency, one of the biggest MMA agencies in the business – whose talent stable includes the likes of former UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno. “This probably sounds really arrogant, but I’m very confident in myself and my abilities, and I think for me to make it to the UFC should be almost inevitable,” says Elder. “I’m not worried about making it to the UFC – I think as long as I continue to train the way I do, and sacrifice as much as I do, and live the life I live – eventually, the UFC is not a problem. With that being said, I really care about my relationships, and who I bring with me as we come up. I want to really grow with the right people. And after really talking to Jason and his team, it just seemed like a really good fit – and so far, so good. I’m really happy, and thrilled with the experience I’ve had so far.”
As soon as he signed with House, Elder hit the ground running. The ink on his Iridium contract was barely dry when Elder was booked to fight UFC veteran Cody Pfister on May 6. Elder considers Pfister the most formidable opponent he’s yet faced: “He’s got a good record, he’s sixteen-and-eight, he’s fought a lot of tough guys, he’s fought quite a few championship bouts. Stylistically, I think it’s a good matchup for me – obviously, he’s done well, and he’s very tough, but honestly, I’m just really excited. I think it’s going to be a tough fight because he fights very relentlessly, and he has a good gas tank and good technique, but I do think I’m technically better. With that being said, you never know how a fight’s going to – you see the better fighter winning fights a lot, and then you get caught, you know? Anything can happen.”
How does Elder feel about it all? “I’m just really excited for the challenge,” he says. “I think he’s going to be the toughest guy I’ve fought so far, and he’d also be a great win for me – he’s a very seasoned vet, with way more experience than me, and I think that it could be the fight that might punch my ticket to the UFC, or at least put me in a position to contemplate that decision.”
So, what’s the game plan? “From what I can see, I think I’m going to be able to exploit him a lot on the feet,” says Elder. “He shoots pretty relentlessly to try and keep the fight on the ground – I think that’s definitely his strength, that he’s got good ground game, but he doesn’t do that great off his back. I think he does really well when the fight’s going his way, so I’m planning to keep it on the feet, making him shoot shots from far away, and stuffing his takedowns. I’m comfortable on the ground as well; I’m just going to try and be on top. If I get taken down, as he relentlessly shoots, I’m going to relentlessly get up. And I think that eventually, I’m going to be technically superior, which will make him less efficient. That will tire him out quicker than it’ll tire me. If I don’t get a quick finish, I’m going to drag him into deep water, so if it goes into those later rounds, I know I’ll be ready for it.”
Does Phenom’s currently flawless professional record sometimes feel like an additional source of pressure? “That’s actually how I felt as an amateur,” says Elder. “With my first [amateur] loss, it almost felt like a ton of bricks came off my back, because I was relatively undefeated in a sense – or just had a lot of pressure on me to win – and it taught me that losing is not the end of the world. Not that I ever want it to happen – but it’s not the end-all, be-all.”
“I don’t really fear losing,” he elaborates. “I only fear not trying – not truly trying my best. That’s when I’ll regret something. But if I truly give it my all, one hundred percent, not just in the fight, but in the preparation – if I lose, I can hang my hat and say ‘you know what, I gave it my best shot, I tried the best I could.’ The only thing that would really bother me is if I had to question whether I really tried my hardest in practice every day, or dieted as strictly as I could, or got to bed on time as often as I should have. So I try to really do all of those things as often as I can – I’m very far from perfect, so I don’t always manage it, but if I can do that as much as I humanly, possibly can, then I can confidently say that I tried my best.” Elder smiles. “I’d have no regrets.”
It’s a great match-up for both fighters, and with their styles, the real winner in this one is the audience. Ferguson is an Eddie Bravo black belt and wrestled for Central Michigan University. He’s got an iron chin and a really solid boxing and muay thai base, but is one of the most unorthodox fighters in the game, incorporating wing chun, combat rolls, and more.
Chandler, on the other hand, is also sporting an iron chin. He wrestled NCAA Division I at University of Missouri and fights out of the highly-reputable Sanford MMA team. He reigned over Bellator’s lightweight division for years, fighting in a total of 11 championship fights from 2011 to 2019.
Both fighters could really use a win, as Ferguson is coming off of a 3-fight losing streak and Chandler a 2-fight losing streak.
The night is set to be a banger for the highly-competitive lightweight division, with Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje headlining the event for the championship and Donald Cerrone vs. Joe Lauzon facing off earlier in the card.
‘El Cucuy’ promoted the fight with his own Twitter post,
UFC 274 Ticket hype/sales your welcome-Champ -CSO- # # HODLMF’s
Cain Velasquez’ case has garnered support across the martial arts community, but at least one San Jose judge didn’t feel the same as he was denied bail on Monday morning.
Velasquez currently sits in a jail cell inside of a jail cell in Santa Clara County Jail and has been there for over a week. He is facing 10 charges, including an attempted murder charges for a San Jose shooting that took place in February.
Fans around the world have spoken out in support of Velasquez due to the reasoning behind his shooting. It is alleged that the man Velasquez is accused of shooting, Harry Goularte, has been arrested for molesting a 4-year old family member of Cain’s.
Velasquez is being accused of firing a .40-caliber pistol into Goularte’s vehicle several times, wounding Goularte’s step farther in the arm and torso.
Judge Shelyna Brown denied bail for Velasquez. She slammed Velasquez as “reckless,” and said the “risk is too great” to allow bail.
Dana White spoke on the arrest at a UFC 272 press conference, “I obviously feel sorry for him and his family,” White said. “It’s a horrible thing. I don’t know enough details to speak on it, but from what I’ve heard, you know, we all say we’d do it if it ever happened to us. Cain did it.”
Colby Covington gave his support following his UFC 272 win, “Free Cain, man! A lot of people, what he did, a lot of people wouldn’t have done that same thing. I respect the s*** out of him. Having a kid, your kid be molested, we talk about that all the time like we would do that, but he was in that situation, he actually did it. So, free Cain Velasquez! Much respect and love, and I hope he gets out soon.”
Joe Rogan spoke up for Cain during his podcast with Michael Bisping, “I mean, my only wish is that he did it with his hands,” Rogan said. “My only wish is that he just ran the car off the road, pulled that guy out of the f***ing car, and beat him to death. F*** you.”
Mia Moi isn’t your average jiu-jitsu white belt. A dancer since the age of three, Moi grew up classically trained in ballet, before finding her eventual calling in contemporary dance as a professional. Along the way, she was also captain of her high school drill team, and cross-trained in several other dance styles in pre-professional programs. “I never really thought about being a professional dancer,” says Moi. “When people were like, ‘oh, are you going to continue dancing after high school?’ – because that’s the pivotal moment where you have to make a decision – I was like, ‘I don’t know. I’m going to dance regardless because I like dancing, but I don’t know if I’m going to be a professional, whatever that means.’”
Moi danced through college with a student company – which grew her interest in the art form. Soon, she was teaching at studios and regularly landing contracts with professional dance companies. “It was all pretty accidental,” she admits with a laugh.
So, how did an ex-ballerina turned contemporary dancer find her way into combat sports? “I started boxing before doing jiu-jitsu,” Moi tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “I keep [the boxing] pretty low-key publicly, but yeah, I’ve boxed for about three years, and was almost borderline debating fighting, but I’m just sticking to sparring and whatnot for now. But doing that, and then adding on jiu-jitsu – I did it because I wanted to learn something. I’ve been in dance my whole life, and it never felt like learning, per se, because I’d known it my whole life. It was my existence. So I wanted to learn something new.”
Learning to box led Moi directly to jiu-jitsu, when she discovered Village of Wolves, the jiu-jitsu gym across the street from her boxing gym. “It was right around when jiu-jitsu was becoming more mainstream,” she recalls. “So when I Google searched jiu-jitsu gyms on Maps, I just went there and started doing it.”
The variety of physical expression that jiu-jitsu offers hooked Moi almost immediately: “It’s been really engaging. It’s like problem-solving, for me, in a way, like a continuous maze of figuring out reactions – and it fills a different part of my brain than boxing does.”
“Boxing is the same six moves, the same four directions, and just perfecting that – it’s kind of like ballet,” says Moi, grinning and shaking her head. “You have to perfect it [the same way]. And there’s just no end to that. I’ve only just now learned how to use my jab in sparring after, what, three years?”
Grappling, on the other hand, is something that comes naturally to Moi. Though still young in her jiu-jitsu career, Moi’s competition record is impressive. “I’ve been training for about a year and a half,” says Moi. Though still technically a white belt, she’s tried her hand in the intermediate divisions – typically the province of blue belts – and won her share of victories there. She loves a good challenge, and while proud of her achievements thus far, relishes the prospect of a tough opponent: “I’m definitely at a point right now where I want to get beat the f*** up by a blue belt.”
Moi credits her dance background with the relative ease with which she picks up new movement skills, and believes that dancers and fighters have plenty to learn from each other. When she first started jiu-jitsu, her teammates had assumed that her boxing background would make it easier for her to learn another combat sport. “I was like, ‘no, to be honest, it’s all the dance stuff,’” she remembers with a smile. “I really think that only if you’ve done something that requires body awareness do you actually understand it. Because the average person won’t know where their hips are. If you tell them ‘keep your hips low’ or ‘keep that space tight,’ whether it’s for jiu-jitsu or dance, they won’t know where their hips actually are when they’re moving. So I think dance really helped me in that way.” Conversely, she also believes that martial arts like jiu-jitsu can help dancers build a broader physical vocabulary with which to perform.
Contemporary dance’s floor work, in particular, according to Moi, is far more similar to jiu-jitsu than most realize. “You could literally just do jiu-jitsu mobility drills, and it could be incorporated into dance, or vice versa,” explains Moi.
Was moving from the more traditionally feminine world of dance into a male-dominated combat sport a culture shock for Moi? “Nah.” She shrugs and grins. “I never really got along with the stereotypical dancer personality, so I never really had many friends in dance – which is weird to say.” She elaborates, “Now that we’re talking about it, I think that’s kind of why I liked the combat sports community – like boxing and jiu-jitsu – not to be the ‘Pick Me’ girl, but I just get along more with people in those communities. We just have more in common.”
Given the potential for overtraining when balancing active lives as both dancer and combat athlete, does Moi ever worry about injury? “I don’t know – I’m just gonna say it’s because I’m young, but I don’t get injured much,” she discloses. “I have a problem with this compulsion to exercise. I just need to move all the time, and I’ve been really fortunate not to get injured. I’m really grateful for it, because I’ve seen injuries happen at our gym, and I’m always like, ‘oh my god, god bless them,’ because I don’t know what I would do with myself [if it were me].”
If she had to guess, Moi suspects that dancing for a living may actually help fortify her body: “I guess dance helps keep my joints and muscles pretty limber and soft, and not as prone to just breaking at the joints.”
With her experience in both boxing and jiu-jitsu, coupled with her dancer’s athleticism, does Moi have any interest in trying her hand at MMA? Her answer is a little complicated. “I think if you’d asked me a year ago, I’d have said I wasn’t really interested,” admits Moi. “Because to me, before, MMA just seemed like it didn’t fully embrace any style, and just smushed everything together – but now, MMA seems like so much fun!”
“Now, for sure, my boyfriend and I sometimes mess around with MMA for fun,” adds Moi. “I know he wants to do MMA, and that’s kind of gotten me interested.” She laughs. “I have major imposter syndrome, so I’m like, ‘I’m just going to get beat up in every form!’ But just the thought of it, and just messing around with some MMA rounds is really fun.”
The true starting point of Moi’s interest in MMA actually arrived when she and her boyfriend visited another gym: “I think it just kind of hit me when we traveled and went to a gym in Colorado that was strictly traditional Muay Thai – and I had never trained Muay Thai before – but going in there, and seeing all the work in the clinch that looks a little like wrestling, my boyfriend was like, ‘See, this is just like MMA.’ It’s a mindset thing – seeing it, knowing what you could and couldn’t do, I think that’s when it clicked for me, that MMA could be fun. The idea of being able to do anything.” She clarifies, laughing again, “I definitely have an interest in it, but I don’t want to sound stupid, and say anything [for certain] right now. But it’s definitely interesting.”
Do dance and martial arts ever cross wires in her muscle memory? From time to time, it’s almost inevitable. Mia laughs, recalling a recent dance performance: “I was doing contact improv – which is basically like you’re dance improvising with a partner, so you’re touching and stuff, and basically using their body as space and inspiration and whatnot – but it was funny because I started doing duck-unders.” She bursts into laughter. “It was so weird! There was just this split second where I was like, ‘oh my god, what is going on?’”
One witness to both Mia the Martial Artist and Mia the Dancer is popular YouTube personality “Kize Bae.” On her channel, Kize tries out different skills and hobbies – which have included both contemporary dance and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Moi, the instructor behind Kize’s contemporary dance episode, was in fact the one who encouraged the YouTuber to do a Brazilian jiu-jitsu episode next.
Moi laughs, recalling, “That was really fun. I was really fortunate to have been referred to [Kize] by a colleague, so I felt really grateful for that – to have gotten to know her for the [contemporary dance video]. I just love doing contemporary privates – and because of what she does, she’s just so good at learning, and applying what she learned, so everything just went really smoothly. Of course, she also has a great personality, so that was really fun.”
How did Moi talk Kize into filming the jiu-jitsu episode? “Towards the end of the [contemporary dance training], we were talking about other things – other videos for her to do,” says Moi, who immediately suggested jiu-jitsu. “I was just pitching the idea like, ‘Bro, I literally have your whole video – everything that you’d logistically need – planned out. I have a coach for you, I have a gym for you, I can have a budget for you.’” She laughs. “I kind of basically made her do the jiu-jitsu video – which I’m really glad she did, and I hope she liked it.”
The jiu-jitsu episode is among Kize’s most popular videos, generating well over 100,000 views since it premiered in January 2022. “I’m really glad that one blew up,” says Moi. With a self-deprecating laugh, she adds, “But I was just the uke, so I wasn’t really doing much there. It was really interesting to see, though, because I had just barely done jiu-jitsu long enough [at the point] to really understand all her progress. And I was like, ‘Shoot, all the comments [on the video] are right. If she continues on with jiu-jitsu, she could be really good, really fast.’”
In many ways, Moi’s passion for jiu-jitsu is simply an extension of her lifelong love of movement. Though a dancer by profession first and foremost, Moi is a strong advocate for cross-training across multiple movement disciplines: “When someone only does one sport, like they only dance, and nothing else, or they only do jiu-jitsu, and nothing else, I’m always like, ‘Don’t you want to do something different? Rock climb, or run, or something?’” After all, that hunger for something new – and the drive to push herself out of her comfort zone – is what brought Moi to jiu-jitsu in the first place.
“My body’s moving the same, but different, so it keeps both [jiu-jitsu and dance] interesting,” says Moi. She views jiu-jitsu through the same sort of lens with which she once looked at the dance world: “In my dance career, I never had a goal of ‘I’m going to be a professional,’ but your interest just keeps on growing, and you have to do more things to fulfill that hunger. So at my first jiu-jitsu competition, I was never like, ‘I’m going to be a competitive jiu-jitsu player’ – I just wanted to go do a competition because it’s fun.” She grins. “And now that I’ve done a couple of those, now I want to do superfights and stuff, to see what it’s like when higher-level people try and beat me up.”
After all, Moi’s never been one to shy away from a physical challenge – and for that, she has both dance and martial arts to thank.
To keep up with Mia Moi’s ongoing adventures in the movement arts, follow her on Instagram.
Mikey Musumeci joins Gordon Ryan, Danielle Kelly, Andre Galvao, and Garry Tonon in signing a contract with Singapore’s ONE Championship.
Chatri Sityodtong, CEO of ONE, made the announcement in a post to instagram,
Musumeci is a multi-time world champion black belt. He has been virtually unstoppable in recent years as he’s swept through the 135-155 lb. divisions. He made his own announcement in a post to instagram,
André Galvão will be making his ONE Championship debut when he faces off against two-division champion Reinier de Ridder in a submission grappling match at One: X on March 26.
The announcement comes just a week after De Ridder submitted Kiamrian Abbasov with a textbook Head and Arm choke to retain the ONE Middleweight MMA title. In the match, De Ridder actually forced the tap at the end of round 2, but it was after the bell. He came out the next round and finished his opponent with the same submission. After the fight, he grabbed the mic and called Galvão out, “In three weeks at ONE X, Andre Galvao, let’s find out who the best grappler is around these parts. Let’s go man, I’ll choke you out!”
De Ridder is the current ONE Light Heavyweight Champion and Middleweight Champion. He holds an undefeated MMA record at 15-0, with 10 wins by way of submission.
André Galvão is one of jiu-jitsu’s biggest names, with a seat at the ADCC Hall of Fame already secured. The 4th-degree black belt is the head of Atos Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego. He has an MMA record of 5-2 with 3 submission wins. His grappling record is extensive with multiple world titles, including an undefeated ADCC record with 6 titles. He signed with ONE Championship in November of 2021.
ONE: X recently just added a list of match-ups to their 10th anniversary promotion. The additions also include a submission grappling match between Daniell Kelly and Mei Yamaguchi.
ONE: X happens on March 26 in Singapore, China at the Singapore Indoor Stadium at 1 p.m. Singapore Time, or 6 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. Tickets are on sale at onefc.com.
You can watch ONE: X via the One Championship Super App.
Danielle Kelly is set to make her ONE Championship debut just a month after signing with the Singapore-based promotion. The 26-year old will face off against veteran MMA-fighter Mei Yamaguchi in an Atomweight Submission Grappling match at ONE: X, the promotion’s 10th-anniversary event.
Kelly is an elite black belt who is no stranger to grappling elite MMA-fighters, as she has a submission win over UFC’s Roxanne Modaffeiri and Cynthia Calvillo, as well as a recent injury win over Carla Esparza. She has spoken on her plans to transition into MMA, but for now, she continues to showcase her submission skills in grappling matches. She announced the match-up on her instagram,
Yamaguchi made her MMA debut 15 years ago on March 11, 2007. She has 36 total matches, going 21-14-1. She reacted to the fight announcement in her own IG post, “I’m so excited to fight in Singapore again. ONE X will be the biggest event in ONE Championship history Let’s show the power ”
ONE: X was rescheduled from its original December date due to COVID breakouts. The 10-year anniversary card is set to be one of the biggest in the promotion’s history. Still, they continue to make additions to the card. Along with the announcement of ‘Kelly vs. Yamaguchi’, they also announced two more barner burner’s with ‘Itsuki Hirata vs. Jihin Radzuan’, and ‘Asha Roka vs. Alyse Anderson’.
It all goes down March 26 in Singapore at the Singapore Indoor Stadium at 1 p.m. Singapore Time, or 6 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. Tickets are on sale at onefc.com.
You can watch ONE: X via the One Championship Super App.
Terrance “T-Wrecks” McKinney may be a relatively new UFC prospect, but he’s already made a name for himself with a consecutive series of brutal first-round finishes in professional MMA. His rear naked choke submission of Fares Ziam at UFC Vegas 49 this past Saturday marks his fifth first-round victory in a row, and his eleventh first-round victory overall.
It’s an impressive resume, but “T-Wrecks” shrugs it off. “That’s just how I fight,” he tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times, all smiles and understated confidence. “I don’t get paid by the round, so my job is to finish [the fight] as quick as possible, and take the least damage possible, so I can get right back to fighting – and getting the money to take care of my family.”
“I felt great going in,” McKinney says of the fight itself. “The weight cut was easy. I did want the knockout,” he admits, “but Fares timed the inside leg kick right, and it ended up in a grappling exchange after that. I felt like there was a big gap in it, so I was just going to keep grappling for the rest of the round, and look for the submission – and sure enough, that brought me the victory.”
McKinney’s perfectly-timed rear naked choke ended what was merely his second fight in the UFC, but he’s not fazed by the promotion’s grandeur. The octagon is where he’s comfortable. “I wasn’t nervous at all,” he says of his transition from LFA to the UFC. “It just all sank in, and I was like, ‘This is where I belong.’ I just kept telling myself, ‘This is where you belong, man; this is what you’ve been dreaming about.’”
And what did you do today? Congratulations @twrecks155.
“UFC commentators Michael Bisping and Paul Felder said Fares Ziam wasn’t in any danger as Terrance McKinney cranked on his neck. Seconds later, Ziam was tapping out in the UFC Vegas 49 prelim.”pic.twitter.com/BVtFC4rXCT
With that growing collection of first-round finishes under his belt, has McKinney experienced any real differences when facing each opponent? “It doesn’t really matter to me at the end of the day,” he says. “My job is to put on a show, and get out there and get the win.”
For McKinney, it’s all about having the right mindset: “It’s a fight. I don’t even sweat it. You’ve got to think you’re gonna win. If you don’t, you’re already defeated right there; you’re gonna get your a** whooped.”
According to McKinney, much of his success stems from a strong rapport with his coaching team at Warrior Camp MMA, particularly his main coach, Pablo Alfonso. “We’re like Batman and Robin,” says McKinney. “Whatever he tells me to do, we’re getting the job done.”
“A lot of these coaches, I thank them all, because every part of my life, they’re there right when I need them,” adds McKinney.
McKinney also credits his high school wrestling experience with his sense of grace under pressure: “I wrestled in high school – I wrestled like a thousand people. God prepared me for every moment, and that’s why I’m so composed.” Like many other wrestlers-turned-fighters, McKinney strongly believes that of the major MMA sub-disciplines, wrestling provides the best overall foundation for a fighter. “I one hundred percent agree with that,” he says. “That’s why most champions in the UFC were wrestlers. With all that kind of grind, we know what it takes to be the best. Like, man, every wrestler’s had a practice where they’ve cried. We’ve been through those hard times, and we know how to push through that.”
Does McKinney remember the first time he cried in wrestling practice? He smiles a little sheepishly. “Yeah, it was my freshman year. I was getting my a** kicked, and I was the runt in the group, so I had to get tough.”
His teammates were supportive: “We all pushed each other to be the best version of ourselves.” They ribbed him a little, of course – “What high schoolers wouldn’t? It’s just part of growing up,” McKinney points out – but as fellow wrestlers, his teammates also understood the emotions of the moment. To this day, they still keep up with McKinney and his fight career. “They’re my brothers. Once we’ve wrestled together, we’re locked in for life.”
High school wrestling is also where McKinney first earned the nickname “T-Wrecks.” He chuckles as he recounts the tale: “I got the name T-Wrecks when I was in high school because I had this ugly wrestling stance!” He mimics the stance, splaying his hands like the dinosaur he was named for. “I asked my friend, ‘Why do they keep taking me down so easily? They keep murking me!’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s because you’re out there standing like a T-Rex! Start getting your arms past your legs, so you can protect your legs.’”
It wasn’t until after McKinney became an MMA fighter that he went from “T-Rex” to “T-Wrecks.” He laughs at the pun: “Kept the original name, but mixed it up a little, because I wreck people now.”
Like many fighters, McKinney may enjoy catching a slick submission, but his favorite way to end a fight is with a knockout. “I’ll choose the KO finish every time,” he exclaims, grinning. “There’s nothing like when a ref pushes you off the other guy like, ‘Yo, you’re too savage, man, you’re killing him!’ Versus when you’re both still standing – it’s way more satisfying when the ref pushes you off, and you walk away, and [the other guy] is still on the ground.”
McKinney knows what he’s talking about – “T-Wrecks” currently has five first-round KO finishes to his name. Mixing things up in the cage comes naturally to him, though. “I always wrestled, and I always had nasty, accurate hands,” says McKinney. “And [when I started MMA], it developed even more, and the technique with it.”
What’s the source of McKinney’s remarkable drive and discipline? “Dying twice in the back of an ambulance,” he says bluntly. “I ended up drinking and taking a lot of drugs, and ended up dying twice that night,” he elaborates. “I also ended up getting tased [by the police], and wrestling around with the cops for about an hour.”
When he survived that fateful night, McKinney chose to take his second lease on life as a sign from God. “I went and apologized [to the police officers] and thanked them for not killing me,” McKinney remembers. Reflecting on the experience, McKinney explains, “That’s why I won’t take this for granted. That’s why you guys see me going straight back to the gym today.”
McKinney had grown up wrestling and watching MMA, and he’d always wanted to fight in the octagon – but had never gotten around to buckling down and taking his training seriously. That near-death experience pushed him to take the leap: “I really wanted to do it, but [that night] was the final straw.”
Faith played a key role there. McKinney’s religious upbringing has long served as a source of guidance for him. “I feel like every black kid grew up in church,” he says, laughing. Raised in a Christian household, McKinney’s faith has seen him through hard times in and out of the cage.“[My faith] is why you guys can see me reaping these blessings,” says McKinney. In his experience, faith tends to be a tremendous teacher for athletes: “Don’t boast on yourself, or God will humble you.”
He’s also grateful to have the support of his hometown behind him. “I know I’m getting nothing but love and support from my city,” says McKinney, smiling. “And I love Spokane; they treat me like a king down there. I love it.”
McKinney’s ultimate goal is the lightweight belt, and he’s willing to fight anyone in his division on the way there. “Whoever they throw at me, I’m gonna sign that contract,” McKinney says. “Whoever, whenever, they can all get it. I’ll fight for the title right now. I really feel like I have the skill set to win right now. I’ve just got to show the world.”
When it comes to fighters who inspire him, McKinney looks beyond his own division: “The people I look up to in the fight game are out of my weight class – like Petr Yan, Cory Sandhagen, Israel Adesanya. I just love how well-rounded they are as martial artists. Those are the guys that I study. Those three.”
McKinney would also love the chance to fight in multiple weight classes himself. Like former two-division champs Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, and Amanda Nunes, “T-Wrecks” is hungry for the opportunity to make his mark as a “champ-champ.” “I’m definitely looking to be a two-division champ,” says McKinney. “I’m here to leave my name in history.”
As for strategy, McKinney doesn’t find himself particularly married to any specific fighting style in the cage. “I would say that I’m a complete mixed martial artist,” he says. “No real style – just a true mixed martial artist who trains it all. So that wherever the fight goes – whether it’s in the clinch, or on the ground – I’ll be as well-rounded as possible, training each category of martial arts.” Instead of molding himself as a specialist, he aims to be a real threat at all ranges of a fight.
“I started jiu-jitsu first,” says McKinney. “I knew I already had hands, so the first thing I tackled was jiu-jitsu, because I didn’t want to be beating some dude’s a**, and get caught in a submission, you know?” He’d seen it happen multiple times in the UFC, and was determined to avoid the same fate to the extent possible.
That mindset is one of many examples of McKinney’s perfectionism. “T-Wrecks” loves the sweet taste of victory, but he also refuses to rest on his laurels. “I live in the gym,” says McKinney. “My training camp doesn’t stop until I have that belt.”
Regarding his most recent victory, McKinney simply says, “There’s still a lot more to get done. It’s cool, but I got bigger goals. Like I tell people, my goal is to get the belt. I’m about to go train right after [this interview] – and until I get that belt, no celebration, no excitement, because until that’s done, my job’s not complete.”
Granted, part of his reluctance to celebrate his wins may stem from his now-viral celebration of his first win in the UFC – in which he KO’ed his opponent in the first round, only to suffer an injury on camera while celebrating. McKinney laughs at himself sheepishly now: “I strained my calf muscle. A lot of people don’t know, I wasn’t able to flex my calf for like three weeks.” He shakes his head. “It was crazy. I was like, ‘oh my goodness, I’ve ruptured my calf,’ but everything came back clear. All the ligaments were attached, nothing crazy. Like I said, God’s looking out for me.”
What went through McKinney’s head in that ill-fated moment of celebration? “That I was an idiot!” McKinney keeps grinning and shaking his head, still mildly embarrassed by his prior antics. “And I was like ‘shoot, I’m pissed!’” Regarding his second and most recent UFC victory, McKinney notes, “I didn’t want to celebrate too much this time – just act like I’ve been here before. I know I belong here, and I know that victory’s going to come, so I’m done acting like it’s new to me. Just stay humble, act like you’ve been there before, be a champion.”
McKinney may be a nose to the grindstone kind of guy, but he’s also human – and he still makes time to have fun outside of the gym. “Having my ‘me’ time is essential for me,” he says. He spends his down time relaxing at home and watching movies and television – he’s seen all the Rocky movies, and he loves the Rush Hour franchise. He’s also an anime fan who grew up on classics like Dragonball Z and Naruto, as well as western animation hits Danny Phantom and Avatar: The Last Airbender. “I just saw the Mugen Train movie,” he says, describing a spinoff of mega-popular action-fantasy anime series Demon Slayer. “It was pretty sick!”
Does he take inspiration into the cage from the fictional media he enjoys, a la UFC middleweight king and fellow anime fan Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya? McKinney laughs. “Nah, I keep it separate. Business before pleasure, that’s my motto.”
Adversity and success alike have taught McKinney to cherish not only his faith, but his connections to the people who have supported him through good times and bad. If he has one piece of advice to dole out to his fans, it’s to find people who will do the same for them. “Keep God and your family close,” says McKinney. “If you need some help, feel free to reach out. You never know who’s going through the same struggle. Just know that you’re not alone.”
To keep up with McKinney’s career and upcoming fights, follow him on Instagram.
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt has become the latest practitioner of the sport to proclaim that participating in a grappling session is equivalent to speaking with a qualified mental health professional.
“This is the padded room I choose. My coach is my therapist. My teammates are my support group. Adrenaline is my medication,” said brown belt Mike Barnett. “BJJ,” he added, “is my therapy.”
Barnett, who confirmed that he has never been to a therapy session and acknowledged that he doesn’t know what it might entail, told the Jiu-Jitsu Times that his sport of choice has helped him through the “dark” times in his life.
“I was a bad dude,” he says. “I had anger issues. I drank too much. I was a bit handsy with the ladies. Never to the point of abuse or sexual harassment or whatever other PC terms the social justice warriors are using these days, but still. It was enough to destroy my relationships with a lot of people I care about. My actions affected me a lot. And I knew that if I wanted to avoid hurting people close to me, I had to start training in hand-to-hand combat.”
Since he began training in jiu-jitsu, Barnett says that he has seen massive improvements in his mental health. “It used to be when I’d have a bad day at work, I’d go home, have a drink or four, and take it all out on my wife and kids. After she left me and took the kids to the other side of the country with her, I realized, ‘I can’t do that anymore.’ Now, when I have a rough day, I get to take it out on my teammates instead,” he says with a chuckle. “They’ve really changed my life. And I bet if you ask them, they’ll say I did the same for them.”
Barnett’s teammates confirmed his suspicions. “Mike has completely changed the way I see jiu-jitsu,” said blue belt Cam Lee. “I used to think this was just a sport, or a hobby at most. Now I know it can be a place where I can contemplate the fragility of human life. When I roll with Mike, I stop worrying about the little things and start asking myself the big questions: ‘Will my health insurance cover this?’ ‘How will I support myself with a broken spine?’ ‘If I die here and now, would I be satisfied by what I’ve accomplished in my life?’”
Purple belt Iliana Montalban says that Barnett has also solidified her perspective on just how much jiu-jitsu can improve a person. “When Mike first came to the gym seven-ish years ago, he was an angry man who didn’t respect boundaries and just flailed all over the mats for an hour straight,” she told the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “You look at him now, and he’s a completely different person. He’s still an angry man who doesn’t respect boundaries, but now he’s way better at positional control and submissions. Plus, he’s an assistant coach now, so rather than taking all that out on a few teammates, it gets distributed among all of us in smaller quantities. Which is a relief for some of us.”
Barnett also says that, while he still has some room to grow, jiu-jitsu has helped give him the confidence to carry him through until he becomes the man he wants to be. “I used to say some weird things to the girls mid-roll, then deny it when they told me about it. Really sh*tty of me, real cowardly, especially because a lot of them have been through some rough stuff before they started training. But I didn’t know any better. I was just trying to flirt, and that was the only way I knew how,” he says. “Now, I’m confident. I’m a gentleman. I ask them out, and when they say no, it’s no worries. I don’t let it ruin my training session. I just ask again the next day, then the day after that if I need to. And you know what? I think that confidence comes from jiu-jitsu, too. I’m a brown belt now, so in my heart, I’m like, ‘They can reject me all they want. They’re hotter than me, and they know it. But I go home knowing that I’m bigger, stronger, and better at choking than they are, and I’m sure they know it, too.’ And that helps me sleep at night.”
Barnett’s coach, black belt Paul Rose, says that he does give himself “some” credit for his student’s transformation. “Before Mike came here, he had no accountability. Now, he can directly see how his actions impact people. When he loses his temper and hurts someone, there’s real consequences for that: the teammate he hurt goes to the hospital and can’t train for a few months. Maybe the teammate is too traumatized to ever come back. And Mike has to sit with that and feel bad about it for a few hours. Eventually, that guilt is going to catch up to him, and he’ll probably stop being a bully for a while,” he says. “He wouldn’t have gotten that with yoga or tai chi or by ‘talking it out.’ A guy like this needs to be around real people with real feelings.”
Lee and Montalban, however, are open about the fact that they’ve lined up appointments with therapists. “It’s a six-month waiting list to see mine, so until then, I’m going to push forward and keep training,” said Lee. “That way, when I finally step in those doors, I know I’ll be getting my money’s worth.”
Iridium Sports Agency has been an increasingly vibrant player behind the scenes of the MMA world since 2009. Today, the agency manages dozens of professional fighters signed to the UFC, Bellator, and other major promotions. Iridium’s athletes include fan favorites such as former UFC flyweight champion Brandon “The Assassin Baby” Moreno, pole dancing maven turned UFC submission artist Vanessa “Lil Monster” Demopoulos, and crowd-pleasing jiu-jitsu veteran and undefeated MMA prospect Kody Steele.
So, what does it take to create – and manage – a talent stable of this caliber? According to Iridium’s CEO and founder, Jason House, it’s all a matter of doing right by your athletes. “I think for us, we’ve kept it really simple,” House tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “I think we’re put on this earth to serve and to give to others. I think that’s every person’s calling in life. I think if you put the athlete first, and you serve, and you give them your all, you’re going to have good success.
What’s House’s definition of success? “Honoring the process,” says House. “In our sport, you never know what’s going to happen. You could drop your hand an inch, and get knocked out, or make a mistake and get submitted – but if you honor the process, and you do everything right, you’ll never have a bad night’s sleep. If you leave no stone unturned, you’ll always be content with your life’s work.”
So how exactly did House get hooked on building MMA careers for a living? “December of 2006 was the first semester of law school for me,” House remembers. “One of my teammates from college was like, ‘Hey, I’m having the fights on at my place, come over and watch them.’” House didn’t even know whether the fights were boxing or MMA, but he was game for a break from his studies.
The fight, as it turned out, was Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell 2. Unsurprisingly, House was entranced. An athlete in his youth, House had grown up wrestling, so the action on screen spoke directly to him. He began researching gyms in the area, and started studying jiu-jitsu under Team Oyama’s legendary Moises Muradi black belt Giva “The Arm Collector” Santana. House earned his own black belt from Santana in 2021. According to Iridium’s director of communications Ed Kapp, around that same time period, Iridium became the first sports agency in the business to represent over a hundred active UFC athletes.
The symbolism of the timing was perfect, considering the significance of the role Team Oyama had played in House’s professional development. “Through meeting Giva and Colin [Oyama] – I kind of call them my fight parents –” House explains with a laugh, “they really introduced me to the business side of the sport. They’ve both just been such huge influences in my life.”
While not every sports agent necessarily practices the same sport their athlete plays, in House’s case, he reaps the business benefits of speaking the same physical language as his clients. “I definitely think it’s helped build a rapport with our clients – being able to train with them and bond with them really helps create a better relationship,” says House. “Also, because our sport is constantly evolving, I just feel like it’s vital for an agent to be involved on the martial arts side – just so that as the sport evolves, your education on the sport evolves. That way, you’re able to do your due diligence and give your clients the best opportunities and best matchups to win.”
House was also a collegiate baseball player – a catcher, specifically – and to this day, believes the baseball world teaches useful lessons that translate effectively to combat sports: “For me, I was very fortunate to play with a very successful [baseball] coach in college, and he really emphasized having a strong culture among the team – and also that adversity is guaranteed, and that you need to turn adversity into a character building opportunity. Those are really things he hammered home for us, and I think in [MMA] today, with the way it’s growing, if you can create that culture – whether within the agency, or with a team at the gym – there’s a lot of cross-pollination where that will breed success.”
Shortly after he began training under Team Oyama, House also met Ken Pavia, formerly of MMAgents, a pioneer in the industry who spoke at House’s law school. “I just felt like it was fate,” says House. “I started talking to [Pavia], and called him a few times asking if I could intern for him. He gave me an opportunity, and that kind of jumpstarted my career.”
Which isn’t to say that House had no reservations at all about parlaying his legal education into becoming a sports agent. “It was really scary,” admits House. “Because I don’t think I started interning for Ken until my last semester of law school, so up until that point, you’re really terrified that you’ve spent seven years in school, and you’re not sure how that’s going to benefit your future.”
Fortunately, House’s leap of faith paid off. He’s quick to credit Iridium’s team of employees, who treat their work as a labor of love, with the agency’s success: “For us, I’m very lucky that we have a great culture with the team within the Iridium Sports Agency, where everyone at my agency, they love our athletes so much. They love our clientele so much, and they give their all to them, and I’m blessed to have found a team that is able to do that.”
That reservoir of enthusiasm isn’t always easy to come by, but according to House, it’s absolutely crucial to surviving as a sports agent in MMA. “I think sometimes, this sport can make people jaded,” he admits. “Emotions run high in this business. And you have to have that love and passion to show up every weekend, and give your all to your clientele.”
It helps that House and his team are also savvy to the relative youth of MMA as a mainstream sport in the US, even compared to other combat sports like boxing and wrestling. It creates a unique landscape for agencies like Iridium to navigate. “If you look at where football was twenty-seven, twenty-eight years in, or where baseball and basketball were at, you can see that [MMA] is still in its infancy,” he points out. “So we’re still on the learning curve right now – the learning curve is huge on both sides of the fence, both in martial arts and on the business side.”
So what’s the best way for an agent to market such a young sport – and do right by their athletes – against a backdrop of far longer-established athletic organizations like the MLB and NBA?
“I really think the numbers and statistics are the biggest thing,” says House. “Say you’re promoting it to a brand, maybe to market their products with your athletes, you’ve got to show them that this is the fastest growing sport in the world – that it transcends not just America, but through all the countries in the world, and that the demographics are there, that both males and females are involved in this, that [ages] eighteen to forty-four are right there for them. So I truly believe that once you show them the statistics – and show them that the major companies that have bought into our sport, ESPN being one of them, have benefited – and that it’s growing tremendously on a grassroots level, [brands] show up [for MMA athletes]. FloGrappling, UFC Fight Pass, and Fight TV are putting on these amazing grappling events that are growing the sport as well.”
House wants Iridium’s calling card to be one of integrity. “In college, my [baseball] coach would always say that talent will take you places where your character’s not ready to go to – and that he wanted us to be high-character individuals,” says House. “That way, when we developed our talent, we’d be ready for success. I’ve really built our agency like that, in the sense that obviously, I look at talent, but character is the first and foremost factor for me. I want high-character people for our group. Also, when you look at it from a gym perspective, I feel like gyms that have the highest character athletes are the gyms that are going to sustain success for a long time.”
House puts his money where his mouth is by signing a very particular type of fighter: “I feel like, if you only fought four times a year, you’d only be in a cage for an hour of the year – so what that person does outside of the cage is really going to dictate what happens inside the cage.”
He cites his client Brandon Moreno, former UFC flyweight champion, as a prime example: “Brandon Moreno was a champion in life before he was a champion in the cage. Everything he was. He’s a champion father, a champion husband, a champion teammate; as a client, he’s a champion – he’s a champion to me, you know, he did everything right. And I think when you start seeing this ‘good guy era’ we’re in right now – with Glover Teixeria, Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier, Brandon Moreno, and you see these athletes, like the Chito Vera and Alex Perez [types] of the world, you see that they’re very good human beings. And I think that’s a big reason for their success.”
Character, the way House sees it, is also a good barometer for a fighter’s longevity in a grueling and often cruelly unpredictably profession. “I think it was Chris Haueter who said, ‘It’s not who’s good, it’s who’s left.’ And that’s really stuck with me in this business, because this business is very young, and as you see this next generation come up, you realize that it’s those who can just stay the course, weather through some adversity – those are the ones who are going to have the most success in the cage,” explains House. “Because success is never a straight line. It’s going to have its ups and downs. And you need high character to deal with that adversity.”
In other words, Iridium isn’t just out to represent good fighters – House also wants his agency to represent good people, both in and out of the octagon. Integrity and good sportsmanship are also a through line that’s stood out in interviews with several of Iridium’s fighters – including Vanessa Demopoulos, Kody Steele, and John Castañeda – all of whom express a genuine sense of respect for their opponents, and reluctance to manufacture beef or drama.
Does Iridium deliberately cultivate that “good guy” attitude among fighters on their roster? At the very least, it’s something the agency encourages. “I think authenticity is what sells the most,” says House. “I don’t think we need to talk trash; I think we need to be authentic. Brandon Moreno is Brandon Moreno. He’s a lego-playing, fun-loving person, and people resonate with that. Like, you know Vanessa, she fought Silvana, she won by armbar – and they did a photoshoot together two weeks after that fight.”
“That goes to show just the kind of human beings they both are,” House elaborates. “It was competition, it happened, but outside the cage, they’re still very respectful, still good humans, and I think that’s the key. Kody Steele, in my mind, is one of the top prospects – if not the top prospect – in the country right now. He’s going to transcend so many different markets with his grappling credentials, now that his striking’s come along, in MMA. And I think him just being him is marketable in itself.”
So how does House make sure that he’s building the kind of agency that authentic, marketable, “good guy” fighters will want in their corner? “It’s a two-way street,” says House. “I know I’m not for everyone.” He grins. “But for those I’m for? I’m going to be amazing. For those people who are about what I’m about, we’re going to accomplish some amazing things in sports. Different strokes for different folks. I think it’s really just that courting process: me getting to know them better like, ‘Hey, tell me about your life, tell me from birth on, so I can see what adversity you’ve lived through,’ and also, ‘Hey, what do you want to know about me? We can talk about my life too.’ I think when you’re about to get into a relationship of this nature, and you’re about to make such life-changing decisions together, that you have to really have that bond.”
That’s also why House emphasizes the value of growing and nurturing athletes from the ground up. “That’s why working with athletes when you’re so young – when they’re 0-and-0 – is so important,” says House. “It’s like, ‘You know what? Let’s grit our teeth together. Let’s live some life together. That way, when we get to the UFC and have to make some big decisions, we’ve been through some life together, and we understand each other.”
As for the future of Iridium, House hopes to build a legacy of service to fighters. “For me, I want to leave something that’s bigger than myself when I leave this world,” says House. “And I think that if I can create a legacy brand, a legacy agency that continues to serve and give, and affects generations of people, that’s where I really want to go. I want to expand into different markets and different countries – there’s some things we’re working on right now in different markets, to expand in other parts of the world, which I’m very excited about. But for me, it’s just to know that my footprint on this world is to touch others, to help others – I think it’s an amazing feeling to help others achieve their dreams.”
As Iridium has expanded, that goal has become twofold for House, as a CEO: “It’s so fulfilling to see [athletes] achieve their dreams and provide for their families – but also, you’re helping those within your company achieve their own dreams of being sports agents and building careers in the entertainment industry. So I think that’s very rewarding too, that we’re creating opportunities for others to do what I wanted to do when I graduated school. I really just get a lot of joy in my life from seeing everyone help each other and get good experience in the business side of MMA.”
House offers the following piece of advice for aspiring sports agents who hope to represent UFC fighters one day: “Spend as much time in the gym as possible with the athletes, and get to know them – because I think you have to see what they do on a day-to-day basis to really understand it, and to be able to serve them to the best of your abilities. I think, on a grassroots level, you have to know the regional scene. I think the regional scene is the lifeblood of the industry because they’re producing tomorrow’s stars, and you have to build a great relationship there. Attend as many events as possible, shake as many hands as possible, network – because in this industry, I feel like it’s very hard to get the experience anywhere aside from just being in it.”
Building relationships with fighters and their advocates, in other words, is key. And it’s what Iridium thrives on.
To keep up with news on Iridium’s roster of fighters, follow the agency on Instagram.
Cain Velazquez, two-time UFC Heavyweight champion, is currently sitting inside of Santa Clara County Jail without bail on attempted murder charges.
The San José Police Department announced the arrest on Twitter, posting the information along with Velazquez’ mugshot.
“Units are currently at the scene of a shooting near the intersection of Monterey Hwy and Bailey Ave.
One adult male shot at least once transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
One suspect in custody. Unknown motive or circumstances….
Cain Velasquez was the suspect arrested yesterday in connection with this incident. He was booked into Santa Clara County main jail for attempted murder.
The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are still under investigation at this time.”
4/ Cain Velasquez was the suspect arrested yesterday in connection with this incident. He was booked into Santa Clara County main jail for attempted murder.
The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are still under investigation at this time. pic.twitter.com/bBuuPQytNx
— San José Police Media Relations (@SJPD_PIO) March 1, 2022
Velazquez last fought in the UFC in February of 2019, when he was on the receiving end of a KO loss to the current champion, Francis Nngannou. Velazquez accumulated an MMA record of 14-3 with 12 wins by KO. He holds wins against a list of big names in the Heavyweight division, including Junior Dos Santos, Frank Mir, Randy Couture, Heath Herring, Travis Browne, and more. Velazquez was also the fighter to put a stop to Brock Lesnar’s championship run in 2010. He was a two-time Arizona High School State Champion wrestler and wrestled Division I NCAA for the Arizona State University Sun Devils. He holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Leandro Vieira.
Islam Makhachev has called out Rafael Dos Anjos on Twitter, and both fighters have agreed to a short-notice bout at UFC 272 this weekend.
Fight fans around the world were disappointed when Rafael Dos Anjos’ original opponent, Rafael Fizeiv, was forced out of their UFC 272 match due to a positive COVID test. However, there could be a silver lining to the letdown, as Makhachev could potentially be filling in as a replacement.
Makhachev’s name was just in the headlines, as he fought Bobby Green at UFC Fight Night 202 just last weekend. That fight was also a short-notice match-up, except it was Green who was filling in as a replacement. Makhachev was victorious by TKO in the 1st round. If the UFC books the RDA fight, that will be just a 1-week turnaround for Makhachev. The pair have previously been set to fight 3 times in the past, with the face-off never coming to fruition.
The negotiations for this weekend began on Twitter when Makhachev tweeted to RDA, asking for a match at 170 lbs.,
June Welch of Woodruff, South Carolina became the first female in South Carolina High School League history to win a State Wrestling Championship as she took home the Class AAA 106 lb. title. And she did it as a sophomore.
Welch comes from a jiu-jitsu background, but has been wrestling since the 5th grade. She told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, “Wrestling helped me with my takedowns in jiu jitsu,” Welch said. “Eventually, I started to like wrestling more… I wanted to win the whole thing when we came here. Winning my semifinal match made me want to win more.”
Her final match was against Eduardo De Paz of Chester, SC. The pair had competed against each other just a week earlier, with De Paz defeating Welch by pin.
Her coach, John Harper, also spoke with the press, “When a girl wrestles a guy, a lot of people look at the match as a girl wrestling a guy… June is a wrestler. She approaches it like anybody else… [her win is] a great thing for women’s wrestling in the state of South Carolina… Again, these girls are wrestlers. All the girls you saw here, they are all good wrestlers. They all work very hard. They just want to get better and improve.”
As of the 2017-2018 wrestling season, there were only 6 states in the U.S. to sanction women’s wrestling for high school athletics. In the other states, women must compete in their respective weight class among the boys, as Welch did.
If she can continue to dominate her division for the next two years of her high school career, I can guarantee that South Carolina will be considering a women’s wrestling league.
Watch June Welch make history in her championship match here:
Getting injured hurts physically, but if you have a conscience and have injured a teammate, you know that being the one who caused the injury hurts emotionally.
Although we call jiu-jitsu the “gentle art,” it’s almost impossible to train for more than a few years without getting at least one injury that takes you out of action for at least a few weeks. Sometimes, the injury is minor — a strain that requires just a bit of anti-inflammatories and rest to feel better. Other times, it’s more serious, requiring surgery and physiotherapy to even begin the process of getting back to “normal.”
I’ve been on both the giving and receiving end of injuries, and, without question, I’d rather be on the receiving end every time. Just as I try my hardest not to hurt my teammates, I know that my teammates also try their hardest not to hurt me. But still, accidents happen in our beloved sport of chokey-breaky, and when limbs are tangled and bodies are twisted, even the best of intentions can lead to serious pain and an extended break from the mats. And while the injured person is, of course, the top priority, no one ever really tells the injurer how they should process such a traumatic event on the mats.
1.Talk through your feelings with a third party. It’s okay (and healthy) to want to talk through how bad you feel about what’s happened. Being upset about hurting someone doesn’t mean you’re being melodramatic or desperate for attention — it means you’re a compassionate human being. However, the injured person has enough on their plate, and even if they know that the accident was truly just an accident, they shouldn’t bear the responsibility of helping you feel better about what happened to them. This doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t talk about your own feelings, but rather that you should speak with someone else about how you feel. Your coach or an upper belt teammate — both of whom have likely been in your shoes at some point in their time on the mats — can be good sounding boards to talk through your own feelings and discuss if anything can be done in the future to prevent it from happening again.
2. Respect what the injured person needs from you. Injuries aren’t fun as it is, but there’s an added emotional component when they prevent you from doing something you love. In a sport like jiu-jitsu, with two people involved in every roll (and sometimes more, if the injury came from a collision with other teammates), there may also be blame assigned. Because of this, it’s extra important to make sure that your interactions with your injured teammate don’t put your guilt over their immediate needs. If you cranked on an armbar and didn’t give them time to tap, they may need to wait a while before they’re ready to speak to you again, no matter how much you want to apologize and grovel at their feet. Alternatively, they may appreciate you checking in every few days to see how they’re going. Feel the situation out, and if you’re unsure, ask them what they need from you, and be respectful of that decision if they say they just want space. Even if the injury was due to a freak accident with neither of you at fault, they may simply be upset at the situation and want time to cool down.
This also applies to when the injured teammate returns to rolling once they’ve healed up. It may be some time before they want to roll with you again. They may also ask you to avoid certain submissions or to just flow roll. Again, as much as this may not feel great for you, it’s what’s necessary for them to feel safe and comfortable on the mats again. Even if you weren’t at fault, they may subconsciously associate you with what happened. It’s okay to reassure them that you’ll go slow, but if they still refuse to roll with you, don’t pressure them or try to guilt them into changing their mind.
3. Ask yourself the tough questions. Sometimes, injuries are truly freak accidents — you slipped on a sweaty patch on the mats, and that was it for your knee. Other times, the lines are blurred, and it’s worth taking a look back at what really happened to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Channel your frustration into productivity, and ask yourself the (sometimes uncomfortable) questions to see what could’ve been done differently. Do you need to slow down in your rolls? Was the person you were rolling with unfamiliar with the submission you were using? Have other people complained about the way you roll before? Alternatively, was the injured person the one who made the mistake, moving the wrong way to get out of a submission or waiting too long to tap? If you’re not sure, it never hurts to talk it through with your coach. It may become a learning experience for you that will help you become a better, safer rolling partner down the road. Otherwise, your coach may be able to talk with the injured teammate about how to avoid the same problem in the future. And, of course, in some situations, you may simply be able to sleep easier knowing that there wasn’t much that either of you could have done to prevent the accident from happening.
4. Don’t beat yourself up over it. For people with even a basic level of empathy, guilt is natural in situations like this. Wallow in self-pity during your post-training shower, vent about it to a friend if you need to. But once you’ve done everything you can, try to let it go. Holding onto your guilt isn’t going to make your training partner better, and it’s certainly not going to make your jiu-jitsu better unless you can channel it into something productive. We participate in a combat sport, and injuries happen. The best we can do is to try not to hurt our teammates while also trying not to get hurt ourselves. Learn from the experience if you can, and then be ready to show up again as the best training partner you can be.
GrappleFest 11 brought the action during their Daisy Fresh vs. Europe event, showcasing some of jiu-jitsu’s best talent with high-intensity matches. As the night came to a close, Kendall Reusing and Ffion Davies faced off in a hard-fought match to see who would claim the open weight title, followed by a quick main event between Dante Leon and Mateusz Szczecinski.
Co-Main Event
Kendall Reusing vs. Ffion Davies
Davies pulled guard and latched onto Reusing’s legs. Reusing latched onto a toehold, and Davies responded with an attempt of her own before Reusing abandoned the submission. Davies got to her feet and lifted Reusing’s leg high, nearly pushing the match into the crowd before it was returned to the mats. Davies returned to playing guard, and Reusing applied heavy pressure as she worked to pass. Davies attached herself to a leg once again, briefly going belly-down before Reusing managed to escape and returned to her guard-passing attempts.
With five minutes down and ten to go, Davies continued to try to control and elevate Reusing from the bottom. Reusing, however, was relentless with her pressure. Reusing then sat back and tried to work for a leg lock, and Davies seized the opportunity to come on top and work for a pass of her own. After getting past Reusing’s legs, Davies tried to isolate an arm, but Reusing was ready for it and defended to reclaim the top position. Davies positioned herself in single-leg x to isolate Reusing’s leg, and Reusing again went for a toehold that Davies defended.
Five more minutes remained, and Reusing resumed her guard passing attempts against Davies. Davies briefly trapped Reusing in closed guard and then switched to k-guard. Reusing broke free and went for another toehold. Davies defended again and got up to her knees for a moment. Reusing capitalized by slapping on a head-arm choke. Again, Davies defended and returned to working from guard as the clock wound down from the two-minute mark. With just over a minute and a half to go, Reusing locked on a d’arce. Davies’ defense held strong even as Reusing released and reapplied the choke. Reusing transitioned to mount in the last few seconds of the match, and Davies managed to hang on without tapping until the bell.
Kendall Reusing was declared the winner of the match by unanimous decision and claimed the open weight championship title.
Main Event
Dante Leon vs. Mateusz Szczecinski
Szczecinski immediately sat guard and tried to isolate a leg, leading to a scramble that nearly put the competitors into the crowd. After they were returned to the center, Szczecinski resumed playing guard, but it was mere seconds before Leon managed a quick and successful pass. He quickly transitioned to an armbar and finished the submission in the blink of an eye at two minutes and ten seconds into the match, claiming victory and the -80 kg championship title.
Lightweight contender Islam Makhachev stopped Bobby Green in the first round of their main event bout on Saturday night.
His win improves his record to 22-1 with a 10-fight win streak. His record attributes 4 wins by KO and 10 by submission. His 5 previous opponents have all been notable names: Bobby Green, Dan Hooker, Thiago Moises, Drew Dober, and Davi Ramos. This victory should set the #4 lightweight contender up for talks about a title fight.
Fight of the Night bonus went to Priscila Cachoeira AND Ji Yeon Kim for their 3-round banger that could potentially be an early candidate for fight of the year, as both women traded massive blows and were wearing the damage to prove it. The fight was extremely close, with the 3rd-round potentially being scored either way. Ultimately, judges gave it to Cachoeira and spectators were a bit iffy on that decision.
Another bonus went to Wellington Turman for his Armbar victory over Misha Cirkunov. Turman was showcasing his grappling from the start of the fight, as he was on Cirkunov’s back within the first minute. Cirkunov carried Turman for the next two minutes before he was finally able to shake him off. Within another minute, Cirkunov was on top of Turman and working on a north-south choke. In the 2nd round, Turman engaged another clinch, and a Cirkunov trip brought the pair to the ground with Turman in closed guard. From here, Turman quickly and technically shot his hips up to lock in an armbar, causing a very quick tap from Cirkunov.
Another interesting submission win that came on the card was Ignacio Bahamondes, who gained his first sub of his career with a stylish ninja choke variation in the 3rd round against Rong Zhu. Bahamondes has been known for his striking, with 9 of his 13 wins coming by way of KO. However, after this performance, his future opponents might pay more attention to his submission skills.
Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen is showing off her jiu-jitsu skills in a new video, sporting a two stripe white belt as she demonstrates her Americanas, Armbars, and Rear Naked Chokes.
She’s training in a more Vale Tudo/MMA style with elbows, knees, and judo throws mixed in, but she’s under the Valente Brothers in Florida, one of the most traditional schools out there.
The Valente Brothers have 3 academies in Florida. Their website describes the brother’s upbringing in the art, “At the tender age of two, Pedro, Gui and Joaquim were already taking private lessons from Grandmaster Hélio Gracie. Growing up, the Valente brothers trained daily at the Gracie Academy in Rio de Janeiro under Hélio, Royler, and Rolker Gracie. Pedro Sr. always wanted his sons to learn jūjutsu as a complete fighting system.”
Bündchen’s instagram is mostly filled with pictures of her and her husband, Tom Brady, and their family’s travels. She’s a long time yogi and surfer, so jiu-jitsu kind of goes hand-in-hand with the lifestyle she’s already living.
It will be interesting to see her progression through the activity, as she’s clearly already been training for a little bit now.
Betty Broadhurst describes her life as two halves of a whole. There’s the sensible, traditionally accomplished Betty who wandered through various life milestones before her fifties: a UNC Chapel Hill graduate and multi-sport scholar-athlete who became a successful pharmacist and mother of two.
Then there’s the Betty who blossomed after age fifty-four: the wide-eyed white belt, the eldest member of her local jiu-jitsu class by decades, who – a decade later – would earn her black belt on an IBJJF podium after conquering Masters’ Worlds at brown belt.
“It’s been overwhelming in such a positive way,” says Broadhurst. “I had no idea that just being an old person doing jiu-jitsu could be such a positive thing, but I guess to me, I was just doing something that I wanted to do. I didn’t realize that it was that big of a deal. In my world, and in my mind, I was just going after something I wanted – but some of the messages people have sent me about how I’ve inspired them have been so rewarding. I’ve actually tried to take the time to respond to everybody because I remember what it meant to me when people would respond to me.”
Warm and effusive, Broadhurst loves sharing her experiences with other jiu-jitsu practitioners, particularly those with less experience, or athletes who hesitate to get more involved in the sport due to perceived barriers of age or gender. “I’ve been doing [jiu-jitsu] for twelve years, and when you start pulling little pieces of it out and sharing it with people, they’re so grateful,” she tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “I like showing people that I’m active – I train four days a week, and I’m adding wrestling on no-gi nights,” she adds. Chuckling, she smiles. “At sixty-five years old, I’m kind of just living my best life, traveling and training.”
Broadhurst didn’t always have her sights set on a black belt – much less a world title. Once upon a time, Broadhurst was simply a fifty-something divorcee with grown children in college, still feeling too young for AARP and retirement, and bored out of her mind by common leisure activities available to women in her age group. “When you enter your fifties, you notice that people are starting to talk about things like where they want to retire, or downsizing their homes, and I’d be like, ‘God, I don’t want to talk about that kind of stuff,’ you know?”
Broadhurst laughs. “I hate to say it, but it was starting to get kind of depressing. I was like, ‘I’m not ready to throw the towel in!’” She’d also dipped her toes back into the dating pool: “Not that I was looking for love or a relationship, but I still felt healthy and young; I thought I was still attractive.” So, open-minded to the option of a second chance at romance, she’d go out from time to time with men her friends set her up with.
Then, one day, she went out with a man who – when Broadhurst politely declined a second date – refused to take no for an answer. Instead, he began following her incessantly to her home and work.
“I guess bad things do have a silver lining if you’re strong, and you get through them,” says Broadhurst. “But this was a bad situation. I was around fifty-three, fifty-four, and I had a stalker. This person was stalking me from work, parking outside my house at night. I had to have my phone number changed.”
Though Broadhurst was able to obtain a restraining order, her stalker persisted. “Let me tell you, there is nothing more terrifying than when you try to explain to someone that you’re being followed,” says Broadhurst. “And a restraining order is nothing more than a piece of paper. Even though a judge may hand you a restraining order, if that person wants to get to you, and they are crazy enough to violate the law, it’s just a piece of paper. They’re going to come knocking at your door – and this person did.”
Increasingly frightened, Broadhurst considered buying a gun, but never truly felt comfortable with depending solely on a firearm for her safety. When she saw a flyer for a women’s self-defense class offered by her local jiu-jitsu academy, Broadhurst decided to attend, figuring that the extra education certainly couldn’t hurt.
There, Broadhurst, along with the other women in the class, learned the basic trap-and-roll, bear hug escapes, and other basics of day one jiu-jitsu for self-defense. “It seemed so effortless,” says Broadhurst. “There was no face-punching. There was no kicking.”
However, as a lifelong athlete, Broadhurst quickly figured out that if she wanted to be able to apply the skillset the class taught – particularly under duress – she’d have to practice it, and practice it repeatedly. Training muscle memory, after all, requires more than just a few reps in a single class. “It’s like learning jump rope or playing tennis,” Broadhurst observes. “Unless you do it, you’re not going to remember it.”
Broadhurst explained her situation to the instructors, who offered her a few free one-on-one lessons at their local academy: Evolution BJJ, a Nova Uniâo affiliate based out of Wilmington, North Carolina. Sure enough, when she took them up on the offer, she found that her skills improved with practice. That hooked her. “I want to do more of this,” she remembers telling Jeremy Owens, a Renato “Charuto” Verissimo black belt, and the head instructor at the time. Broadhurst was promptly invited to the academy’s group classes.
Adjusting to the idea of group classes took some time. Broadhurst would be the oldest member by far, as well as one of the very few female students – and the other women were all college-aged. “I wasn’t hesitant about the touching,” says Broadhurst. The close contact aspect of the sport didn’t faze her. However, she did contend with another source of anxiety: her age, and whether it would create barriers to social acceptance within the gym. “I think that when something happens to you, like a divorce, your kids leaving [for college], all these things that happened in the previous year – and then you have somebody who’s stalking you! – your self-esteem starts leaving,” Broadhurst confesses. “Your self-confidence disappears. You’re scared when you go to work. You’re scared when you look in the back seat of your car. And that’s no way to live.”
Broadhurst recalls arriving an hour early before Saturday classes for private lessons, at first. The instructor, savvy to her concerns, would invite a training partner from the class – usually a colored belt, sometimes male, sometimes female, but always a variety of body types – to work with Broadhurst. By the time Broadhurst was ready to take the dive into true group classes, she’d already worked with eight of the regulars. “I’d built this thing up in my head like I was going to be the wallflower,” says Broadhurst, “but it was the most welcoming environment. The people I rolled with all remembered my name, and I’d already been working with most of them, so I wasn’t afraid of the close contact.”
And pretty soon, she was in love – with jiu-jitsu, that is. “It was the perfect environment for me to grow my love of this sport,” Broadhurst remembers. She recalls those early days with a grin. “I was working full time, so I would go to night classes.” Slowly, but surely, her confidence returned. Broadhurst had honed a new weapon – and this one, unlike a gun, couldn’t be taken away: “I finally felt like I had some tools that I could use. Just like when you read a book, it’s the knowledge that can’t be taken away from you. I knew how to choke somebody, I knew how to kneebar somebody.”
Did Broadhurst ever have to apply her newfound skillset against her stalker’s advances? Thankfully not. “After eight weeks or so, this stalking problem took care of itself,” says Broadhurst. Her unwanted admirer had finally, apparently, lost interest. “But I continued to take the class because I really liked it! It was a good physical workout, and I wasn’t one for going to a gym and just standing on a treadmill and running. I didn’t realize it at the time, but jiu-jitsu was also meeting that social need I had – that social interaction with supportive people who were helping me be stronger, not just physically, but mentally. It rebuilt my confidence. Suddenly, you’re a part of something that’s hard to describe, where even though you’re older, you didn’t feel old around these people. In fact, I felt younger!”
While, in the end, she may not have been forced to use her jiu-jitsu knowledge for physical self-defense, Broadhurst obtained something equally valuable: true passion. Instead of floating half-heartedly through book and wine clubs, or nodding along politely to AARP plans, Broadhurst consumed jiu-jitsu knowledge with a physical and intellectual hunger befitting her background as a scholar-athlete. “I started reading about it,” Broadhurst remembers. “Because I wanted to learn where it came from. I loved academia anyway – I’d gone back and gotten my master’s degree in public health administration when I was raising a two-year-old and a four-year-old, during nights and weekends at Chapel Hill – and I’d always liked long-term goals.”
Broadhurst would see teammates with blue belts, thinking wistfully to herself – like many a fresh white belt – that she’d “never get that good.” Still, seeing those blue belts gave her a tangible goal to work toward.
Sure enough, Broadhurst’s interest in goal-setting eventually led her to the tournament scene. Broadhurst began noticing small groups of students who would stay longer after training – students who seemed to be a cut above the others, skill-wise. This, she discovered, was her academy’s competition team. She asked for the coach’s permission to join.
“Do you think you’d ever want to compete?” he’d asked her.
“Well, I’ve been a competitor all my life,” Broadhurst responded. It was true – after all, she’d been a high school and collegiate athlete. “So why not try it?”
The coach agreed, believing that a tournament here and there would sharpen Broadhurst’s skills and help her progress in the sport. Still, Broadhurst’s competitive career wasn’t an easy one. Very few other competitors – particularly female competitors – could be found in her age bracket, even in the masters’ divisions. Her opponents were typically far heavier, far younger, or both, but Broadhurst wasn’t deterred. As she recalls, the first girls she ever faced at white belt were in their late teens or early twenties – she didn’t have a viable master’s opponent at the time – and while Broadhurst ultimately lost, she was also delighted with the experience. “I just felt alive,” she remembers, grinning. “This was like being at the Olympics for me!” Laughing, she adds, “I was probably the happiest loser you could ever see at a competition – because I was winning, just by being out there.”
When Broadhurst’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Broadhurst moved to a rural town in North Carolina to be closer, which also meant switching jiu-jitsu academies. A blue belt by then, Broadhurst became the first female student at an – at the time – all-male academy forty miles outside of town.
She wouldn’t, however, be the last. “The wives of the men I trained with had an interest in this strange woman out there competing and training,” Broadhurst explains. “I became friends with one of the wives because her husband was one of the few training partners I had who was under two hundred pounds! They also had a daughter in the kids’ program, so she was around a lot. We got to chatting, and I had dinner with them a couple of times.”
Eventually, Broadhurst invited her new friend – still comparatively youthful at thirty-five – to join her in training. While the other woman demurred at first, Broadhurst finally convinced her: “Your husband’s a brown belt, and he competes,” Broadhurst pointed out, “and your daughter’s doing it too. You’re the only one not doing it, and I need you.”
Broadhurst smiles, remembering their first time in class together. “I was so happy, because she told me that she’d wanted to try jiu-jitsu, but had been afraid – and a lot of her concerns were similar to mine: that it was a man’s sport, with a lot of contacts. So I partnered with her until she started feeling more comfortable, and before you know it, she’s out there, rolling hard with the men!”
It was like opening a floodgate. Soon, another woman joined, then another. Before long, the formerly all-male academy in that rural North Carolina community was a coed jiu-jitsu gym.
Broadhurst went on to earn her purple belt at that same academy. Her mother’s little North Carolina town, however, wasn’t the last stop on Broadhurst’s particular jiu-jitsu journey. After her mother recovered fully from cancer, a new job brought Broadhurst to the Virginia area, where she began training under an affiliate gym.
As the highest-ranking woman in the gym, Broadhurst found herself stuck in a tricky position. On one hand, she wanted to develop her own competitive resume, and continue growing in the sport. On the other, the gym owners recognized her as an ideal mentor for brand new women on the mat. While Broadhurst enjoyed working with the new girls, devoting the majority of her time to bringing them up to speed also limited her time and energy for working on her own game.
In the end, Broadhurst had to pick her priorities – and ultimately, she chose the Virginia Beach-based Ares affiliate academy run by Diego Bispo, who was known for training multiple female world champions and other serious competitors. “I knew Diego from different competitions,” Broadhurst explains. “I met with him to explain my situation, because changing academies is a big deal, and I didn’t want anybody mad at me, but I was at a stage where I only had X number of years left in me, and I needed to use that time to grow – and I just wasn’t growing where I was at.”
Bispo believed in Broadhurst from the start. He trained her with the intent of molding them into another one of his world champions and told her as much multiple times. “I can’t say enough good things about his coaching,” Broadhurst enthuses. “He kept telling me, ‘you’re going to be world champion one day.’ And I kept saying, ‘I don’t know, Diego, I just want a match.’”
Nothing prepared Broadhurst for the moment when Bispo’s prediction came true.
A brown belt woman in her sixties who’d never competed before – but who’d had extensive experience in training camps – had been matched up against Broadhurst. Broadhurst, for her part, was delighted at finally having an opponent her own age. “I was so thrilled to have a real match,” says Broadhurst. “And I was so grateful to her for stepping up.”
After both women took automatic golds in their respective weight classes, they met on the mat for the absolute match. “My professor got part of the match on tape, but he was so excited, he dropped his phone,” Broadhurst remembers with a chuckle. “So, number one, I’m on this high that I’ve got a match and that we’re going to be the oldest competitors in the event – there’s a pride in that alone that maybe no one else can understand, to know that you are not only older but also high-ranked in jiu-jitsu, that you’re a brown belt competing as an older practitioner. I was proud that I’d put in a lot of time and miles of travel and effort to get there, and I thought, ‘This is it. I might, might win.’”
“I’d always lost in the past, to be honest,” confides Broadhurst. “I always took silver.”
This time, not only did Broadhurst win her gold medal match – she won by submission. “My opponent was good – she was very strong,” says Broadhurst. “She pulled guard, which I wasn’t expecting. She went for a sweep, but I managed to find my balance and pass the guard. I was able to get the Americana from side control.”
A teammate snapped a photo of Broadhurst’s expression the moment she tapped her opponent: a look of pure surprise and elation. “I didn’t even expect a match, and I got a match. I didn’t expect an opponent in my age bracket, and I got that. I won the match, which I wasn’t expecting, and I won with a submission!” She grins broadly at the memory, even now. “What more could you ask for? I was on cloud nine! I mean, I was beaming.”
“I kept thanking my opponent,” she remembers. Broadhurst praises her opponent for being willing to step onto a competition mat for the first time in her sixties – particularly in an advanced skill division, at brown belt. “She was wonderful, and I was so grateful to her,” says Broadhurst. “Grateful for her bravery.”
Of course, as most of the jiu-jitsu community now knows – thanks to the viral nature of social media – a gold medal wasn’t the only honor awaiting Broadhurst on the Worlds podium. “We got the medals and all,” says Broadhurst, “and then all of a sudden, this black belt comes out! And everything was just kind of fog after that.”
Even now, the poignancy of that moment clearly strikes a chord with Broadhurst: “Luckily, Felicia [Oh] got it on camera, because I’m just sitting there like –” Here, Broadhurst self-deprecatingly mimics her own tears of joy. “They were real tears,” Broadhurst continues. “In my heart, I never dreamed that the first class I ever took would lead here. That I would go from just wanting to learn self-defense to reading about the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and everything it does for weaker people and for women, to moving, and having to drive forty miles to go to a class, and having to change academies, and how through it all, I’ve just kept going and going.”
Broadhurst compares the journey to grad school: “It’s been this long-term goal, and I never knew if I’d get there.”
Competition podiums aren’t the only place where Broadhurst fuels her love of jiu-jitsu. These days, Broadhurst may be retired from full-time work as a pharmacist, but she’s still hard at work promoting her sport of choice. Never one to sit still for long, she’s found herself putting the newfound time on her hands toward a passion project of her own: a small but mighty jiu-jitsu company that she’s christened Roll Forever.
“When I lived in North Carolina, it was so hard for people, money-wise, to get the opportunities to go train up north at Renzo’s, or at Atos, or with the Mendes brothers – any of the big names,” says Broadhurst. “So it was a real treat when people got to have seminars. I thought to myself that this was something I could do – I could start putting on seminars, and bringing in athletes to teach.”
Broadhurst explains, “I called it ‘Roll Forever,’ because I remember someone asked me when I was going to hang up my gi, and I said, ‘I won’t. I plan to roll forever.’ So that’s how it got its name – I didn’t have it incorporated or anything like that, but I started contacting pretty high-level athletes and inviting them to come to do seminars. You just have to make sure you cover their flight and lodging, and you set your admission cost. I’d ask some of the larger gyms to host, but Roll Forever would put on the seminars. So I started having these seminars, and it was a win-win because the athletes made money, and meanwhile, these rural areas in the Carolinas got to be exposed to real world class jiu-jitsu.” Sure enough, students would attend the seminars from over two hundred miles away, which quickly clued Broadhurst into the fact that she’d tapped into a hungry market.
One of perhaps Broadhurst’s most remarkable characteristics, on and off the mats, is her ability to connect with people within the global jiu-jitsu community. In this respect, Broadhurst’s age is an asset. At sixty-five, she shares a generation with the mothers of many of jiu-jitsu’s most promising young competitors. She describes how a chance encounter with Trish Ryan – mother of Gordon and Nicky Ryan – led to a friendship with the family: “I met her at a NAGA in Maryland. I was older, close to her age, and we were sitting together, and she asked, ‘Do you compete? Because you look like you’re my age!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, who are you here for?’ I didn’t know who her sons were at the time – I just saw that one was a tall skinny kid in a purple belt, and the other was a little chubby kid in a yellow belt.”
Broadhurst and Trish hit it off and got to be Facebook friends. Fast forward a few years: Gordon Ryan, then a brown belt, had begun seeing success on the tournament circuit but was still a relative unknown at the time. Broadhurst invited Gordon to North Carolina for a seminar via his mother. Gordon, who’d been traveling to compete anyway, agreed eagerly, happy to make a weekend of jiu-jitsu and take up a chance to earn some money.
As fate would have it, around the same time, Gordon was sent to replace an injured Garry Tonon at an EBI event – where Gordon’s string of submission victories catapulted him instantly into stardom in the grappling community. Two weeks later, he dutifully showed up at Broadhurst’s gym to teach the scheduled seminar. Broadhurst laughs at the memory: “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, how did you get Gordon Ryan?’ It was crazy! The timing was perfect – these days, I probably couldn’t get five minutes of a private lesson with him for the amount that the whole seminar cost.”
That one Gordon Ryan event – timed via happenstance on the eve of his superstardom – set the stage for Roll Forever’s growth. More and more athletes began coming out to do Broadhurst’s seminars. It’s given her the opportunity to train with the likes of Bernardo Faria, Marcelo Garcia, and Tom DeBlass, to name just a few.
Before she knew it, Broadhurst was getting Roll Forever incorporated, which also got her thinking about other ways she could support the jiu-jitsu community. “I’d been using this money to support athletes in my community pay registration fees to IBJJF and such,” says Broadhurst. “So I told myself, ‘Betty, you need to take this to the next level. You need to sponsor a big athlete, someone who’s upper echelon, and get them to give you some visibility.’” That also meant creating a tangible product – which was how Roll Forever branched into making rashguards, shorts, and other merchandise.
Once again, fate and timing intervened. Shortly after Roll Forever’s business began expanding, Broadhurst crossed paths with Tristar phenoms Ethan Crelinsten and Oliver Taza, Canadian athletes who were training in New York at the time. Crelinsten and Taza wanted to train full-time in the U.S., but due to their Canadian citizenship, couldn’t do so without a work visa.
“Why don’t I be your visa sponsor?” Broadhurst offered. She made good on the deal by contacting an immigration attorney. Soon, she was the proud employer of two new marketing representatives for Roll Forever: Taza and Crelinsten, who just also happened to be world-class competitors. Broadhurst describes the arrangement as a “win-win” situation: Taza and Crelinsten were now free to build their Stateside jiu-jitsu careers and start generating real income, and Broadhurst got to grow her company’s brand via their success.
“They’re good boys, and they’re good friends,” says Broadhurst. “And this is their lives. It’s what they want to do. And I’m so happy that I was able to contribute to that.”
So, what’s the best way to support Roll Forever’s athletes these days? Broadhurst offers three suggestions:
And finally, following Roll Forever on Instagram improves visibility for the company and provides a handy resource for keeping track of events, seminars, and new merchandise in the online shop.
“I didn’t start this company to make money for Betty,” says Broadhurst. “I did it to support athletes. If I had to say one thing about it, that’s what I would say: it’s athletes for athletes.”
When discussing the past decade of Broadhurst’s life, it’s almost laughable to think that the Broadhurst of today – freshly-minted black belt, masters’ brown belt world champion, and beloved entrepreneur working with celebrities of the sport – once looked at a blue belt wandering the mats of her local jiu-jitsu academy, and wondered if she’d ever be good enough to wear a blue belt of her own. Broadhurst, however, grins fondly at the reminder of the white belt version of herself. “It kind of made me smile inside again when you reminded me of how much I was hoping for that blue belt,” she says. “Because it reminded me, ‘God, Betty, you really did make it!’”
Despite her already remarkable accomplishments, Broadhurst remains salt of the earth in attitude and demeanor. However, that doesn’t mean she’s stopped pushing herself. “Now that I’m a black belt, I want to get better at takedowns,” she shares. She’s been working with a college wrestler who recently began attending her academy, a white belt who trades wrestling tips to Broadhurst in exchange for her help with developing his jiu-jitsu.
Outside of developing her own game, Broadhurst has also been training up on refereeing and has confirmed that she will be refereeing the ADCC West Coast trials, the weekend before she competes at Pans.
“I always try my best, even when it’s not that good,” says Broadhurst. “I just want to inspire people. It’s not like I’m some kind of super world champion. It’s just the fact that I want to let people know that this is a lifetime sport – and you can keep doing it, and keep doing it.”
She encourages as much mutual support within the jiu-jitsu community as possible: “There’s a lot you can do to help people out. And the more people we have in the gym, the more people we have to train with, which means the more we’re all going to get better.”
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Darren Rodgers has publicly condemned what he described as “soft” grappling in a bold post on social media.
“Jiu-jitsu is a raw, primal art. When great apes grapple in the wild, they don’t give a sh*t if they get slammed to the ground or dumped on their heads. Our ancestors weren’t vegan b*tches who tapped out when they got a little blood to the face. They ate meat. They didn’t quit until they were unconscious or dead. Now, everyone’s trying to make grappling soft. Stop the p*ssification of jiu-jitsu,” he said in a caption that accompanied a photo of him playing half-guard with tape around all ten fingers.
The Jiu-Jitsu Times reached out to the multiple-time NAGA champion for further clarification on his post.
“What pisses me off is people complain about every little thing these days in jiu-jitsu,” he told the JJT. “‘Oooh, he reaped the knee, oooh, he heel hooked me in the gi.’ Shut up, man. Do you think your caveman ancestors b*tched if someone heelhooked them in the gi?”
When asked about his ideal grappling ruleset, Rodgers said it would “look something like a combination of CJJ rules and ADCC rules.”
“I like seeing people get hit, you know? A nice, loud, open-palm slap. Like a real alpha male.”
Upon being reminded that MMA exists, he recounted his own time in the sport. “Look. I tried it out for a while. Could’ve made it big if I wanted to. Not for me, though. I’m a scary guy, man. I don’t think it’s right for a guy like me to be so unrestrained. I just see red, and then it’s all over.”
The Jiu-Jitsu Times was unable to find a publicly available MMA record for Rodgers.
Despite the lack of striking in standard BJJ, however, Rodgers has developed his own methods for toughening up the sport.
“The match starts, yeah? And I pretend like I’m gonna go in for a takedown, get ’em all nervous, and then BAM.” He claps his hands. “I sit guard. Now they’re scared, ’cause they see me like a f*ckin’ saltwater crocodile. Waiting silently in the lake until BAM.” He claps again. “I grab onto a leg and BAM.” A third clap. “I twist their foot real good.”
Rodgers proudly proclaims that he’s caused seven serious injuries in competition. “Of course I don’t give ’em time to tap. You stupid or something? You think the cavemen gave the sabre-tooth tigers time to tap? This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re part of the problem,” he told the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “It’s not even about the win. It’s about sending a message. You do that to a dad in front of his kid, and that kid knows he’s gotta toughen up. And the dad knows that he’s gotta toughen up, otherwise he’s not gonna be able to protect his kid when someone does this sh*t to him in the streets.”
Despite his complaints about the current state of jiu-jitsu, however, Rodgers says he has hope for the next generation of grapplers.
“I was rolling with a white belt the other day. Kid kneed me in the head probably six times in five minutes. Let his elbow blow out in an armbar, went to sleep when I choked him.” He brings his fist to his chest, emotional. “That’s what this generation needs, before it’s too late.”
2019 Euros champion Samantha Cook has shared the news that she has been diagnosed with lymphoma — a cancer that affects the body’s lymphatic system.
The UK-based BJJ black belt, who also has multiple Grand Slam titles to her name, shared the news days ago on social media in conjunction with the account of Royal Jiu-Jitsu — the BJJ academy that she and her partner, fellow black belt Bradley Hill, have been planning on opening.
While Cook’s care will be provided by the publicly-funded NHS, a GoFundMe has also been set up by BJJ black belt Leoni Munslow to help Cook “access specialist addition to care, pay for private options if a delay arises in her current care plan, make memories with friends and family, and generally decrease financial worries at this difficult time.”
Cook, a respiratory physiologist, has long been an outspoken advocate for women in the BJJ community. She has also been vocal about sexual assault and harassment within the sport.
In addition to the GoFundMe, Hill is also advertising seminars to help raise money for Cook and support their dream of opening Royal Jiu-Jitsu. Anyone interested in booking the Polaris veteran has been directed to reach out to him for more information or to organize a seminar.
Those who are able to donate to Cook’s GoFundMe are encouraged to do so here.
3-time ADCC World Champion Gordon Ryan has signed a sponsorship deal with Bitcoin Cash worth $100,000. He will wear their logo for the event.
Ryan will compete in the 99+ division and in a superfight with Andre Galvao. Ryan will be sporting Bitcoin Cash for the night, a cryptocurrency that was created as a spin-off of Bitcoin in 2017. The $100K deal is reported as the largest sponsorship deal in jiu-jitsu history. The ADCC 2022 event as a whole is projected to set even more records with roughly 13,000 fans in attendance.
Mo Jassim, ADCC Head Organizer, posted the news on Facebook,
Gordon Ryan also flaunted the deal in an Instagram post,
ADCC is set to be one of the biggest grappling events in history, and it’s bringing in the money to reflect that. It all happens in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 17-18, 2022.
Renzo Gracie is the next legend to join the ADCC Hall of Fame ranks.
The 5-time veteran won 2 world titles under the ADCC banner. His reign spanned a total of 13 years, first competing at ADCC in 1998 and last appearing in 2011. He’s competed against some of the best, including fellow Hall of farmers Marcelo Garcia and Mario Sperry.
Renzo is the grandson of Carlos Gracie and son of 9th degree BJJ Red Belt Robson Gracie. He holds a 6th Degree Black Belt under Carlos Gracie, Jr. and Rickson Gracie. He is also the founder of the Renzo Gracie Academy, having trained many elite fighters around the world.
He also competed in MMA for PRIDE, ONE, and UFC. He accumulated a record of 14-7 with 9 submission wins.
“When your son asks you to compete in the same tournament as him, you do it. You’re never too old to challenge your yourself & set goals… Thank you to all the homies who helped get us ready!”
The main event in Las Vegas this weekend ended with a wild KO as Jamahal Hill landed a big overhand right hand on Johnny Walker, knocking him out cold before he even hit the ground.
The fight lasted just 2:55 and Hill landed a total of 7 strikes. He improves his record to 10-1 with 6 KOs, and his #12 contender position should surely improve into the top 10 after tonight’s performance.
The night ended with 5 KO’s and 2 submissions on the card. The submissions were Kyle Daukaus’ D’Arce Choke and Stephanie Egger’s Armbar, both coming in the first round.
// MAIN CARD //
Jamahal Hill def. Johnny Walker via KO
Kyle Daukaus def. Jamie Pickett via Submission (D’Arce choke)
Parker Porter def. Alan Baudot via Unanimous Decision
Jim Miller def. Nikolas Motta via TKO
Joaquin Buckley def. Abdul Razak Alhassan via Split Decision
// PRELIMS //
David Onama def. Gabriel Benitez via KO
Stephanie Egger def. Jessica-Rose Clark via Submission (Armbar)
Chas Skelly def. Mark Striegl via TKO
Gloria de Paula def. Diana Belbita via Unanimous Decision
Chad Anheliger def. Jesse Strader via TKO
Jonathan Pearce def. Christian Rodriguez via Unanimous Decision
Mario Bautista def. Jay Perrin via Unanimous Decision
Kyle Daukaus improves his record to 11-2 with 9 submissions after he grabs a buzzer-beating finish over Jamie Pickett in the very last second of round 1.
Daukaus clearly had the superior grappling in the match, securing 3 takedowns on 6 attempts, and successfully defending Pickett’s only takedown attempt. Daukaus also accumulated 4:12 of control time in the fight that lasted just 4:59.
In his post-fight interview, he called out El Cucuy Tony Ferguson, claiming the title of “D’Arce Knight”. “I wanna call out Tony Ferguson. I have more D’Arce Chokes, so I’m gonna go for the ‘D’Arce Knight’. My new nickname. ‘D’Arce Knight’”. While this victory is the first of Daukaus’ UFC appearances, it is the 6th of his professional MMA career.
Jaoquin Buckley has already been viral for his crazy knockout, but tonight he will walk to the octagon with Detroit Urban Survival Training(D.U.S.T.)’s Commander Dale Brown as one of his cornermen.
Buckley recently visited D.U.S.T. in January of this year. The pair makes sense as they’ve both gone viral on social media, but for obviously different reasons. Dale Brown has become infamous in the martial arts community with absurd survival defense videos, leading to tons of call outs, including from Gordon Ryan. Brown never accepted the call outs and has since used the fame to partner up with comedians and other celebrities. Now, he’s partnered up with a UFC fighter and will make his appearance in the octagon.
If Buckley’s match tonight against Abdul Razak Alhassan goes past the 1st round, it will be interesting to see what kind of advice Brown gives to Buckley, as I’m sure they’re not going to pass on the opportunity for another round of internet fame.
Buckley holds an MMA record of 13-4 with 10 wins by KO. Alhassan is 11-4, with all 11 wins by way of KO. However, Hassan is 3-1 in his previous 4.
Mikey Musumeci has consistently impressed throughout his career as a grappler, most recently winning his fourth world title.
For anyone who doesn’t understand how significant this is: Mikey is the only non-Brazilian man to win an adult gi Mundials title more than once. And he’s done it four times now, in two different weight classes.
After his most recent victory, I reached out to the young legend to learn a bit about his current mindset and outlook for the future.
“Man it’s an incredible feeling to see myself constantly improving each year! I still feel like I have so much more room for improvement.
Something Gui Mendes once told me when I was like 15 was:
‘To win black belt worlds is easy, but to win it 4 times, now that’s hard.’
And it’s so true! Every year there are new challenges everyone is working and training so hard to beat us it just takes so much work to keep doing this! I don’t know how many titles I will win. This 4th one was the hall of fame one so it was super important for me!
My body is super healthy and I’m only 25 I could really do another 15 worlds if I wanted to so well see #roadto20times? Hahaha.”
Since 2017 Mikey has won a title each year, with the exception of 2020. The pandemic of the past 2 years has had a drastic effect on the world, and the world of jiu-jitsu hasn’t been spared. I was interested to learn about Mikey’s experience with the pandemic:
“So in 2020 when covid hit I was stuck home only able to train an hour with my sister each day. That was super hard for 8 months only having one training partner but we made the best of the situation that we could.
My condolences to anyone that has lost someone during this pandemic.
Then once again in 2021 Covid has been such a pain in the butt for me. I was competing every month and improving so much then in September I got really sick from it. My strength I feel is still not 100% from that covid in September not to mention I got covid again recently.”
Perhaps most impressively, Musumeci is NOT scared to shed the gi and has recently been involved in a wide variety of no matches. Of course, he has big plans for no-gi as well…
“So the transition to nogi lit a fire under me. It made me feel like I was back to my first year in black belt in the gi! The new leg configurations with the heel hooks were such a new puzzle and so exciting to learn.
I feel like gi is my first love and always will be, but nogi can be super fun as well. I like starting from the bottom and working my way up so I am super excited to continue progressing in both gi and nogi. I only did 8 months of nogi before gi worlds and my gi seems to have improved from only training nogi so I think both are essential to making our jiu-jitsu the best we can! My dream is to win ADCC. It is the last title I need so every day I am trying to train both gi and nogi now.”
One fascinating aspect of Musumeci’s rise as a star in the sport is that to win his second world title as well as his most recent world title he had to face the legendary Bruno Malfacine, a ten-time world champion with whom Mikey had trained as a child. In their first match, in which Mikey managed to win by a 2 point lead, Bruno reacted poorly to his loss, but in their most recent match, a more dominant win by far, he seemed to handle it with more poise and grace.
“Bruno is such a legend! He already won worlds 10 freaking times and is still out there trying to improve and compete. I have so much respect for him. It was amazing to be able to hit a cool bolo on him and even share the mat with him again :). Bruno was super respectful and cool. We both just got emotional during our last match but immediately it was cool.”
Mikey is big on leaving his comfort zone as seen with his transition to no gi, for a short period he seemed focused on entering the heavier weight classes to try his luck against men with 80+ pounds of weight advantage. He had a couple of impressive performances as well as his very first submission loss in these weight classes. I was curious if Mikey intended on returning to the ultra-heavyweight division.
“I just love the feeling of starting from the bottom in stuff; nogi, heavyweight, etc. I feel these challenges make me improve so much when I go back to my regular division. So maybe one day if I’m crazy enough hahaha”
Recently, Mikey raised a lot of eyebrows by joining Pedigo Submission Fighting. His new team, nicknamed “Daisy Fresh” because they operate out of an old laundromat, has been making waves, as a team winning no gi pans back in April 2021. Mikey and fellow North American grappling superstar, Dante Leon, both joined PSF. I was fascinated to learn about his motivations and thoughts on this change:
“Well, I currently live in Vegas and have lived here for the past 6 years.
All my training and preparation have always been done here with the same people. A team for me in registering for events is just extra support from a group of like-minded people or friends of mine.
I have been my own coach in terms of training and improvement since I was a blue belt. People I think don’t realize I literally live in one place and just represent these teams in the competition. I love what Heath Pedigo and the squad have been doing for jiu-jitsu so I really am happy to be a part of the team and represent them.”
With as impressive as Musumeci’s career has been thus far, he’s far from done. I was interested to learn about his goals for the future:
“My goal in jiu-jitsu always remains the same. I want to keep technically improving as much as I can! My dream is to win ADCC as I said before. It’s the last title that I need! As well as continuing to make new goals for me in the gi! I hope I can raise the technical level in my generation for the next generation!”
Danielle Kelly is staying true on her promise to transition to MMA, as she has just signed a deal with ONE Championship to compete in both submission grappling and MMA.
ONE seems to be sweeping up the most elite jiu-jitsu players. Their roster includes Gordon Ryan, Andre Galvao, Garry Tonon, Tom DeBlass, and now, Danielle Kelly.
Kelly has made it known that she intends to tranisition into MMA. She currently holds submission grappling wins over the UFC’s Carla Esparza and Cynthia Calvillo. The 26-year old black belt is fast-tracking her way to veteran status in the BJJ world, with matches in WNO, EBI, ADCC, and more.
Chatri Sityodtong, chairman and CEO of ONE, made the announcement via Facebook post,
“Please join me in welcoming Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Superstar Danielle Kelly to ONE! She will be competing in both submission grappling and MMA on the world’s largest stage of martial arts. She is a longtime student of the amazing Professor Karel “Silver Fox” Pravec, an original Renzo Gracie Black Belt.
For me, Danielle has the potential to be the next big thing in martial arts. She is an extraordinary talent with dominant finishing abilities and a real killer instinct. She also has a touching life story of adversity and triumph that will inspire the world. Equally important, Danielle is a wonderful human being with a heart of gold.
Welcome again to ONE, Danielle! #WeAreONE”
Kelly also acknowledged the deal in a post to Instagram,
3rd-Degree black belt under Pedro Sauer, Keith Owen, has passed away at the age of 52. He leaves behind a wife and 3 sons. Owen was attending a Master Pedro Sauer camp in Brazil.
According to Bjjmoves, he was also a former Sheriff’s deputy and firearm instructor, holds black belts in kung-fu and Wu Wei Gung Fu, and was a ground control instructor for the Idaho Police Academy.
“To all of Keith’s friends, it is with heavy heart and great sadness that we acknowledge the unexpected passing of our dad, Keith Owen. He was truly a wonderful person; authentic, charismatic, and his presence was always larger than life.
He never met a stranger; he would talk to just about anyone and everyone that knew him was a friend. He was truly the most loyal people one could ever hope to know. He was a loving and dedicated husband and father and he taught us so many valuable lessons. Most importantly, how to be leaders and to always take care of your family, friends, teammates, and people, and of course Jiu Jitsu.
He had the rare ability to be the kindest person you could know, tell it like he saw it, encourage you, and share his funny stories and he would always make you feel encouraged and appreciative with the way he shared his insights and wisdom. He lived his life to the fullest, did what he wanted, laughed from the bottom of his heart, spent time with those he loved, and he would do anything to help anyone in need.
We are grateful for the incredible amount of love and support over the past few days from everyone and the Owen family would like to give a special thanks to Master Pedro Sauer for his friendship, mentorship, and commitment to our father and family over the years.
We will keep everyone updated about a service and what our plans are for the future. Keith has influenced and positively impacted so many lives. He was a remarkable man, husband, father, and icon in martial arts, and we will continue to pass on his legacy, lessons and honor him. Our dad was also very excited to become a grand-father to Brooks Owen this upcoming May.
Rest in Peace Dad, we love you, and as you always would say, “We got this!”
-The Owen Family”
The statement prompted hundreds of responses from loved ones, friends, and students as they paid their respects for the professor.
Before going into any details about recovery, I’ll offer the general answer I give when asked about it. Train as often as you can while being as recovered as you can. I give this answer because it will vary amongst individuals given the recovery resources used, age, time available for training/recovery, and daily responsibilities/work. I’m a firm believer that age doesn’t have to make much of a difference as long as you are properly recovering. I often see people’s lives getting busier with career, responsibilities, and families as they age which alters the time and energy available but does not necessarily alter recovery because of their age. Younger individuals have age on their side but often have fewer responsibilities/stress, therefore recovering faster.
The top two recovery options that I believe are the best for jiu-jitsu and are both free– stretching and sleep. Getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep is essential not only to physical recovery but mental as well. Your attitude will thank you as well as your body for this sleep. Lack of sleep can also affect your appetite hormones which come into play with your nutrition for recovery. Since jiu-jitsu is not only a training session where you are going through the motions of exercises, you need your mind to be clear when learning a new skill. Stretch at the end of the class an additional times per day as needed. Focus on giving extra time to areas and/or sides of the body that are used more depending on your game. Yoga is also a great form of recovery that includes stretching, breathwork, and clearing your mind.
Nutrition is also very important in recovery. Eat as many whole foods as possible and limit white flour and white sugar. Typically, most people need a multivitamin to get all of their nutrients even if they eat healthily. Consume plenty of vegetables of all colors and an adequate amount of protein. Consuming 75%-100% of your body weight in grams of protein per day is ideal. Make certain you are staying hydrated throughout the day with at least 3L of water for females and 4L for males each day. Drink at least every 2 hours for the body to retain the fluid. Depending on how much you sweat, rehydrate with electrolytes following jiu-jitsu class. Also, take some form of amino acids for muscle recovery.
Additional types of recovery I recommend are PEMF therapy, chiropractic adjustments, massage, acupuncture, cupping, ice bath/cold shower, CBD oil, and sauna. I suggest a massage at least once a month for any person. The others you can decide depending on any issues/soreness you are experiencing. For all of these, the frequency and options used will have to be decided by you and can change from week to week. Strength training is also suggested, not as recovery per se, but to keep the body strong and less likely to get injured. Give some of these a try to determine what works best for your body, schedule, and budget. When you feel healthy, strong, and recovered on a regular basis while training at the amount you desire, then you have determined what works for you.
Grappling legend Baret Yoshida has officially joined the ADCC Hall of Fame.
Yoshida secured a silver medal in his first ADCC World Championship in 2001, where he gained notoriety for competing in the finals against Royler Gracie. He went on to take another silver in 2003 and a bronze in 2007. He is also an IBJJF No-gi champion in 2008, 2009, and 2018(masters 3 division). He also held an MMA record of 6-6 with 5 submission wins.
The 2nd South American ADCC Trials in Sāo Paulo, Brazil, took place on Saturday and a new list of names have qualified for the 2022 ADCC World Championship roster.
Division Winners
-60kg: Mayssa Bastos
+60kg: Giovanna Jara
66kg: Fabricio Andrey
77kg: Roberto Jimenez
88kg: Alexandre De Jesus
-99kg: Henrique Ceconi Cardoso
+99kg: Gutemberg Pereira
The number of competitors at this round of trials was far larger than the first. The 66kg division had 67 competitors, 77kg had 99, 88kg had 73, 99kg had 47,+99kg had 30, Women’s -60kg had 28, and Women’s +60kg had 19. The event held nearly 300 matches in total.
66kg winner Fabricio Andrey and +99kg winner Gutemberg Pereira won their divisions with a 100% submission rate. Also among the list of bracket winners was Roberto Jiminez, who made the weight cut down to 77kg and came away with 4 submissions out of 6 hard matches. He now joins a very stacked division in Las Vegas. After his finals victory, he told FloGrappling “I came here and confirmed my ticket in… The main mission this year is ADCC.”
19-year old Giovanna Jara won the women’s +60kg division as a purple belt with 3 submissions out of her 4 matches. Additionally, Mayssa Bastos won the -60kg division with 2 subs in 4 matches.
ADCC 2022 will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 17-18.
It was business as usual for Israel Adesanya, as he further cemented his place into UFC history with his 4th UFC Middleweight title defense.
Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2 was a bit more competitive than the first installation, with the scorecards giving Adesanya the edge by just a single round. The only round that was absolutely clear for Adesanya was the first. Otherwise, rounds 2-4 could have gone to either fighter, with the 5th round seeming to go in Whittaker’s favor clearly.
Whittaker was able to establish some of his grappling, securing 4 takedowns out of 10 attempts. He secured 3:35 of control time on the ground, but came away with a bruised and battered lead leg and ultimately couldn’t maintain enough momentum to sway the judge’s scorecards.
It’s not common for a champion to call out their next opponent, but Adesanya knows who he wants next and called out Jared Cannonier, who defeated Derek Brunson earlier in the night. Adesanya put the statement out, “if you want it, come get it.”
In the co-main event, Tai Tuivasa KO’d Heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis with a vicious elbow, slumping The Black Beast and knocking him completely unconscious. Earlier in the night, Renato Moicano recorded his 9th submission win and his second-straight RNC finish. In total, there were 4 submission finishes, including Kyler Phillips’ armbar from triangle and Douglas Silva de Andrade’s RNC for an unbelievable comeback win.
WHAT A FIGHT
Who do you think should leave Houston with the belt?
Douglas Silva de Andrade was all but finished in his blood-soaked battle with Sergey Morozov, but he came back with a miraculous rear naked choke to secure an epic victory that had everyone in awe.
Andrade had a tough first round, taking some heavy shots and spending some time on his back, but his body language never broke. In the 2nd round, he came out like a mad man and scored a knockdown within the first minute, and another near the midpoint. He was battering Morozov before he took the back, locked a body triangle, and used the RNC to put his opponent to sleep.
In his post-fight interview, he called for the performance bonus,”I deserve the 100K, Dana. And the best performance and fight of the night. That’s the bonus I want.”
Russia’s Epic Fighting Championship is making headlines yet again as they host another bizarre intergender MMA match, this time a 2 vs. 1; a 75-year old grandfather and grandson vs. a woman.
The woman in question is Yulia Mishko, who showed that she was more than capable against the pair of strange men. She had great awareness of her two opponents’ positions and used some surprisingly-decent movement to create angles and avoid being cornered. The most significant shots of the fight came from Mishko as she clearly dominated the fight, but the fight was decided as a draw- for some reason.
It should be noted that these events are not only absolutely cringy but completely unethical. The only saving grace here is that the woman whoops the grandson/grandfather combo, as I’m sure the promoters were expecting. Russia is a wild place.
it's here and it's beautiful. first we have Yulia Mishko vs Vladimir Spartak and his grandson BIG IGIBOB. fight goes to distance. #popMMApic.twitter.com/A7fro1gQEU
The event also featured a Women’s strawweight fighter against a 529-pound man, and a female adult-film star fighting a male. Absolute circus.
massive Grigory Chistyakov vs female strawweight Aleksandra Stepakova ends in a decision. you can see on Aleksanda face no fake punches here . #popMMApic.twitter.com/5kh3rKEl64
and finally main event. **** star Alexandra Piskun vs controvertial personality Gogen Solntsev. Gogen just walks out of the cage at the end. #popMMApic.twitter.com/vnIGCAQTN1
IBJJF has announced that the World Championships will return to the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach for 2022.
IBJJF Worlds haven’t been in Long Beach since 2019; they were canceled in 2020 and took place in Anaheim for 2021.
The dates are set for June 1-5 and will be covered by FloGrappling. IBJJF states that registrations will be open soon.
The comment section of the Instagram post was flooded with support for the announcement, coming from the likes of Gabi Garcia, AJ Agazarm, Xander Ribiero, and more.
This Saturday at UFC 271, Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker will face off in a 5-round Main Event for the UFC Middleweight Championship.
This is their second time meeting, the last time being a championship bout at UFC 243 on October 6, 2019, which Izzy won by KO in the 2nd round, marking the only loss on Whittaker’s record since 2014. In his last fights he holds a record of 12-1.
This time around, Whittaker looks to defeat Adesanya and reclaim the undisputed Middleweight title. Perhaps his best chance may come from his grappling, as he holds a BJJ black belt, an Australian Wrestling Championship Gold Medal, and his camp for this fight was at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Smeaton Grange
In an interview with MMAJunkie, Whittaker told reporters, “I would love to be able to get him on his back and to work on the ground… It’s no secret that the greatest advantage anyone would have with ‘Izzy’ is on his back where he can’t use his long arms and long legs to hit you. It’s no secret.”
This strategy would make the most sense, as the only loss marking Adesanya’s record is a 5-round unanimous decision to Jan Blachowicz, where Blachowicz was successful on 3 out of 5 takedown attempts and amassed 7:06 of control time on the ground. Whittaker noted the success that Jan’s strategy had, “I think Jan set a blueprint on how to beat him.”
Whitaker has won 5 fights by way of submission, but his most recent was in 2011 under the Legend Fighting Championship promotion. He wouldn’t join the UFC’s roster for about another year.
The cage doors will close in Houston, Texas this Saturday, February 12. Prelims start at 3:00p.m. PT on ESPN+. The main card begins at 7:00p.m. PT and can be purchased on ESPN+ PPV.
Cole Abate, who recently turned 17, recently gave an interview on the BJJFanatics Podcast and shared his experience of being a teenage professional athlete.
He credits jiu-jitsu for helping him mature and grows into the young man that he is today. He says that being around training partners who were grown adults, instead of the kids his age from school, was a major influence on him and encouraged him to grow up quickly.
“Growing up I was already a little more mature than the kids I was around at school. I think a lot of that comes from me being surrounded by such experienced adults and stuff growing up.
Especially whenever I started training jiu-jitsu, because soon enough I was training in the adult class and I was surrounded by the adults in the class and I was one of the only few kids training. So I would do that class at night, and I remember just hanging out after class and being around everyone else and making friends like that. My best friends weren’t the kids at school, they were the guys I was hanging out with at the gym after class, or when we would go out to eat afterward and just hang out. I think just being around them, there was a big influence from their maturity on me.
And it kind of just showed me that there was a huge difference between the people that I was around at school and these guys I was training with every day. So I think whenever I would go back to school, I think when I was like 8 or 9 is when I really started committing myself completely to jiu-jitsu and I would go to school and I knew that my path was with jiu-jitsu.
I knew I had to have a good education if I wanted to have an academy one day or open up my own business and work with the sport. But seeing those kids, they were regular kids. Most people don’t know what they’re gonna do whenever they’re 7, 8, 9 years old. So of course I had friends at school, I was always social, I was really friendly. But I knew that my path was with jiu-jitsu.
I was going to school just so I could get finished and go to train at night. That was until I started doing home school, and I’m still doing that today so that I can train and travel and do all the extra stuff that I need to do so that I can be a professional athlete within the sport. I think that maturity comes from being around such experienced adults. Especially now at the academy that I’m training at. A lot of those guys have been on the same path as me.”
Check out the complete segment of Cole speaking on his experience below:
John “Sexi Mexi” Castañeda may just be one of the most simultaneously friendly – and dangerous – people you’ll ever meet. A double major college graduate fluent in English and Spanish, one-time aspiring paralegal, and local business owner, Castañeda is quick to laugh, willing to poke fun at himself, and easygoing in conversation.
He also happens to be the guy who just choked knockout artist Miles Johns to sleep at UFC Vegas 47 this past Saturday. This marks Castañeda’s second win in a row in the UFC and the sixth submission victory of a now 24-fight MMA career.
“I think that earlier in my career, people were more like ‘man, this kid’s a savage, he just wants to fight people locked up in a cage,’ but once they really get to know you, and understand the sport and stuff like that, they know that it’s an art form, really,” Castañeda explains to The Jiu-Jitsu Times. He’s aware of the common societal stereotyping of all fighters as violent boors and gently pushes back on the misconception, emphasizing the culture of mutual graciousness at his gym and beyond: “Fighters these days – especially fighters from my gym – we’re all very respectful people. We’re all ‘yes ma’am, no sir’, and I think that comes from the martial arts lifestyle. I think that respect is really big at a lot of academies, not just mine. When [outsiders] see respectful people come out of an academy, even though those same people just got into a savage bloodbath for fifteen minutes, it helps them put the pieces together that this is a lifestyle for sure, but it’s also art, you know what I mean?” He smiles, and adds half-jokingly: “We’re not just a bunch of savages.”
Castañeda’s affable demeanor and self-deprecating wit bely a formidable fight IQ – and knockout power in his fists to match a dangerous submission game on the ground. The choke that put Miles Johns to sleep on Saturday is the third arm triangle Castañeda has successfully used to end a fight – and the second that’s put an opponent out cold.
Even while explaining the mechanics of his own submission victory over Johns, Castañeda is careful to avoid any implication of disrespect for a skillful opponent. “Miles has a really, really high pedigree of wrestling,” says Castañeda. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was worried about it, but I was gonna be cautious of it. I was prepared for it – I spent a lot of time working with high-level wrestlers, including one of his ex-teammates from college.”
So just how did Castañeda manage to get the better of Johns on the ground? “To be honest – I don’t mean to be disrespectful, or throw shade, or anything like that – but I had gotten him down to the ground with that knee, followed by a straight left and an uppercut, which I didn’t think even landed all that well. But he was on the ground, and I was just in a half-guard position, and I heard his corner say, ‘All right, Miles, you might have to give him your back here.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I hope he gives me his back!’ So as soon as he started turning that way toward me to give his back, that’s when I had [the arm triangle].”
Once again, Castañeda is quick to clarify that he doesn’t in any way blame Johns’ corner for their fighter’s loss: “Keep in mind, we’re fighting in the apex, so it’s not like there’s a super full crowd or anything – which meant I could hear everything. I could hear refs, I could hear my coaching, and I could hear his coaching.” An unfortunate circumstance for Johns, but one largely outside of his or his corner’s control – and something that Castañeda, with quick thinking, ultimately capitalized on.
Is it safe to call that deadly arm triangle Castañeda’s signature submission at this point? “For sure, it’s my little bread and butter – absolutely,” says Castañeda, with a wide grin. The arm triangle – and for that matter, most head-and-arm style chokes – started becoming a Castañeda specialty during the blue belt stage of his jiu-jitsu practice. “It comes quick,” he’s noticed. “It depends on what kind of lineage your jiu-jitsu comes from, but ours is a Pedro Sauer lineage, and I’m pretty sure that in our curriculum, right away, at blue belt, we start learning stuff like arm triangles, D’arce chokes, pillow chokes – all the head-and-arm stuff, so I got exposed to that whole family of chokes pretty early on in my training.”
Castañeda comes by his grappling repertoire honestly – he started out as a wrestler, which turned out to be an excellent base for his MMA game. “Wrestling gives you a really good sense of weight distribution,” says Castañeda. “And that’s half of fighting. Even with boxing and striking, a lot of that is also about weight distribution. So you really learn a lot of those little small techniques through wrestling.”
The wrestler’s mentality, according to Castañeda is also a powerful weapon in the cage: “Wrestling is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Training for wrestling is harder than training for mixed martial arts, to be honest. The pace is just ‘go, go, go.’ It really molds your mind for hard work, and it builds character – it really does. Let’s say I’d started off as a kickboxer – I can guarantee that if I’d grown up as a kickboxer or boxer, yeah, it’s gonna be tough, but it’s not wrestling tough.” He laughs. “There’s even a saying: ‘once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy.’ So I think that wrestling is a really good starting point for mixed martial arts – both mentally and physically.”
Now a jiu-jitsu brown belt, the submission game pairs naturally with Castañeda’s wrestling pedigree, and he’s had a lot of time since his blue belt days to refine his specialty finishes on the ground. Everything he does in the octagon, he trains in the gym repeatedly. “I would say that even in the training room, [my arm triangle] is something I’m always hitting,” notes Castañeda. “It is something we train at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy because our head coach is really keen on head-and-arm traps in general – lots of one-arm choke manipulations.”
Does he feel the need, as a grappling specialist, to prove the power in his hands? In some ways, sure. “When my striking started to pick up, I really fell in love with my hands,” Castañeda recalls fondly. “It kind of just goes like that – one step after another.”
Castañeda is also quick to note that he’s not the only fighter who’s been down that path. “I think that’s what happened to [Johns] too, honestly,” he observes. “I think that Miles is a really, really high-level wrestler who’s kind of strayed away from that because he fell in love with his knockout power. Once you knock someone out, it’s addictive, man. You want to do that every time. And especially if he’s getting 50k bonuses for doing it? For knocking dudes out cold? I can only imagine! Not only does it feel good, you’re also getting financially rewarded like that? You’re going to fall in love with your hands, and you’re going to stray away from your greatest strengths – which I think for him is his wrestling.”
Which informed Castañeda’s approach to fighting Johns – who’s indeed famous for his own knockout power – in more ways than one: “I was telling everyone weeks before this fight [with Johns] that I wanted a dogfight,” says Castañeda. “Most of the time, I try to take as little damage as I can, but sometimes when you go in there – like this last time – I went in there with full intention to get hurt, but also do a lot of hurting.”
More specifically, Castañeda elaborates, “My intention from the get-go was to kind of stalk Miles – he’s obviously a power striker, he’s got a lot of knockout power; he’s got a lot of knockouts in the UFC just in general. But I knew that if I was able to break his rhythm, switch stances from southpaw to orthodox, and kind of throw a lot of different angles and movements and just abnormal movements, I was gonna get him on his back foot, and that’s exactly what happened: I had him backing up the whole time.”
Still, Castañeda was careful to avoid falling victim to overconfidence: “Signing up for a fight, and just knowing that [your opponent] is riding back-to-back wins of brutal knockouts, it kind of just does something to you. You have to respect it. It doesn’t matter how hard of a chin you think you’ve got, or how good your head movement is, anyone can get knocked out. So my plan was always to try and nullify that power, and just move a lot.”
“I feel like I still came out of it pretty unscathed,” Castañeda admits, “because sometimes all you really need is the mentality [of being willing to get hurt] to put on a performance like that.”
It’s all part of Castañeda’s overarching strategy of balancing intelligent fight tactics in the cage with maximum entertainment for the spectators – within reason. “There are guys who are just like ‘go go go,’ Justin Gaethje-style – they might get almost knocked out, but they’re still coming forward,” says Castañeda. He has plenty of respect for that kind of heart, but he’s also wary of the long-term damage that fighting style courts: “I think mixing it up is better for the longevity of your career.” CTE, after all, has destroyed more than one fighter’s livelihood. Grinning ruefully and shaking his head, Castañeda promises, “I won’t ever sell my soul – or my brain – for a paycheck. I’ll definitely be as responsible as I can, but also as exciting as I can.”
He cites Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson as an excellent example of an athlete who successfully prioritizes physical longevity without sacrificing watchability: “He’s always been so good at being willing and able to engage, but also having the high fight IQ to know when to disengage. So he’s a good combination of both, and I think that’s kind of rare.” Mighty Mouse may be known for a resume filled with visually spectacular battles in the octagon, but he’s consistently avoided taking major damage for the most part – which is also Castañeda’s game plan.
So how does a fighter ensure that he delivers on entertainment value for a hungry crowd without sacrificing all his brain cells or suffering a career-ending injury? “There can be really good wrestlers and jiu-jitsu players, and they’re getting wins, but sometimes they might not even keep their jobs in the UFC because they’re not really a draw,” Castañeda cautions. “So now these people have to go out on a limb to change things up.”
His advice for combatting this problem is simple: “Get good at the exciting stuff. And what that means is putting in the work. I think that even just from my last fight, compared to this fight, I worked a lot on my striking. I worked a lot on my Muay Thai: my knees, my elbows – I’d never really landed a good knee in a fight, and I landed two of them in this fight so that just goes to show that yeah, it’s a little bit flashier, but all you’ve got to do is work on the flashy stuff.”
Learning to transition into a more visually exciting style does require some time and experience, Castañeda acknowledges. “I would say that when I first started my pro career, I was more of a ‘boring fighter’” – he makes air quotes here – “where my strong suit was wrestling, and my strong suit was jiu-jitsu, so I would try and get in there, take as little damage as possible, and get the win, because a win is a win, and that’s the most important part. But as I’ve been evolving, nowadays, people want exciting fighters. That’s what sells.”
Castañeda isn’t just savvy to the physical side of fighting – he’s also careful to stay smart about the business side of MMA. Despite earning enough from the UFC to stay financially healthy, he does maintain an additional full-time job as a nightclub owner, in order to create a bit of extra cushion in his bank account. “I grew up with nothing, in a very poor family,” he explains. “I think that being in the UFC is the most I’ve ever been paid for doing mixed martial arts, and I could definitely live off of just UFC money. That would be no problem. But I think because of my come-up – because of how I grew up – you’ll never ever catch me being broke. So if I have the opportunity to work a full-time job, and be a full-time athlete, and perform at a high level as I have been, I’m going to do it. If that means sleepless nights and stuff like that, so be it. You’ll never catch me with empty pockets, you know?”
Being a professional fighter who owns a nightclub also brings its own share of amusements. When hiring bouncers, for example, Castañeda doesn’t necessarily look for other guys who can fight; since the club isn’t located in an especially troublesome part of town, he finds that he can get by fine with big guys who simply look intimidating. Castañeda laughs at the irony of being their boss: “It’s funny because the most dangerous guy in the room is probably also the smallest guy in the room!”
This isn’t to say that balancing his double life is easy, by any means. “It’s a lot of sleepless nights – a lot of late nights and early mornings,” Castañeda acknowledges. “Which honestly kind of counters the whole ‘high-level athlete’ thing in my opinion. When you’re sleep-deprived, scientifically speaking, you’re not at your peak.” Still, Castañeda’s found that he’s able to push through the drawbacks to continue performing well in both careers – and for him, the financial safety net of a secondary source of income is worth being a little more tired in training.
In fact, Castañeda credits his impoverished childhood with the discipline necessary to excel in two careers: “I think [the way I grew up] is also why I’m able to do this. It’s a constant reminder of where I’ve been, and where I want to be.”
He does poke fun at his own frugality. “Oh my god, I’m so frugal!” Castañeda exclaims, laughing. “Every time I visit my mom, she’ll look at the shirt I’m wearing like, ‘John, I’m pretty sure you’ve had that shirt since college, you should really go clothes shopping.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s still a good shirt! It still fits perfectly fine, I haven’t grown since I was a sophomore in high school.’”
The one thing Castañeda is willing to blow money on? Good quality food. “I buy high-quality food, just because in the profession I’m in, you’ve got to invest in your body for sure,” he says. Luckily, that also means that he gets to write off his grocery bills on his taxes – after all, for an elite athlete, food is a business expense.
What about building his brand as a fighter? Unsurprisingly, Castañeda isn’t a big fan of trash talk. “For me, I really don’t like social media, and I could care less about a following, but do I think that they’re important, especially if you’re trying to grow your brand? Absolutely!” acknowledges Castañeda. “But at the end of the day, whether I talk trash or not, I’m getting paid the same, regardless. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m going to let my fighting speak for me. You could be the most humble dude, the least confrontational guy ever, but if you go on a ten-fight winning streak, you’re getting paid, regardless.”
He tells the story of one promoter – whom he tactfully avoids naming – who tried to pressure him into making a show of pushing his opponent around for the cameras: “I will say that one time, I got coerced into talking some trash,” he confides. “Basically, I was told by the CEO that, since I was the main event, he needed me to push this guy while facing him down, and trash talk him a bit. And I was like, ‘That’s not me, man, I’m sorry.’ And I told him that, and he was like, ‘Okay, whatever.’”
Castañeda laughs. “But then, lo and behold, turns out he told the other guy to do the same thing! I didn’t expect it, but all of a sudden, we’re facing off, and I’m getting pushed!” He adds, “I know they told him to do that, because this guy wasn’t like that before either – he’s not a confrontational dude – and I remember going back and watching the footage, and it just looked so fake.” Castañeda sports another rueful grin as he shakes his head. “And it’s like, oh my god, that’s embarrassing for me too, being a part of that.”
Even so, Castañeda doesn’t bear particularly negative judgment or ill will toward athletes who do build their brand off a solid trash talk game. In fact, he acknowledges that famous trash talkers have, in some ways, paved a route toward visibility for the sport as a whole.“I think for Conor McGregor for example, [trash talking] worked out super well for him – and not only for him, but for the sport itself,” says Castañeda. “UFC and mixed martial arts have become so much more mainstream because of fighters like him. People love that.”
That’s not Castañeda’s style, though. Instead, he finds more organic ways of appealing to his fanbase. “For me, personally, that’s just not me,” he explains with a shrug. “I’m just my own little dude, and I’m not really gonna be a trash talker.”
One route for making the most of his own authentic self? Taking advantage of his bilingual fluency in English and Spanish – and lifelong comfort with cultural code-switching – to capitalize on the increasingly globalized reach of the UFC. “I’m Mexican-American – I was born in Dallas – but both my parents were born in Mexico, and my dad still lives in Mexico,” says Castañeda. That heritage allows him to forge deeper bonds with other fighters from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, especially since he can speak to them in their native tongue. “I always represent Mexico too,” says Castañeda. “I’m very proud of my background and my heritage, and where my ancestors are from, so I definitely embrace the Mexican heritage.”
Bilingualism and Mexican-American heritage have also granted Castañeda more media exposure – and an opportunity to double his fanbase, since he can also give interviews to Spanish-speaking news outlets: “It’s double the work, but it’s well worth it. It’s kind of like an authentic way to grow your brand without having to put on that whole fake persona and trash talking, you know what I mean? So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing with the UFC; as soon as I was done with my fight, I had a couple interviews with the regular UFC broadcasters, but then I had interviews with UFC Español, and the Spanish-speaking broadcasters. Same thing, pre-fight. We all have media obligations, but I have them in both Spanish and English.”
Does that have anything to do with where the nickname “Sexi Mexi” came from? Castañeda laughs. “That nickname actually originated from my freshman year in college,” he recalls. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the freshman fifteen, but for me, it was more like the freshman twenty-five, or the freshman thirty. I got pretty chunky. After I quit wrestling in college, I started training MMA full time, and that’s when I came in super chubby. But it only took a couple of months of the MMA training for me to get back in shape. So my coach, one day, he was like, ‘Damn, you’re looking sexy!’ And later that same practice, he called me Sexi Mexi, and I was like, ‘Dude, that’s my fight nickname from now on!’”
The name stuck for the rest of Castañeda’s career – all the way to the UFC. “Hearing Bruce Buffer say ‘Sexi Mexi’ this past Saturday was pretty surreal, not gonna lie,” admits Castañeda with a chuckle. Castañeda still keeps in touch with that first coach – “Ray White, you’re the man!” Castañeda calls out cheerfully – who’s reportedly very proud of the mark he’s left on the biggest MMA stage in the world via his protégé’s moniker.
What pointers does Castañeda have for young rookie athletes who want to make a career out of fighting without going broke in the process? “I would tell them to do exactly what I did – which, right away, was make enough time to fully commit yourself to the sport a hundred percent, but also have something to keep yourself accountable for on the weekends,” says Castañeda. “And what I mean by that is that when I first started mixed martial arts in college, I was training all the time. I was giving everything to the sport, training two or three times a day, five days a week, but then on the weekends, it was like, ‘damn, my friends are going to the bars, my friends are going to the clubs.’ And meanwhile, I was like, ‘nah, [MMA] is more important to me.’ So I got a part-time job. I got a part-time job to work on the weekends, and to supplement my income. I was working maybe Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, while my friends were out partying and drinking. I chose the nightlife strategically.
“It keeps you accountable,” he explains. “Because not only are you making money now, you’re also not getting into any trouble, you’re not hungover for practice the next day, next week, whatever it is. So that’s what I would say: try to find a balance between two different things. Get something like a part-time job, and then commit appropriate time to the sport. Find the balance between those two things, to keep yourself afloat.”
It’s sound and honest advice, from a man who truly emphasizes the importance of balance in all things, whether it’s physical risks in a cage fight, or financial risks on a dream you’ve been chasing since college. One thing, however, remains a sure bet: Castañeda’s determined to keep making his way to the top of the fight game. “I’ve been really lucky,” says Castañeda. “I’ve worked hard for everything that I’ve gotten, but specifically, for where I’m at right now. And now that I’m here, I protect [what I’ve earned] with everything I’ve got. I’m really good at what I do, and I feel like I’m just setting myself up for more success, and that’s what I’m going to keep doing. I think it’s just a positive outlook on everything, so we’re rocking and rolling.”
To keep up with developments in Castañeda’s career and upcoming fights, follow him on Instagram.
However, even though he didn’t finish his opponent, he clearly led the dance as two judge’s scored the fight 30-27 in his favor.
This time around, Kody chose to bring out the grappling with an early takedown in the first round but ended up defending a guillotine inside Jesse Gangler’s closed guard. Steele escaped and postured up, landing some ground and pound before getting his neck tied up again, but of course was able to escape and stand up. It was clear that Gangler was eager to jump on the neck of Steele, but his attempts weren’t very effective.
A big right hand from Steele was the biggest moment of the first round, and he came away with two takedowns and a bit of control time.
Round 2 was quick to the ground after another Steele takedown that made Gangler attempt another guillotine, this time holding on even as Steele passed into ¾ mount. As Steele further passed to full mount, Gangler survived by breaking Steele’s postures and shrimping until his back was against the cage and he eventually came back to his feet. Steele took the time to showcase some of his muay thai, opening his opponent up with elbows and knees, but Gangler was tough and landing some strong shots in return.
As Steele threw effective strikes, he perfectly timed a takedown to come on top and finish the round on top in half mount.
Round 3 started with a hug and mutual respect between the two, and then a muay thai battle of power shots. A little over a minute into the round, Steele timed another takedown to again land in top-half. Gangler tried to go for the neck again, but wasn’t able to do much with it besides use the position to bring his back against the cage. As Steele worked for the guard pass, Gangler wrapped up a single leg and reversed the position so that he was on top and Steele’s back against the cage- his best moment of the fight thus far.
Our first time seeing Steele on his back, Gangler dragged Steele away from the cage and toward the center of the mat. In the process, Steele improved to a closed guard. Gangler used a can opener to open the guard, and Steele swung his hips around and a leg over Gangler’s head for an armbar- forcing a scramble that led to a sweep for Steele and him coming back on top.
With two minutes left to work, Steele passed to knee on belly and forced a back take. As Steele landed some ground and pound, Gangler was able to buck him off and grab for a single leg. This time, it was Steele attempting a guillotine, using the position to stuff the takedown. The two engaged in a brief clinch before Steele secured another takedown, which Gangler defended with an unsuccessful kimura attempt. After a brief dogfight, Steele took the back as Gangler turtled with just :30 seconds left. In the last ten seconds, Gangler was able to stand up and cause Steele to slide off of him. Steele immediately shot for another takedown and slammed Gangler, yet again landing in a guillotine from closed guard as time expired.
Steele sang praise to Gangler’s toughness, who has been in 17 professional fights. “He’s super tough… I’m pretty comfortable [defending guillotines]. Honestly, I thought he was just gonna gas his arms out, but he kept with it, so good on him.”
Mark Kerr is the latest grappler to be immortalized into the ADCC Hall of Fame.
While Kerr was more of a freestyle catch-wrestler than a submission grappler, he used his division-1 wrestling experience to dominate his divisions at ADCC, with gold medals in the +99kg division for both, 1999 and 2000.
Kerr is among only a handful of ADCC double-gold medalists, with his performance in 2000 leading to a gold medal for the +99kg and absolute divisions. He is also a 2001 ADCC Superfight winner against HOFer Zé Mário Sperry, a 2-time UFC Heavyweight tournament winner, a World Vale Tudo tournament winner, a collegiate-wrestling National champion for Syracuse University, and the subject of HBO’s The Smashing Machine documentary.
Overall, Kerr holds a record of 12-1 at ADCC, his only lost being his very first match- a superfight against reigning absolute champion and fellow Hall of Famer Ricardo Arona. He also holds an MMA record of 15-11 with 7 submission wins.
His impact on submission grappling and jiu-jitsu is unmeasurable, as his style haunted the ADCC competitors and demanded the development of the sport.
After submitting a list of notable opponents, Mica Galvão has punched his ticket for the 2022 ADCC World Championships and joins a stacked division among the likes of Dante Leon, Garry Tonon, JT Torres, Kade Ruotolo, and Lucas Lepri.
In the finals, he faced Magid Hage of Surfight Jiu-Jitsu. Hage was coming off of 5-straight submissions as he entered the finals, but Galvão secured a triangle choke and got the tap nearly two minutes into the match.
The second ADCC South American trials go down next Saturday, February 12th.
ADCC World Championships take place in Las Vegas, on September 17-18.
UFC strawweight fighter Angela Hill has been promoted to the rank of purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Hill, an Invicta and World Kickboxing Association champion, earned the promotion from Johnny Faria and Jenna Bishop of Alliance San Diego. She shared the exciting news on social media.
Hill earned her blue belt back in August of 2018. A week ago, she competed in the gi for the first time at a Jiu-Jitsu World League tournament in San Diego.
Hill made history by becoming the first Black female fighter in the UFC — a journey that started with her participation in The Ultimate Fighter in 2014. She was released from the promotion in 2015, but then, after being crowned as the Invicta Strawweight Champion in 2016, she returned to the UFC. She currently holds a record of 13-11 with a few controversial split-decision losses in the mix.
Middleweight contenders Sean Strickland and Jack Hermansson battled it out for 5-rounds in the main event of UFC Vegas 47 on Saturday night.
The fight ended with Strickland’s hand being raised via split decision, but it could just as easily have gone the other way. While the pair had agreed earlier in the week to a no-takedown clause, Hermansson chose to shoot for a few but was stuffed by Strickland every time.
Strickland’s boxing was there the entire fight, establishing a jab early and reddening the face of Hermansson in the early rounds. However, Hermansson was able to land some big shots, including some nasty body shots and a few wild flurries.
World-class grappler Kody Steele believes in letting his actions speak for themselves. A black belt competitor under Brazilian Fight Factory’s Rodrigo Cabral, Steele made a statement loud and clear back in November by finishing opponent Keith Ford – a professional football player with a fifteen-pound weight advantage on Steele – with a brutal thirteen-second KO victory during round one. Steele may be best known for his jiu-jitsu prowess, but as an amateur fighter, he’s made it plain that he also loves to talk with his fists.
So how’s he feeling about taking those fists to the pro leagues this coming Sunday?
“I’m feeling really calm and collected,” Steele tells The Jiu-Jitsu Times. “Honestly, I’m just ready to compete – I haven’t competed in a little bit, so I’m just ready to pull the trigger and go.”
While he doesn’t make a habit of studying his jiu-jitsu opponents – at this point in his career, he knows all their games well enough that he doesn’t find it necessary to do much extra homework – he does study his MMA opponents. Of his Sunday fight against Jessee Gengler at Fury FC 56, Steele expects a good scrap. “[Gengler] comes forward, and he throws a lot of hands,” says Steele. “He’s not scared to exchange in his fights. In the second round, even if he’s tired, he’ll still be throwing hands, coming forward, throwing kicks, then going straight to grappling if [opponents] get too close.”
Photo: Mike The Truth Photography
Steele’s game plan is simple: “I’m not going to think about it too much. I’m just going to get it in there and treat it like a fight – like if I saw this guy in the street and had to fight him, that’s how it’s going to be.” He adds, “I want it to go to the second round. I want to show people some new skills that I’ve been working on – slash skills that I do already have. I want to take him down and display the dominance I have down there – like, show that my grappling’s even better than my striking is. And then I want to end the round by sleeping him.”
Does anything about Gengler worry Steele? “I know he’s a scrapper, and he’s a southpaw,” says Steele. “Southpaws are a little trickier because I don’t have that many reps with them. I know that once we’re fighting, everything’s just going to slow down for me. I did a striking tournament where I fought a southpaw in the semifinals – and the only reason he gave me so many problems was that he was a southpaw, so he rocked me a lot.” Steele smiles. It’s a knowing look. “But I remember, I learned a lot from that fight.”
Part of his upcoming fight against Gengler, in Steele’s view, is the chance to show off some skills he didn’t get to display during his last trip to the cage – thanks to knocking his opponent out so early. “At my last fight, there was some stuff I wanted to show, some combos and setups, but I really only got to get through one of them.” He laughs. “I was like, ‘damn!’”
Did his last opponent’s comparatively imposing size faze him at all? “[Ford] was the guy who’d held the belt at 185, and had come down to 170,” says Steele. Steele remembers Ford missing weight before their fight several times by a significant margin. “Whatever, dude,” said Steele, unbothered. At that point, Steele just wanted to fight – fifteen-pound weight disadvantage or no.
“He was really big and explosive and powerful,” Steele acknowledges with a shrug. “I knew he could clip me and knock me out if he hit me, but if I don’t feel any danger, I don’t really get nervous.” Weight disadvantage aside, Steele got into the cage with Ford having studied his weaknesses carefully: “I’d seen him knock guys out, and I knew he had strong hands, but I read his game, and I saw stuff in his game that I could exploit, where I was like, ‘if he does that, I’m gonna slip him, and I’m gonna hit him.’ I noticed he was heavy on his lead leg, so I knew to chop that leg down. I noticed that when he switched stances, he wasn’t really comfortable there, but would still try to throw, so I was like, ‘if he switches stances, I’m gonna kick him in the face.’ I already knew everything he was probably gonna do.”
The payoff – just as Steele intended – spoke for itself.
Quiet and mild-mannered, Steele isn’t one to gas himself up. “For me as a person, I’m quiet, I won’t say too much, I just let my hard work speak for itself,” he says. “I love it when I just do my own thing, and other people talk me up. When I see MMA fighters talking ****, I’m like, ‘Man, why are you even doing that? You’re not getting paid to do that.’ I think maybe one day, once I make a name for myself, if I need fights, maybe that’s when I’ll open my mouth, but until then, I’m just going to keep working hard and doing my thing.”
His cool head – combined with a steady work ethic – helps him avoid pre-fight jitters. Even at his amateur debut in MMA, Steele remained calm. “I really wasn’t nervous at all,” he remembers. “People kept telling me, ‘When you walk into the cage, and you hear them locking that door behind you, it gets real.’ Honestly, I don’t even remember them locking it. I was just confident and ready to go because I train year-round, and I train a lot, so it was like, ‘Well, if [my opponent] beats me, it just means he outworked me.’ For the past three years, I’ve really been focused on outworking everyone. I don’t think too much when I compete – I just turn my brain off, and let my body go and react and do what I’ve been doing.”
While Steele’s transition from pure sport jiu-jitsu to MMA has been largely successful – he’s riding two amateur victories by knockout to his first professional fight – he’s wary of letting early triumphs go to his head and cautious of taking on too much too quickly. “MMA is like a jealous girlfriend,” he says, grinning wryly. “You can’t give jiu-jitsu too much attention, you can’t give boxing too much attention, you’ve got to be all in on MMA – and if you’re not gonna be all in on MMA, you’ve got to get out, because it’s a really fast sport, and it can be pretty dangerous.”
He’s also trying to avoid running into the same fate he dealt out to Ford in November: “I’m focused on MMA because I don’t want to go out into the cage, and have someone sleep me,” he says, laughing. “I don’t want that to happen.”
Steele was also a wrestler before he was a jiu-jitsu player, and credits that transition with helping him develop an understanding of what techniques do and don’t translate across different combat sports. “As we can see, even when MMA fighters go against boxers, it doesn’t always translate well, because you do a lot of things [in boxing] that you don’t normally do [in MMA],” he points out. “I only wrestled for two years in middle school and two years in high school, but I got the basics down, and I understood those basics. When I took that to jiu-jitsu, I had to learn what to add and what to take away from the wrestling – and I had to learn what worked for me in jiu-jitsu because I was getting guillotined.”
Steele likes to mix things up. “If you have some threats on your feet, and you can set your shots up well, you can take down a D1 wrestler,” he observes. “You see it all the time. I think with MMA, it’s just a different sport, so I have to approach it as its own thing, and use the tools that I have from striking, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu. What I’ve learned is that you use jiu-jitsu in MMA, obviously, but you don’t want to be on your back, really – you don’t want to play off your back. So you have to take away a lot of [jiu-jitsu tools] and add other things.”
It’s not a huge loss for Steele, who doesn’t consider himself much of a guard specialist in jiu-jitsu, to begin with. “I’ve been working on my guard, and my guard is okay,” he says. “Against most people, I have a good guard, I can pull off leglocks and things like that, but for the most part, I’m fighting on stuff like Who’s Number One, where I’m always up against really high-level people, so compared to that?” He makes a wavering hand gesture, pulling a face. “My guard is ‘eh,’ against those opponents. But my wrestling and my top pressure, and the pace I push, that’s high-level. So I have to stick to my guns when I do stuff like that.”
After all, even within sport jiu-jitsu itself, Steele’s savvy to how competitors adapt their styles for different rulesets – preparing for an ADCC run looks different, for example, from winning a traditional IBJJF points-based tournament. Steele personally favors the ADCC ruleset. “It fits well with my style,” says Steele. “I can still get subs, I can still work on my wrestling. Besides that one, I’d say Who’s Number One, because that’s also submission-only, but it’s a different type of submission-only. It’s kind of like a fight – where it’s about who’s controlling the match, who’s passing. They’re looking at all aspects of the match, not just certain little things. So those two are definitely my favorites.”
Steele loves to grapple, but he’s also always been a striker at heart. “Every jiu-jitsu guy who comes out of our community and takes it to the big professional leagues – you know they’re going in there to hunt for submissions,” Steele points out. “Like Buchecha, he went in there, he did that gnarly blast double leg and then choked the guy. Which, heck yeah, that was awesome! But that was also what everyone expected. I wanted to see what his striking looked like. I wanted to see how powerful his hands were.” Steele hopes to deviate from the typical jiu-jitsu to MMA formula: “With all these jiu-jitsu guys coming up in MMA, you’ve got to find a way to separate yourself, and I feel like a good way to separate myself as a jiu-jitsu guy is being able to sleep somebody cold – be violent in there.”
Even prior to his entry into MMA, Steele was never the sort of sport jiu-jitsu competitor who was afraid of throwing hands. The 2019 EBI Combat Jiu-Jitsu Tournament – where he took first place – proved an ideal ruleset for Steele, who relished the opportunity to mix some striking into a grappling match. “When I first found out about combat jiu-jitsu, I was like, ‘This is perfect for me,’” Steele remembers. “If I do well, and I enjoy this, it’ll be a nice transition for me to go to MMA.”
His success in the combat jiu-jitsu format gave Steele the confidence he needed for the cage. “I did that tournament as a brown belt, and I remember it was loaded with a bunch of black belts,” he recalls. “I was sitting with my professor in the back of the warmup room, and we were just chilling, and all these guys were going for inverted de la Rivas and ‘bolos, and I remember thinking, ‘These guys are crazy. If they do that to me, I’m just going to slap them.’” True to his word, Steele remembers that once he hit the mat, he “didn’t even do much jiu-jitsu – I was just trying to whale on people.”
When it comes to MMA, Steele wants to stay versatile: “I wanted to [KO my last opponent] just to get the experience, and show that I can do it, but at the same time, I’m not moving away from what’s going to take me far, which is my jiu-jitsu and wrestling. When the time is right, that’s when I’ll use it, and that’s when I’ll be able to break out my heel hooks and guillotines and back takes and things like that.”
Regarding his last KO victory against Ford, Steele’s plan was always to knock his opponent out – though, by Steele’s own slightly sheepish admission, he didn’t expect to end things quite so quickly. “I was gonna drag him out through all five rounds,” says Steele, who wanted to build more experience in the cage and test his cardio, “but then I threw that first combo on him, and was like, ‘Huh, that’s it! All right, cool.’”
For such a quiet fighter, Steele has a lot of love for a good, noisy crowd. “When I was first starting out [in jiu-jitsu], I’d get a little nervous before my matches, but then I’d show up and see all these people, and be like, ‘oh wow, this is gonna be so much fun!’” Instead of shying away from spectators – a common deer-in-headlights response from rookie competitors – Steele thrives on their energy. “When covid happened, we’d be fighting, and there was no one there, only cameras, and I was like, ‘This sucks,’” he remembers. “It’s hard to get that momentum going like when people start yelling and cheering, I can get into the zone and get lost in it.” Without a crowd behind him, Steele still knows how to “do what I need to do” – he’s a professional, after all – but he’s not a fan of the silence.
This isn’t to say that Steele is overly impatient for the spotlight either. “Right now, I’m just working my way through the rankings,” he says. He’s willing to bide his time, and he’d rather wait to face a big-name opponent at a major promotion once he’s seasoned and savvy than waste it on inexperience or an overhasty shot at glory. “I feel like if I rush the moment, that’s when I’m gonna find myself in trouble. In the future, I definitely want to fight top-level guys, but the time’s gotta be right.”
Aware that his grappling resume lends him a name recognition advantage when it comes to matchmaking, Steele adds, “I don’t want to use my name to skip the line, and just fight for these really cool promotions. Most fighters go through the regional scene, they make their own name, they get experience, and then they go to the big promotions. I want to work my way through just like everyone else does it – I want to get that experience.” Steele doesn’t want to leave any doubt that he’s truly earned his spot in the MMA pecking order.
His patient, future-oriented attitude is also reflective of a strategic mindset when it comes to fighting itself. “I feel like I’ve always been pretty explosive and athletic,” says Steele, who grew up playing baseball and football, and enjoys a natural sense of athleticism and ease in his own body. “But I’ve also been on the other side, and I’ve seen guys who are athletic and explosive who, one, don’t work hard, or two, cut corners because they’re so explosive and they can just depend on that natural athleticism. So I act like I don’t have [my athleticism] – I work like I don’t have it. And I study, and I train, and I drill to make my technique as perfect as I can so that if I need my athleticism, it’ll come out naturally, so I’m not just relying on that. Like if I can be smarter in the cage, and also use my athleticism, have good fight IQ, and make sure my technique is as crisp as I can make it, then hopefully that’ll take me pretty far.”
Steele’s own transition into MMA has been a long time coming. “I’ve always wanted to do MMA,” says Steele. “If it were up to me, I would have started doing MMA as a white belt, but my professor was like, ‘no no no’ – he made me wait until I was at least a purple belt to even start thinking about it.”
For Steele, though, jiu-jitsu was always part of a long game to get into the cage. When asked why he – as an aspiring MMA fighter who loves to hit people – gravitated toward the grappling styles first and foremost, Steele cites competition opportunities. “When I first started jiu-jitsu, there was jiu-jitsu, and there was striking, and I did a bit of both,” he says. “What really got me to focus on jiu-jitsu was that there were competitions every weekend. I remember when I was doing more of the striking stuff, I’d be like, ‘Are there any tournaments?’ and there might be a smoker here or there, but I couldn’t compete all the time the way I could in jiu-jitsu. So that was the deciding factor for me: there just wasn’t enough competition in striking for me to grow in.”
Steele’s family has always supported his ambitions – but it’s important to Steele’s mother that her son devote the necessary work ethic to pursue his dreams. “It was a weird time for me – I had to do jiu-jitsu every day while all my friends went to college,” Steele remembers. “My mom always supported me, but the way she explained it to me was that if my goal is up here –” Steele gestures with a hand at eye level, “– then you can’t take any sideways pitstops. You can’t party all the time. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. So I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of things, so I could see that goal, and run toward that goal. Especially since I didn’t go to school, I knew I had to really focus. I got a lot of lip from people who didn’t know me, but that’s just society.”
Family support aside, Steele also enjoys a strong friendship with his teammates at Brazilian Fight Factory. It’s not all work and no play over at their gym either – they may be elite jiu-jitsu players, that doesn’t mean they’re above goofing off from time to time. Steele’s current dye job, for example, came courtesy of teammates William and Andrew Tackett’s mother, a trained hairstylist – and quickly escalated into a spontaneous team bonding experience. “I’d never dyed my hair or anything like that before,” recounts Steele, grinning. “We were gonna go do the [ADCC] trials, and then I had an MMA fight literally a week after trials, so I was like, ‘This is such a big event, I want to bleach my hair.’ I didn’t tell anyone I was going to dye my hair – I only told William about it, and he didn’t want to do it, so I was like, ‘Cool, whatever.’ So I texted his mom like, ‘Hey, I think I’m gonna dye my hair,’ and she was like, ‘All right, come on over.’”
Steele’s roommate, upon discovering his plans, quickly hopped on the same bandwagon, tagging along for an identical dye job. Andrew Tackett, witnessing this, decided to dye his hair as well. Even their professor followed suit. “Cool, even better, we’re doing it as a team,” said Steele, laughing.
Soon, the only odd man out was William Tackett – who proceeded to face relentless ribbing from both his teammates and his mother. “Dude, you’re going to look really weird if you don’t dye your hair at this point,” Steele told him. The elder Tackett brother finally caved, though Steele notes that William has since cut it off, while Steele still proudly sports his own bleached ‘do. “I’m a fan of it now,” says Steele playfully, tilting his head to show it off.
Is there any pressure from Steele’s jiu-jitsu professor or teammates to showcase more of his grappling game in the cage? According to Steele, not really. “[Professor Cabral] just wants me to do what I do. We prep, we talk, we game plan, we try to figure stuff out, but he wants me to win with whatever tools I have – so if I tell him I feel comfortable striking with a guy, and that I’m gonna knock the guy out, he trusts me.”
That said, Steele has learned some valuable lessons for the cage from his long career on the mats. “I feel like I’ve competed on all the biggest shows,” says Steele. “Like I’ve faced the lights and the cameras and the crowds, and I’ve been able to adapt and get comfortable out there. I’ve been able to lose under the lights, and feel comfortable losing, and I also know what it’s like to win, and put pressure on people out there.”
Facing highly talented – and extremely aggressive – opponents in jiu-jitsu has also sharpened Steele’s fighting instincts. He expresses particular admiration for Who’s Number One opponent and Atos representative Tye Ruotolo, who defeated Steele via heel hook after a grueling scrap of nearly fourteen minutes in December 2020. “I learned so much from that match,” said Steele. “Honestly, that’s what flipped my jiu-jitsu switch to being even better. The things that [Ruotolo] did to me, and the type of pressure he put on – I thought my game was a certain way, but the way he did it to me, he kind of showed me, ‘No, this is how you do it.’ I just learned so much from that match, and honestly, that match has been able to carry me through fighting.” He adds, with a shrug, “I’ve won in the big lights, and I’ve lost in the big lights, and I’m used to it now, honestly. I can shake off a loss and keep going forward. I do this for myself and my gym. Anyone on the outside doesn’t really bother me.”
Ruotolo and his brother Kade are also the first names that Steele suggests when asked who – among the current generation of competitive jiu-jitsu phenoms – would fare well in MMA. “Fighting is fighting,” says Steele. “You have to be technical, you have to be strong, but you also have to be mentally tough – it’s a very mean and grueling sport.” The Ruotolo twins, Steele believes, already display a mentality and style of jiu-jitsu that would translate well to the cage: “They’re so young, and they’re so good at jiu-jitsu, and if they want to do it – if they want to start playing around with striking – they’ll just start doing it. They’re so in tune with their bodies that they’ll pick it up without a problem. One good detail to see in a jiu-jitsu fighter who’s thinking of going to MMA is whether they have the aggression for it –which is why wrestlers do so well. But jiu-jitsu guys who stick out to me are guys [like the Ruotolo brothers] who have that same aggression.”
Have we seen the last of Steele on the competition mats now that he’s focusing on the cage? Not quite. “I’m trying to make MMA my main income source right now,” says Steele, “but I’m still going to do jiu-jitsu. But in jiu-jitsu, I’m only going to do ADCC stuff and Who’s Number One super fights.”
As a seasoned professional grappler about to make his professional MMA debut, Steele’s also well aware of fighter compensation issues in both sports. “I think that [MMA fighters] should obviously be getting paid more than they do; it’s such a brutal sport,” he says. “I also feel like I’m on two sides of it – regardless, everyone should be getting paid more, it’s crazy – but I think it’s a platform that athletes need to tap into. You’ve got to finish people. You’ve got to have something going for you that makes people want to watch you. Take Sean O’Malley for example – he might not fight the highest-level guys, but he’s finishing people, and he’s knocking people out. He has that ‘it,’ whatever that it factor is.”
Steele also touts the importance of brand building and basic social media savvy for fighters: “I feel like at this point, you have to use social media – I see a lot of guys in the UFC, or the fight game in general, who don’t know how to use social media very well. You have to be able to sell yourself. The UFC’s such a big platform, and there are so many fighters – I know guys who have made it there who barely have any followers.”
Ultimately, Steele believes in becoming the sort of athlete worth talking about by virtue of his performance in the cage and on the mats. “You’ve gotta stick out somehow,” he says. He doesn’t look kindly on athletes who “whine and *****” about not getting enough media attention. “Their job is not to post about you,” says Steele. The way he sees it, media attention is something athletes need to earn – which means leaving an impression when they compete.
Win or lose, Steele knows exactly what kind of impression he wants to leave – and it’s not that of a boring fighter. “People are excited to watch my jiu-jitsu matches because they know that win or lose, I’m going to do something crazy,” says Steele. “I’m gonna do a backflip, or pull my opponent into some crazy scraps where we’re both dying, you know?” He wants to take that same energy to his professional fighting career. “With MMA, I feel like I could bring some things to the table by getting [more of] those vicious knockouts – and I also know I’m gonna be able to get submissions in these fights. Maybe it’ll be a bit of a Donald Cerrone approach, where everyone’s gonna want to tune in to watch, no matter what, you know? Win or lose, I just want to be watched – and to be entertaining.”
Steele certainly knows he has the tools to make it happen: “If we’re on the feet, I’ll do what needs to be done there. If it goes to the ground, I’m comfortable there – with submissions, and with getting back to my feet if I have to. At a high level, I think you also need a good gas tank, and I’ve got the gas tank to push the pace on these guys.” He sets high standards for himself. “I want to be able to do everything. I want to have good fight IQ in the cage, and I want to be able to change up how I fight between rounds, just to adapt and look better every fight.”
Given his resume so far, we’re likely to see Steele’s signature combination of coolheaded strategic know-how and aggressive showmanship on display in full force this weekend.
Tune into Kody Steele’s professional MMA debut this Sunday, February 6 at Fury FC 56, through UFC Fight Pass.
For more news on his upcoming fights and grappling matches, follow him on Instagram.
Nicholas Meregali, world champion in the gi, will be making his ADCC debut in the -99kg division this September.
The announcement comes as a surprise to many fans, as they wonder how a gi competitor has received an invite to the most distinguished no-gi tournament.
“I’m going to explain how invites work in ADCC and let’s look at 77 and 88. 77 we invited Lucas Lepri(multiple-time medalist and legend), Davi Ramos(ADCC champion), LachlanGiles (absolute medalist) Nicky Ryan(Wonprevious trials with all subs, medaled in 2 trials, and beat Dante on road to ADCC). I have one invite left in 77. 88 we invited Xande, Vagnermoving up, Tye Ruotolo, Mason Fowler moving down. No invites left in 88 and I still want Pedroin and hulk wants to go down. -99 I still have multiple invites left, which is why I’ll take a chance with Meregali.”
Jassim later followed up, “I don’t mind taking chances on certain athletes, depending on the room in a division. Meregali is someone I have no issue taking a chance on”
Gordon Ryan also commented, “2019 the 99kg division was dominated by Brazil’s most wanted. 2022 it’ll be dominated by Brazils second most wanted lmao”
The news comes just a week after Meregali and Gordon Ryan engaged in some cross-training, with Ryan praising Meregali on his no gi work, “Nicholas took off his gi after doing a handful of no-gi rounds in his life and gave me the match of a lifetime.”
At this rate, ADCC 2022 is set to be one of the biggest ADCC events yet.
John Danaher is responsible for developing a handful of the best martial artists of the last decade, such as Georges St-Pierre, Garry Tonon, and Gordon Ryan.
In a recent podcast with Lex Friedman, Danaher shared some of his philosophies on developing a fighter’s confidence. “All the underpinnings and beginnings of confidence are physical. A rational human being will see where they’re having success and where they’re having a failure. Confidence will surround those areas where they’re having success and will degenerate in cases where they’re having a failure. So my job as a coach is to set them up for success in the gym with a given set of skills.”
His explanation came as a response to Friedman posing a hypothetical question about using reverse psychology in order to develop his athlete’s confidence, “John, [do you ever say,] ’I don’t think you can do this to motivate them to prove you wrong?”
Danaher was very direct in his answer, “No. My job is to prepare people first and foremost with their skills… if you’re getting tremendous success with a given move in the gym against high-level opponents who give a good read on what your actual opponent in a competition is like, you would have to be a moron to not recognize that kind of success and say, ‘this is something I should be building into my game’ and you will carry that you earned in the gym into the arena.”
Holding a Ph.D. in epistemology from Columbia University, Danaher is not only well educated but may arguably have one of the brightest minds among the martial arts community. Combined with his BJJ black belt under Renzo Gracie, his philosophies have helped to develop the sport of jiu-jitsu into what it is today and his teachings have given us some of the sport’s greatest performers. When Danaher speaks, coaches and athletes should listen.
Mackenzie Dern has had 25 tests over 3 years under USADA guidelines and has come up clean in every single one. Now, she has a t-shirt to show for it.
In an Instagram post, Dern shared a picture of her UFC-branded t-shirt with a large “25x” printed on the chest. The prize comes from USADA, as the organization has made a tradition out of rewarding athletes for being compliant with the banned substance ruleset. Most notably, fighters are given a letterman jacket for 50 clean tests.
Also in the 50x clean test club are fighters such as Daniel Cormier, Kamaru Usman, Dominick Cruz, Donald Cerrone, Cody Garbrandt, Robbie Lawler, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Tecia Torres, Misha Cirkunov, and Tony Ferguson.
The UFC holds a comprehensive drug-testing policy that covers every single fighter on the roster. There is an annual minimum of 2,750 tests distributed by USADA, averaging about 5 tests per year for each fighter. USADA is also responsible for drug testing the United States Olympic team.
Mackenzie Dern noted in her post that she is now half way to her jacket. In due time, we should be seeing a ceremony for her, too.
The ADCC Hall of Fame has added Saulo Ribeiro to its list of immortalized grapplers.
With more than 30 years in the sport, Ribeiro holds a BJJ black belt under Royler Gracie and a black belt in judo, too. He is a two-time ADCC champion and 5-time world champion, earning titles in 4 different weight classes. Ribeiro also fought 3 MMA fights, going 2-1 with both wins by way of Rear Naked Choke. He is said to have had over 2000 students and graduated over 60 black belts. His last grappling match was in 2014 at Metamoris IV, a draw against Rodrigo Medeiros.
The ADCC made the announcement to their Instagram,
Vanessa “Lil Monster” Demopoulos is a daredevil by nature. From performing acrobatics two stories up in the air – wearing nothing but her underwear – to delivering beatdowns in a cage, Demopoulos has never been afraid of walking on the wild side. “Obviously, I like doing crazy ****,” she tells The Jiu-Jitsu Times, laughing with good-natured self-deprecation.
A former competitive pole dancer and exotic entertainer turned professional MMA fighter, Demopoulos won over fans at UFC 270 as much for her boldly charismatic authenticity as her first-round armbar submission victory over Silvana Gomez Juarez. “The only reason I was so successful as an entertainer is that I was just my goofy-a*s self,” says Demopoulos. It’s an attitude she continues to embrace wholeheartedly in the octagon.
When asked whether her now-viral post-victory leap into Joe Rogan’s arms was a spontaneous stunt or part of her fight night plan all along, Demopoulos gives a coy little grin. “I planned that,” she admits. “When I found out I was going to be on camera with Joe Rogan, I was like, ‘yo, he’s so cool, bro, he’ll be down.’ I don’t know how down some of the other announcers would have been, but I know Joe Rogan’s just a fun guy, you know?”
Demopoulos shines under the spotlight. Born to parents who’d met in the entertainment business themselves, performance is in her blood. While many rookie fighters find themselves suffering from stage fright during their first tango in the octagon – not just because of their opponent, but because of the spectators – Demopoulos embraces her audience. “I’m an entertainer at heart, and I’m not just talking about pole dancing,” she says. “I love the lights. I’m about that life.” Later, she adds, a bit mischievously, “And hey, if I can get on stage in front of hundreds of people in my underwear and totally fail – because I fall sometimes as a dancer too, I’m not perfect, bro! – I’ll slip and fall and have to stand back up and play it off. I’ve fallen publicly, I’ve fallen privately, and I’ve gotten over a lot of those fears.”
Demopoulos’ origins as a fighter, she explains, really began when her manager at work – who moonlighted as a kickboxing instructor at the time – “started talking ****” to her one day. “I was doing all my tricks,” Demopoulos remembers, “and he was like, ‘you know, if you put half that skill that you put into the pole toward fighting, you might do something with your life.’”
Never one to back down from a challenge, Demopoulos asked him to teach her to fight. He refused initially. Undaunted, Demopoulos persisted, which was how that same manager became her first martial arts coach. The rest is history.
“I get really competitive,” she admits, “and I put a lot of pressure on myself, not for any other f*cking reason besides the importance [of a fight] to me. And that in itself can make someone tense up.”
Luckily, her career in exotic entertainment has equipped Demopoulos with nerves of steel – which has served her time and again in the cage. “People don’t realize that [being an exotic performer] isn’t easy,” she explains. “You’re entertaining in front of an entire crowd of people, so you can’t just stop and take a break. When you’re in the cage, fighters might stop and chill, like you can take your moments, but you don’t have those moments as a dancer. You don’t have those breaks – you’ve got to keep going. And pole dancing is so physically demanding – every trick engages every muscle in the body at the same time, and you have to be able to balance yourself, know where you are in space, and figure out your next transition, without even being able to see anything. You just have to trust that you know what you’re doing well enough to move fast enough to grab the pole in time while you’re doing the craziest stunts.”
In other words, it’ll take an awful lot to rattle Demopoulos – or for her to let you see her sweat. “During a fight, there’s so much that’s happening at the same time, you have to be able to calm yourself down,” she says. “You have to be in the moment, and relax amidst the craziness.” And relaxing amidst the craziness is an art she’s perfected. After all, when you’ve climbed two stories high in the air and find yourself in danger of losing your grip on a pole, there’s no tapping out to gravity.
“I remember being at a pole competition in Miami,” Demopoulos recounts. “I was doing this trick where I was upside down, and I remember my arm didn’t lock – so my feet flew over the top of my body while I was in a scorpion backbend. Thank god I caught myself before I could fall to my death – because one hand was still on the pole – but I was at least two stories high, in the middle of a competition.”
Demopoulos, though, has always been a thrill-seeker, and she gravitates toward going against the grain. As a teenager, she was an avid skateboarding enthusiast – who lost a few teeth in the process – and the only girl on the football team. Yet it’s not entirely fair to call her a tomboy either – a professional dancer since the age of eighteen, and a seasoned exotic entertainer, Demopoulos may know how to bro out, but she’s equally comfortable glamming up.
“Man, you want to talk about giving yourself permission to be anything that you want to be? When I want to do my hair and makeup, I can. When I want to be a super chill in my comfy clothes, I can do that too.” Demopoulos brims with characteristically frank good humor, as she details the multitudes she contains. “And I don’t care who judges me. You can be beautiful, and choose to be comfy, and it takes so much confidence sometimes, just to be comfortable as a female, and it shouldn’t be like that, you know? We should be able to be whatever the freak we want to be, whenever we want to be it. I just give myself permission to be fully anything that I need to be, at that moment. I think that’s one of my superpowers, to be honest, and I think that’s really freaking cool.”
What do her parents think of their daughter leaving the “family business,” so to speak, in favor of the octagon? “My family’s used to me being wild,” says Demopoulos. “I’ve always loved doing the craziest sports with the highest risks, so when I got into fighting, they were like, ‘oh, Vanessa, another thing.’” She fondly mimics her parents’ sighing, put-upon tone – “they’re Greek, mind you,” she explains – as she describes their utter lack of surprise at Demopoulos’ daredevil antics.
While they may be entertainers themselves, certain parental attitudes are near-universal, and Demopoulos’ folks are no exception. For quite some time, they treated her fighting like a fad: yet another wacky hobby for their exuberant daughter to grow out of. When Demopoulos began traveling the world to compete in jiu-jitsu, they started taking it a little more seriously, but also asked, perhaps a bit plaintively, “When are you going to get a real job?”
Not a refrain most would expect to hear from a DJ father and an exotic dancer mother, but Demopoulos laughs it off now.
“It wasn’t until LFA got to UFC fight pass that my family was like, ‘oh wow, okay!’” says Demopoulos with a grin. “They’ve always been my biggest fans, but also my biggest voice of resistance – because I care about what they think.”
Fighters and pole dancers, on a purely physical level, actually have a surprising amount in common, particularly at the highest levels of their respective occupations – commonalities that have served Demopoulos well across both careers. “Working as an entertainer is crazy,” says Demopoulos. “I’m on my feet for eight hours a day in ten to twelve-inch stilettos, doing all these crazy tricks, and when I go on stage, I’m coming from dancing on the floor to then going on stage for a solid six to ten minutes at a time – and that’s just pure, intense gymnastics. In MMA, we fight for fifteen minutes, which is a long time, but I’m doing that three times a night at work.”
Pole-specific athleticism has also paid dividends in Demopoulos’ fight game on a technical level, especially her jiu-jitsu. The pole has gifted Demopoulos with an unusually powerful grip, core, and back strength. It’s also granted her tremendous spatial awareness in uncomfortable positions, particularly when inverted. “How do you think I pulled off that inverted triangle choke that put my opponent to sleep back in LFA?” Demopoulos jokes.
Pole may have its foundations in sex work, but it’s increasingly viewed as an athletic discipline in its own right, a cousin of sorts to both traditional gymnastics and aerial circus acrobatics. Dancers have grueling conditioning regimens, an arsenal of complex physical vocabulary to master, and even competition venues ranging from local events to major international championships. They perform and compete through injuries both minor and major. Some have even advocated for the pole to be recognized as an Olympic event – a movement not unlike the age-old debate around whether or not Brazilian jiu-jitsu should become an Olympic sport.
Put that way, pole as a professional discipline starts to sound a lot like, well, fighting.
Does the sex work label bother Demopoulos? “It’s not what I prefer,” she says with a shrug, “but it is what it is.” She’s well aware of the popular perception of exotic dancers and isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. She’s also proud of her previous profession, and happy to embrace the public’s fascination with her sex appeal. “**** it, I’m the Cardi B of MMA, baby, let’s go!” she exclaims. She’s happy to discuss what exotic dance entails – though it does get a little weird sometimes. “Unfortunately, guys are sometimes a little too fascinated by that side of my life, maybe for the wrong reasons,” Demopoulos admits. “Like, man, if you want to know what the back of a room is like, go buy one.” She laughs. “I don’t know what to tell you, dude, every dancer’s different!”
Combat sports and pole dancing have also both been commodified – and some would argue, sanitized – for popular consumption in recent years. Once upon a time, if you made your living in the cage, you were considered a violent goon by genteel society, and if you made your living on the pole, those same yuppies assumed you were a tramp. If you wanted a respectable reputation in polite society, you simply didn’t engage in activities with those connotations.
Not so anymore – thanks in large part to the boutique fitness industry. Doctors, lawyers, and finance professionals pay pricey monthly membership fees to attend hobbyist MMA classes or join pole fitness studios. Demopoulos points out that these days, a professional pole competitor can win up to a hundred thousand dollars in prize money at prestigious competitions, and that a sufficiently well-regarded pole dancing coach can quickly build a solid income off their teaching skills.
What does Demopoulos have to say about both her chosen professions – previously the target of pearl-clutching and frequent misunderstanding – making a very lucrative splash in the mainstream?
“I told you so!” she crows, delighted. “I told you it was cool! I was doing pole dancing before pole dancing was a thing, you know? When it started becoming a thing, I got my license to be a pole dancing instructor, and I had people who wanted me to run studios.” Those same studio owners were shocked that Demopoulos chose to fight instead, unable to understand why she would want to “get punched in the face” instead of pulling in good money as a pole instructor.
“Man, I’ve caught so much **** from both sides about the other side,” says Demopoulos, with regard to both the pole dance and combat sports worlds. “I was just doing what I believed in. I’m really, really good at dancing. I’m good at making a lot of income in a short amount of time to feed this dream of being a fighter, and I was self-taught in pole dancing. There weren’t instructors back when I started. There were no crazy names for tricks; they were just tricks. I just did them, I just figured them out – which translated over to MMA, because there’s so much wild **** that happens in MMA, you’ve got to go with the flow. I taught myself this whole entire dangerous art form, you know, I can learn this too.”
How would Demopoulos react to more MMA fighters hopping on the pole for a bit of creative cross-training to get an edge on their opponents? She laughs, exclaiming, “Eryk Anders! Eryk Anders is one of my teammates, and as soon as I won, he put up a meme that was like ‘I’m gonna get a pole to start learning jiu-jitsu!’” Anders may have been kidding, but it might not be a bad idea. Demopoulos’ advice for any aspiring pole dancers or aerialists in the MMA community is simple and practical: “Work on your fancy feet, and only do tricks that are close to the ground.”
Nevertheless, Demopoulos has no regrets about leaving the pole for the cage. “I don’t miss that ****,” says Demopoulos. “I love dancing. I’m always going to love dancing, because I’m passionate about the art, but I don’t miss being completely drained and exhausted one bit.”
It’s easy to understand why. Overtraining was a real issue, back when Demopoulos was juggling two careers as both fighter and dancer. “There’s zero recovery time,” she explains bluntly. “Like, none. There were times when I’d accidentally put myself into a flu state, because I’d overwork myself, and my body would freak out and break down on me. Or like, I remember one time, I had some super serious injuries, and I was like, ‘okay, you know what, this limb is super f*cked-up right now, but I’ve got three others, so we’ll figure this out, you know?’ So I’d just wrap it up and keep going. I’d go to work, and have KT tape all over me, and customers would be like, ‘what’s this, are you ok?’ And I’d be like, ‘haha, yes, it’s just a new style of tattoo!’”
“It was a wild balance,” Demopoulos reflects in hindsight, “but I also feel like that’s why I’m so f*cking tough. I never took a break, not if I was injured, not if I felt like I just needed some time, I just f*cking pushed through it, man. I had to.”
So what’s next for Demopoulos in the octagon? Unlike a lot of up-and-coming fighters, she’s not interested in calling out anyone specific or manufacturing a rivalry right now. “I’m gonna let my manager take the reins on that one,” says Demopoulos, cool as a cucumber. “A lot of people thrive off [that sort of thing],” she observes, “where they’ll be like, ‘oh man, I’ve talked too much ****, I can’t back off now!’” Demopoulos, in contrast, remains steadfast in her own goals, which is to take a measured approach to the fights ahead, whatever comes her way: “I’m just gonna say I’m chilling right now.”
This isn’t to say that other fighters don’t continue to influence – and impress – Demopoulos. “Cory McKenna surprised me the most,” she says when asked which of her opponents have given her the most memorable fights. “She grew up in weightlifting her whole life, and I felt like I had her in some very compromising positions. I felt like I was winning on the feet, but she was the one who surprised me. She’s a very skilled little girl – I think she’s only twenty-one years old or so, it’s crazy. I wouldn’t mind fighting her again.”
When asked if there are any top-ranked UFC fighters she’d particularly want to emulate, Demopoulos names Tecia Torres. “I have so much respect for anyone in the top five – or even the top ten for that matter,” says Demopoulos, “but I would definitely say that Tecia Torres has got some really awesome tenacity in her striking abilities. She’s just so seasoned, she’s been fighting literally her whole entire life, and her striking just looks very sharp. That’s just really cool to me.”
@fightready
Demopoulos, though, is also heavily focused on cultivating a memorable fighting style of her own: “I’d like to take my strengths, and mesh them with something like [Tecia Torres’ style].” She’s savvy enough to understand that fans have developed certain expectations of favorite fighters. We know we’re going to see high-level grappling any time a Demian Maia fight hits the ground, the same way we expect spectacular kickboxing from the likes of Stephen Thompson and Israel Adesanya.
What does Demopoulos hope her own calling card in the cage will be? “Expect the unexpected,” she says. “I’ve out-struck strikers, and I’ve out-grappled grapplers. Sometimes, crazy **** happens – my face gets mangled, and I’m still fighting, I’ll eat a right hand for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then somehow pull off a submission. How are you gonna pin me down, man? Let’s go! Expect the unexpected when you’re watching me because there’s going to be some wild **** popping off.”
On a technical level, she hopes to develop herself as a grappling specialist with heavy hands, in the vein of Charles Oliveira. “Between submission or KO, I’d prefer to win a fight by KO,” she tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times right away when asked to pick one or the other. “Just, winning by KO, how cool is that? Grapplers knocking people out? Let’s do that!” Stylistically, of all the major MMA sub-disciplines, jiu-jitsu still remains her first love. “I’m always gonna favor jiu-jitsu,” confesses Demopoulos. “If you left it up to me, I’d be grappling three times a day. I definitely work a lot on my striking, and I work a lot on my wrestling because I have to develop those arts as well. My jiu-jitsu game’s not going anywhere, as long as I continue to maintain that. But I’ve got to upgrade the other software a little.”
Demopoulos hasn’t ruled out getting more involved in pure sport jiu-jitsu either. She’d love an ADCC invite, for example. “I’m still competing in jiu-jitsu all the time,” she points out. “I just did the Medusa tournament back in October for Eddie Bravo – every chance I get, I’m gonna work towards that, but right now my focus is MMA.”
For someone as active and exuberant as Demopoulos, it’s hard to imagine her slowing down, but there’s a quiet and contemplative side to her as well. Outside of the cage – and the clubs – Demopoulos loves some downtime with a good book. She’s also an author in her own right, having penned Stripper Bible, an instructional on the exotic entertainment industry. Her goal is to write six books in her lifetime, and she’d love for at least one of them to be about her martial arts experiences – though that might have to wait until after retirement, or between training camps. “It takes so much to write a book,” says Demopoulos. “It takes so much of my mental capacity, as well as my emotional capacity, and I feel like I only want to fill that tank with fighting right now.”
Demopoulos remains a performer through and through, but her most important audience is still first and foremost herself – an attitude that she encourages everyone to embrace: “People see me now, and I don’t know what their impression is of me, but I didn’t come from anything,” says Demopoulos. “I had to work my f*cking a** off – and so much more – for everything that I have, and no one really believed in me along the way. I had my sister, and a few friends here and there, but people have come and gone. I just want people to know: yo, believe in yourself man! Get a plan, understand that sh*t’s going to be hard, but you can do it. Just make it f*cking happen – not for anybody else, not because you told Joe at work you were gonna do it. Do it for you. Do it because you love it. Do it because your soul is screaming for it, and don’t give a sh*t who’s watching. Speak from the heart, live from the heart, and make that sh*t happen for yourself.”
To keep up with Demopoulos’ MMA career, you can follow her on Instagram.
To read Stripper Bible, you can order a copy from Amazon.
An Internet troll challenges UFC fighter Kevin Holland
This troll thought he was a tough guy or skilled or some bs. So I put his *** on a bus, paid for his hotel room and brought him in for a session. How it started- pic.twitter.com/fsBiEcnvoJ
Eddie Bravo’s 8-year old son has no interest in learning the family martial art, but Eddie has a few tricks up his sleeve in order to persuade him.
It was about 1 year ago that Eddie was featured on Jean Jacques Machado’s ‘No Gi Required Podcast’, but JJM just reposted a short clip from the conversation, where Eddie talks about trying to convince his 8-year old son to train jiu-jitsu.
Eddie explains his son’s current pursuit of karate, “My son is into karate. He doesn’t want to do jiu-jitsu right now. He’s 8 and he’s been doing karate since he was 3. And I don’t mind. My son wants to go his own way and he just wants to be a striker and he’s like 19-20 and I’m like ‘my son doesn’t do jiu-jitsu but he’s a bad *** striker’ I think that’s way cool, too.”
However, Eddie playfully suggested that he has a foolproof strategy that should get him to put on a rashguard, “when he’s like 12 or 13, I’m going to hire a jiu-jitsu kid and give him 20 bucks and have him choke my son out so that my son can come to his dad and say, ‘Dad, can you show me that stuff you’ve been trying to show me?’”
He goes on to clarify that hiring the kid is actually plan B. Plan A, on the other hand, was to show his son the ‘Gracie Jiu-Jitsu In Action’ documentary, where the Gracie family travels to gyms of various martial arts disciplines and challenged their fighters. The film is historically known for demonstrating the effectiveness of jiu-jitsu before mixed martial arts became a sport. “Usually when you watch that, you want to drop everything and run to your nearest jiu-jitsu school.” Eddie said, “That’s the effect it had on most people… not my son though.”
JJM assures Eddie that his son will come around, “I have no doubt that he’ll learn and he’ll learn from one of the best ones out there.” Machado reminds Eddie, “When I met you, you were really into football.”
View the clip on Jean Jacques’ YouTube channel here
Just 3 months into 2022, jiu-jitsu fans around the world will be gifted a weekend packed with top-of-the-food-chain grapplers.
The second promotion for the all-women’s Medusa circuit features an 8-woman CJJ Bantamweight tournament with returning Medusa Champions Brianna Ste Marie and Fatima Kline, plus Bia Mesquita, Ffion Davies, Juliana Miller, Gillian Robertson, and Nikki Sullivan, with one spot still waiting to be filled.
Kline, October’s 115lb. Medusa Champion is moving up to Bantamweight to contest for the 135lb. belt.
Medusa 2 will also feature an 8-woman EBI Strawweight tournament. The line-up has yet to be announced, but with Kline moving up to bantamweight, 16-year old Trinity Pun(who lost to Kline in the finals of Medusa 1) may have a shot at redemption.
The following day, EBI 19 is set to showcase the men’s Welterweight division as grapplers Tye Ruotolo, Nicky Ryan, Nathan Orchard, Oliver Taza, Dante Leon, Nick Ronan, and more will compete for the Championship and a cash prize.
Both events will stream exclusively on UFC Fight Pass.
UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye was in attendance at UFC 270 and was caught on video punching a fan in the face.
The video seems to show Frye and an unidentified man being separated by other fans before shaking hands. It is unclear what happens following the handshake, but the fan seems to get in Frye’s face, leading to Frye snapping a shirt right hand, showcasing the 56-year old’s hand speed.
Frye told TMZ Sports that the guy challenged him to a fight. There are other reports that the fan touched Frye’s cowboy hat. Needless to say, either of those actions are probably a bad idea unless you are a judo black belt, division I wrestler, and professional boxer like the 2-time UFC tournament winner.
Frye hasn’t been charged for the incident, and the video shows him being ushered to watch the rest of the event from another area.
Gordon Ryan is extending his expertise by getting some work in the gi with some of gi jiu-jitsu’s top grapplers.
A photo posted onto Ryan’s instagram shows him in the gi with his black belt on. “Last night was a very special night. I had the chance to train for the 1st time with @marcostinocobjj in the gi and @nicholasmeregali gi and no gi.”
Ryan sang praise to Nicholas Meregali’s grappling, “First and foremost, Nicholas has some of the best jiu jitsu I’ve ever felt. When I say jiu jitsu I don’t mean opportunistic spazzing into good positions. When I say good jiu jitsu I mean Deliberate and precise movement which creates constant pressure and dilemmas that work towards submissions.”
They also trained in nogi, with Ryan impressed by Meregali’s work, “Most people probably watched the clips and automatically assumed he crushed me in the gi and I crushed him no gi, but this wasn’t the case at all. We were both able to change clothes and give the other a very tough roll within the other area of expertise.”
Ryan’s post made a point about grapplers who train strictly in gi or strictly nogi, stating that in order to be the best at either, you must be highly competitive at both, “If you train consistently in the gi I don’t expect you to beat all the best guys no gi, but I do expect you to be extremely competitive, and vice versa.”
Marcos Tinoco, a black belt under Marcelo Garcia, posted a photo of the session to his instagram story with the caption, “you would be surprised with @gordonlovesjiujitsu in the gi”.
The only man to ever beat Gordon Ryan twice in competition has officially entered the 99+ bracket for ADCC 2022.
After winning IBJJF Worlds Absolute and retiring from gi competition, Felipe Pena has made it known that he plans on coming for Gordon Ryan this year. It’s not uncommon for grapplers to call out Ryan, but this is different. Not only does Pena hold 2 victories over Ryan, but he won by RNC in 2018, and won 6-0 on points at ADCC 2017.
Pena publicly called on Ryan on an instagram post in December of 2021, requesting ADCC Head Organizer Mo Jassim to move him into the 99+ division, “My chubby son is a liar boy who always says that I don’t want to fight him, that I never sign the contract, etc… And that’s the biggest lie in the world because I’ve tried to make this fight happen several times but there are many fools who believe. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing mkt for a fight, doing trash talk, this is based on the profile of each one, but he goes beyond the limit, offends, lies, and deceives a lot of people in this big internet world. Since the ADCC confirmed that he will fight in the +99kg category (which by the way was not in my -99kg category) I make a public and official request here to the organization to change my category and put me in it (+99kg). My baby is very angry. I really want to move up and beat him for the 3rd time… Change approved @mojassim80 @adcc_official ?”
Gordon Ryan commented, “@adcc_official @mojassim80 give him to me on the 1st day. This way he will have a good seat on the 2nd day in the stands where he belongs as he watches me beat up Andre worse than Andre beat him up. I want him 2nd match.”
These two are eager to battle it out, and the trash talk leading up to the match should be brutal. Fans can anticipate an electric 99+ division at this years ADCC Championships.
ADCC 2022 takes place on September 17-18 in Las Vegas, NV.
After I competed for the first time, I realized I needed to work on my breathing for competition. I did need to improve my cardio, yet the nerves still affected my breathing. Meditation was a tool I had already used on a regular basis, but I began to increase it along with visualization. When I visualize being in the tournament, I can feel my heart beating faster. With the meditation, I was gradually able to calm myself while visualizing the match.
I know most people talk about anxiety before matches, yet the level may vary among individuals. Also, where they carry their anxiety may differ as well. Become observant with yourself to determine the specifics on how to help yourself. My stomach would be fine while others talked about theirs feeling upset or not being able to eat. I would have a tightness in my chest and hold it all in that part of my body. No matter how great my cardio felt before the tournament in my white belt days, it felt like I had none on game day. I needed to practice my breathing as if it was my cardio practice leading up to the competition.
I recommend starting by choosing a position that is comfortable to you. It is important to be completely relaxed in your position so you are not distracted by it. Previously, I tried meditating sitting up, yet I was so focused on my posture that it became distracting to my practice. I have since begun to lie on the floor with my legs up and against the couch or bed. In this position, I am completely relaxed. For me, being on the floor feels more suitable for feeling grounded. I recently began lying on an acupressure mat which brings me even more relaxation to the process.
You have so many choices when deciding on what type of meditation to follow. You can focus on each breath going in and out of your body, a specific mantra/positive affirmation, visualizing, or just watching your thoughts go by like the news information at the bottom of a TV channel. There are various apps available and YouTube-guided meditations with words, music, or both. Choose one that connects to you and change it regularly if necessary. I like to change mine when I feel like I’m so used to it that I’m focusing more on my thoughts than the guided meditation. It is important to remember that you will still have thoughts go through your mind which doesn’t mean the practice is not working. Just like when you are training, a not-so-great workout is better than none at all. The more you practice, the easier it will be to empty your mind.
Meditation is something I recommend to anyone regardless if they are in a sport or competing. It is great for overall health both physically and mentally. Practicing it every day is ideal for at least 15 minutes 2 x a day. Although I recommend just one minute if you are having any resistance to getting started. The reason for this recommendation is to build the habit. Practicing for one minute every day is better than 15 minutes sporadically. Once you are in the habit, then you can build the time. Meditation is done to clear the mind which is best when competing. Whenever there is overthinking, it leads to hesitation and can hurt your performance. When your mind is clear, then your body can work on the instincts you practiced in the gym.
Leading up to a competition it is best to increase meditation time and frequency along with visualizing your matches. With the slowed breathing, I know I can breathe better during my match and cardio alone isn’t going to keep my gas tank. The benefits are worth it even if you don’t compete and I feel it is extremely helpful if you do.
3x ADCC Champion Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles has been inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame.
Cobrinha won ADCC 2013,2015 and 2017
ADCC Hall of Fame: 3X champion Ruben “Cobrinha” Charles. Cobrinha would start his title run in 2013 when he defeated Rafa in a 40 min finals match. Cobrinha would go on to win 3 consecutive division titles, a feat only 2 others have accomplished (Marcelo Garcia and Royler Gracie.)
Once upon a time, Gezary Matuda – three-time black belt world champion, two-time color belt world champion, and owner of one of the most notoriously dangerous armbars in elite competition – didn’t even own a laptop.
“It’s very hard for us, as professional athletes, to live without challenging ourselves,” Matuda tells The Jiu-Jitsu Times, “so we’re always looking for new challenges. But at the same time, when we find those new challenges, we discover that we don’t know how to do anything else besides our sport.” She laughs. “We’re like white belts at everything else in life! We’ve spent so much time doing only one thing that we’re really good at, when that ends, and we try to transition to something else, it’s like, ‘oh man, I’m a white belt here!’”
Matuda is certainly no white belt when it comes to computer fluency now. Boasting a highly active Instagram account with nearly 200 thousand followers, a successful virtual jiu-jitsu and fitness instruction program, and natural ease with video conferencing and online communication, she’s one of many modern jiu-jitsu superstars leveraging the power of the Internet to develop a fruitful second career.
Building a career beyond the tournament scene hasn’t always been easy, though. An athlete whose longevity in elite competition has extended well into her mid-thirties, Matuda explains that there’s a unique and dangerous thrill to succeeding as an older jiu-jitsu player against younger contenders. “As professional athletes, we don’t know our own limits,” she confides. “First, we just want to prove that we can fight. And after a certain point, we want to prove that we can still fight. It’s like, ‘everybody knows that I can fight, but now I want to prove I can still fight!’ Against twenty-year-old girls, I’m like ‘no, I can do it!’”
Of course, the fact that Matuda has collected her fair share of victories as a thirty-something against those twenty-year-old upstarts has only fueled her competitive drive. Matuda describes the life of the elite jiu-jitsu athlete as an addictive cycle. “There is nothing that compares to this great feeling of being a world champion as a black belt,” she explains. “The feeling that all that hard work’s paid off. It’s hard to find something else that’s going to give you the same pleasure in life. So that’s why you want more, and more, and more. Every year you win that title, it feeds that adrenaline. You get addicted to this feeling. Everything else feels boring. Everything! If you ask me if I do something outside of jiu-jitsu, my answer is just ‘eat, sleep, and train.’ This is what brings us pleasure – the serotonin, the adrenaline, all the things that make us feel great. That’s why I think it’s so hard when you start to think about stopping.”
She poses a question that’s haunted her on occasion: “Who is Gezary Matuda without a gi?”
It’s been a sobering identity crisis of sorts. “Who am I going to be, if I’m not there at the world championships, bringing more titles home?” Matuda asks. “What are people going to say? Are they still going to love me? What’s my value outside of jiu-jitsu?” She pauses. “You kind of start to feel lost, you know?”
Matuda credits her Shoyoroll sponsor, Bear Quitugua – better known simply as “Bear” – with finally pushing her to expand her horizons. “He was always the one who’d be like ‘Ge, what’s next?’” Matuda affectionately mimics Bear’s gruff intonation.
Matuda reacted defensively at first. “What do you mean, you think I cannot beat these girls?” she recalls demanding. “Oh, well, if you don’t believe in me and don’t want to sponsor me anymore, then just tell me!”
“Ge, it’s not that,” Bear replied patiently. “If you want to stay on the mats for the rest of your life, fighting and competing forever, I will support you. But I just think you’re capable of so much more than just jiu-jitsu. I just want you to open your mind and think outside the box.”
According to Matuda, Bear has never been afraid of serving as her voice of reason. In response to Matuda’s stubborn insistence on training harder and harder with each passing year, Bear asked a simple question of his athlete: “You already have five world titles. What more do you want?”
Matuda pondered this for a moment before answering, “Well, how many can I have?” After all, what could be more important than another world title? The notion sounded insane to her at the time.
“Ge,” said Bear, “you could have five, six, seven, ten world titles, but nothing’s going to change in your life. You know this.”
Matuda knew he was right. She remembers her thoughts on her very first world title, and the expectations she’d built up around that early dream. “I thought to myself, ‘After I have my first world title, my life is going to change,’” she confides. “‘My life is going to be completely different. Sponsors are going to show up, everybody’s going to know me!’” She grins, all self-deprecation. “And guess what? After that first-world title, nothing changed. Your life won’t change – the changes happen internally. If you let your ego get in the way, you will just be another world champion. Today, I understand that Bear wanted to show me that it’s not my titles that define who I am – it’s my attitude.”
Matuda encourages her fellow athletes to develop a strong support system, much like hers and Bear’s – particularly when they’re considering a career change. In her view, it’s important for high-level performers to get comfortable sharing their feelings with someone they trust. “Professional athletes, we don’t show a lot of emotion,” she explains. “We train to be killers. We train to be strong. We don’t want to show a weak side. If you have a moment of weakness, you clean up your tears and keep fighting. So, to open up to someone you trust, and admit that you’re feeling kind of weak, and to have someone listen – that makes a huge difference when you’re dealing with a career transition.”
Athletes need to do a lot of work to prepare themselves – psychologically as well as physically – for that transition, Matuda believes. “Otherwise, one day, you’re going to be forty years old, wondering what comes next,” cautions Matuda, who warns other athletes to be prepared for feelings of guilt. “I’d think to myself, ‘I’m so good at what I do, what am I going to do next? I don’t know how to do anything else.’” She elaborates, “That’s when you feel so lost. And that’s when depression and anxiety happen. That’s why you have to know yourself.”
There is, however, a silver lining to the stubbornly competitive mentality of a professional athlete. “What’s cool is that we have this attitude where we’re determined to come back and find a way to become champions, even when we’re really down,” says Matuda. “And that attitude applies to anything else we do in life. If I decide now that I’m going to be a chef, even if I have zero cooking talent, I know that I’m going to find a way to be a chef.” Matuda may be a self-described white belt at life outside of jiu-jitsu, but she’s proud of her black belt mentality, which translates into a steely discipline in every new project she tackles.
She’s also, after a long struggle, finally learned how to give herself a bit of a break. “Now, I understand that I don’t need to be the best at everything,” says Matuda. “Because when I started jiu-jitsu, I was not the best either. So I know that what I decide to do now, it’s not going to be easy. It’ll be hard. But I’ll overcome that because I have the discipline to conquer those challenges.”
One of her greatest learning experiences on that front was taking up yoga. “It made a huge change in my mindset,” says Matuda. Then, with characteristically cheeky frankness: “Because it’s super hard and always boring! In my first yoga class, the teacher looked at me – while I was shaking, trying to hold a pose – and asked, ‘you’re a jiu-jitsu fighter, yeah?’”
The yoga teacher advised Matuda to let the pose go – something the latter was decidedly unaccustomed to hearing. “No, I can do it,” Matuda insisted.
The yoga teacher pushed back gently: “Don’t be too hard on yourself.” It was the opposite of the mentality Matuda had spent her entire life cultivating. “It was like opening a new window in my brain,” says Matuda. “That’s how you find balance – even if you’re a fighter, we have to have this soft side. Most of the time, we hide it, because we think it’s weak. But weakness is actually what makes you strong, if you know how to control and balance your emotions.”
What about those rumors about Matuda entering the world of mixed martial arts? The MMA allure isn’t without its shine for Matuda, whose personal circle of girlfriends includes several highly successful female UFC fighters, including current top five strawweight contender Mackenzie Dern, former two-division champion Amanda Nunes, and Matuda’s own jiu-jitsu student, Muay Thai specialist Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
As the only jiu-jitsu black belt world champion currently at American Top Team, Matuda has proven a valuable coaching resource for Jędrzejczyk, who seeks to complement her elite striking skills with a grappling game to match. Unlike a typical kickboxing specialist whose grappling repertoire focuses almost exclusively on basic defensive wrestling and sprawl-and-brawl tactics, Jędrzejczyk – under Matuda’s watchful eye – has developed a true hunger for mastering the art of jiu-jitsu.
“Working with her is super easy,” says Matuda, likening Jędrzejczyk’s mentality to that of MMA legend Anderson Silva. “She’s a professional athlete, a martial artist. And she wants to learn, that’s the thing. She told me that she wants to compete at ADCC! She wants to be an IBJJF world champion! She loves jiu-jitsu, and she wants to do everything. She asks me so many questions – she’s one of the hardest working athletes I’ve ever seen. If you let her, she’ll train all day. She has a lot of energy. Sometimes, my job is to calm her down and make her relax.”
Laughing in fond exasperation, Matuda adds, “When we go to the beach, it’s so funny, because she’ll bring a soccer ball, a volleyball, a board, a snorkel, she’ll bring so many things! And I’ll be like, ‘J, can we just relax?’”
Surrounded by friends like these, it’s hard to fault Matuda for being tempted to step into the cage herself. But she’s also far more aware than most of the countless sacrifices cage fighters make – and isn’t so sure she wants to pay that price. Figuring out the optimal weight class alone would be a challenge. “In ONE FC, the lowest weight is 115. J – Joanna, she’s twice my size, and she weighs 115, so I’d probably have to cut to 105,” says Matuda.
Weight cut aside, there’s also the matter of how much space would be left in Matuda’s life for her other passion projects. “I always think, ‘Should I fight? Do I have to, or do I want to? Is it something I really want to do, or is it just my ego wanting me to prove something to someone?” Matuda knows herself well by now – and she knows that her inherent drive as a professional athlete would push her to go all in on any endeavor she tackles, whether it’s in the cage or elsewhere. “If I do MMA, it’s going to be ‘eat, sleep, train’ all over again,” she explains. “So all my projects, everything I’ve started to do that I’m working on – everything where I’m still a ‘white belt’ – would fall to the side.”
Right now, Matuda’s biggest passion project by far is developing herself as a teacher. According to Matuda, it was Emily Kwok of Princeton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – herself a black belt world champion and renowned jiu-jitsu instructor – who first convinced Matuda that the latter had real teaching chops. During the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Matuda chatted with Kwok, who encouraged Matuda to create remote learning opportunities for jiu-jitsu students stuck in quarantine. Matuda’s first virtual workshop was free and taught on behalf of her sponsor, Shoyoroll. Focusing on the fundamentals of bodyweight fitness for grapplers, the class attracted over three hundred students – including combat sports luminaries such as Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, Anderson Silva, Lucas Lepri, and the Ruotolo brothers.
Granted, given the pandemic, none of them were exactly fighting fit at the time. Matuda chuckles, remembering, “Buchecha was sweating and drinking water!”
Matuda couldn’t resist teasing him a little: “It’s not too easy, is it, Buchecha?”
“Man,” Buchecha protested, “I’m on vacation!”
Kwok, who attended the class, wasn’t about to let Matuda’s teaching talent slide by unnoticed. “You were so natural,” she told Matuda. “You’ve got to set up these classes online.”
Matuda – at the time, still a self-described “white belt” in computer literacy – balked initially: “I don’t even know how to set up a Zoom meeting!”
Matuda expresses gratitude for Kwok’s patience, as the latter carefully walked her through the basics of virtual teaching. “Emily, I don’t even have a laptop!” Matuda complained.
Bear, unimpressed with this predicament, chimed in: “I pay you every month, what do you do with that money?”
“I don’t know,” said Matuda, a little cowed. “What should I buy?”
Bear’s answer was immediate and merciless: “A laptop.”
The first lesson Kwok ever taught Matuda? “Open your email,” Kwok told her, no-nonsense as ever.
Much like a jiu-jitsu curriculum, sometimes the fundamental lessons are the most valuable. Since that first piece of advice from Kwok – and the acquisition of a laptop – Matuda has been teaching an all-levels class to a group of regulars who meet online every Saturday, and have remained loyal students for over a year. It was the first time since winning a world championship that Matuda felt something akin to that same thrill of victory.
When asked if this is evidence that Bear was right all along – that Matuda would eventually find happiness, self-value, and a true passion beyond the competition – Matuda laughs. “Bear is always right,” she insists, adding that she’s happy for The Jiu-Jitsu Times to quote that admission in print. “You know, in 2014, he told me I had to get an Instagram.” Matuda had refused. “I have no time,” she’d insisted.
Bear refused to back down. “Ge, it’s going to be very important.”
Matuda finally caved to the request – reluctantly.
Not done pushing his luck, Bear told Matuda, “You should post a selfie.”
“Bear,” said Matuda, balking once again, “you will never see me post a selfie.”
This insistence – as anyone who scrolls through Matuda’s vibrant Instagram presence can attest – did not last. When Matuda posted her first selfie to the account, Bear refused to let her live it down. “Selfie queen!” he crowed playfully.
“He’s always right – his vision is always looking ahead,” says Matuda. “That’s Bear. Whatever Bear does now, that’s what people end up doing later. He’s always thinking outside the box. It took me a few years to understand what he was trying to say to me, but he really guides me.”
While jiu-jitsu may technically be an individual sport, Matuda is a team player at heart in more ways than one – an attitude she’s also applied to her budding teaching career. In 2017, she collaborated with fellow jiu-jitsu phenom Dern to co-host an all-female training camp in Cannes, France. Matuda speaks highly of Dern as both a close friend and valuable partner in her teaching endeavors: “Me and Mackenzie are very good friends, so we know each other not only on the mats but also outside the gym. Out there, we barely talk about fighting or jiu-jitsu – when we’re together, we talk more about life. Which actually works very well on the mats – when she gives me a look, I know exactly what she’s thinking. That connection makes everything easier.”
As for the differences in their grappling styles, this proved more of a boon than a hindrance. “Of course our styles are different,” says Matuda, “but the concepts are the same. We’ll show a position, and Mackenzie will show what she likes to do, then I’ll show what I like to do.” This, explains Matuda, offers students with different body types and attributes a greater variety of customizable technique options – but built on the same solid foundation of fundamentals.
Dern and Matuda’s synchronicity – and easygoing affability with each other – worked wonders for their all-female class as well. As Matuda explains, “The girls doing this camp, they can feel that energy, that there’s no competition between [me and Mackenzie]. Society has raised women to compete against each other, like ‘Oh, I’m better than her. If Mackenzie’s position is here, then mine has to be a thousand times better, because I want to have more attention.’”
Matuda offers a hypothetical here: “Now, imagine a camp of forty-five girls, and what would happen if they saw these two strong female instructors at the front of the class constantly competing against each other that way. The girls would try to kill each other!” Instead, by modeling her naturally strong bond with Dern, Matuda hopes to encourage their students to emulate the same collaborative attitude. “This is why I like to work with strong women. They don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Instead of competing, we raise each other up. The more I raise Mackenzie up, the more I know she’ll raise me up too. That’s how we open up jiu-jitsu to more women.”
Working with women and girls proved the true turning point for Matuda’s search for a purpose beyond the addictive grind and elation of elite competition. “It was really hard for me to find something that gave me the same kind of pleasure, and then I found this. Now, it’s my life goal: bringing women to jiu-jitsu. This is my next world title.”
Matuda’s passion for lifting up other women in a male-dominated sport has also been informed by bitter experience. She recalls the difficulties of navigating the color belt ranks, usually as the only female student in an academy. “I know how hard it is to be a girl in jiu-jitsu,” says Matuda. As a fresh purple belt, Matuda found herself at the mercy of one coach who tried to convince her to quit jiu-jitsu. “Jiu-jitsu’s not for you,” he insisted, according to Matuda. Knowing that she was the only girl in the academy, he’d tell her that none of her teammates wanted to train with her. “I think there’s something in the structure of your brain that can’t put the pieces together,” he told Matuda. “You should do something else, but jiu-jitsu is definitely not for you.”
She almost believed him. She cried, mulled over his words for a few weeks, then changed gyms. It was, to put it lightly, the right call.
Matuda won her first world championship as a purple belt that year. It was the best possible revenge against the coach who had nearly bullied her out of her life’s calling. “I had so many hard experiences,” says Matuda. “And I just want to make it easier for the next generation. I’m lucky to have so many friends like Mackenzie, Amanda Nunes, and Joanna – and I just know that if we lead the way, and create space for them, it’s going to be easier to bring in more and more girls. I’ve worked with kids’ classes for the past eight years, and I can see the difference when there’s a woman on the mats. Parents bring their boys to class all the time – but then the boys’ little sisters see, ‘Ah, there’s a girl! She’s a black belt! I want to try this too.’ So they see that jiu-jitsu isn’t just for their brothers, it’s also for them.”
It’s not only men who serve as gatekeepers in jiu-jitsu, either. Some female jiu-jitsu practitioners – perhaps internalizing the old boys’ club mentality of combat sports – develop an animosity toward fellow women they deem “too” feminine. Matuda explains, “Other girls will be like, ‘What’s this girly girl doing here? Surely, she doesn’t want to fight. She’s just here because she wants attention, so she can take selfies.’”
Matuda frowns on this type of stereotyping, insisting that there’s no such thing as “too girly” for jiu-jitsu. “You have to tell [new girls] the rules,” she says. “Take the time to explain that they need to cut their nails and watch the makeup – you can’t expect them to know that automatically when they’re just starting. We can guide them. We can make it easier.”
She encourages women of all gender expressions and body types to try the sport out. “It’s not just for big and strong girls – it’s for everybody. You don’t want to compete, that’s fine too – you can still do jiu-jitsu.” She also speaks out sternly against women who become overly territorial of their status as the only female jiu-jitsu player at a gym: “There would be this mentality among women like, ‘Oh, if this other girl comes to my gym, we’re gonna smash her! She’s not going to survive.’ No, we’ve got to change this. If we want to bring everyone into jiu-jitsu, we’ve got to deconstruct that small-minded mentality. The white belt girl who’s too intimidated to walk into a jiu-jitsu gym – it’s because of this attitude.”
Matuda’s passion for passing the torch to the next generation of female jiu-jitsu practitioners isn’t just about success in the sport either – she also believes strongly in the power of jiu-jitsu as a no-nonsense self-defense system against a world that remains physically hostile to women. “Every single girl – every woman – on this planet should learn self-defense,” says Matuda. “At the very least, they should know two or three positions where they can defend themselves.”
Matuda herself received an unwelcome reminder of the grittier applications of jiu-jitsu at a recent tournament. According to Matuda, a man in the audience – whom she’d never seen in her life – grabbed her with sexually aggressive intent. Luckily, for the five-time jiu-jitsu world champion, muscle memory – and righteous fury – kicked in. Wrenching the aggressor’s arm into a kimura grip, she forcibly removed his hand from her body and shoved him away.
“Man, don’t touch me!” she yelled at him. “Don’t touch people like that, are you crazy?”
“You don’t know who I am,” he scoffed in turn.
“I don’t give a ****,” responded Matuda. “You touched the wrong girl.”
At the time, her well-meaning male companions tried to imply that she’d overreacted. One of them, a police officer, explained to her that such incidents were commonplace. “Ge, that’s pretty normal,” he’d said resignedly, according to Matuda. “Sometimes, the girls even like it.”
Matuda was outraged. “That is not normal,” she insisted. “That should not be normal. Don’t tell me that. Do you know why? Because you’re not a girl. You’re not a woman. You have no idea how we’re feeling. Don’t come to me and tell me that a man touching a woman that way is normal because you’re not a woman. You’re never going to feel that way in your life.”
According to Matuda, it’s been fifteen years since a man has harassed her personally. In Brazil, during her younger years, she endured garden variety street harassment, but none since she began her martial arts training, first with Muay Thai, and eventually with jiu-jitsu. “Martial arts gives you confidence,” says Matuda. “People who attack others know who to target – and they usually go for the weakest. People will read you – even little things like posture. They know who to attack.”
“Can you imagine what would happen in this situation, for a girl who doesn’t have the training or the confidence to tell him ‘no, don’t touch me’?” she asks. Knowing how frequently women deal with incidents like this one infuriates Matuda. “I can’t believe that in 2022, these things still happen daily. We’ve got to do something,” says Matuda. This is also why she has no patience for drama or petty egos in women’s jiu-jitsu. “We need to stop with this attitude of ‘oh, I want to be the only girl on the mat.’ We’ve got to work together – and fight for ourselves – because nobody else is going to do it for us.”
Matuda’s still processing the unwelcome incident at the tournament. “I’m not proud of the way I reacted,” she confides. “I wish I could have solved the problem in a more sophisticated or classy way, somehow. I feel embarrassed – I know I shouldn’t feel embarrassed – but I feel embarrassed over the situation. It really hit me hard.”
But it was also the sign she needed to start tackling one of her greatest goals as a teacher: making the self-defense side of jiu-jitsu more accessible to women. “This is why it’s so important for girls to know self-defense – and I say self-defense, not jiu-jitsu,” says Matuda, “because if you say jiu-jitsu, people have this mentality that you have to be a fighter and competitor. That’s not what this is. We have to teach young girls how to protect themselves. How to posture up, look someone in the eye, and say, ‘Stop. No. Don’t touch me.’
“It’s crazy, how the world puts you in these situations because this self-defense program is something I’ve always wanted to do, but kept telling myself I’d do it later. But now? Now I’m definitely going to do it.”
Does Matuda have any general words of wisdom for those who seek mentorship from her? “One thing that I always tell people is that everything that makes you happy – go for it,” Matuda advises. “Do it. I always say that I wake up every day, I put on my gi, and I go chase my dreams. People may not believe in you, and people may doubt you, but if something makes you happy, and you have this feeling that it’s important, keep going. The goals you set in life should not be easy. They should push you to the next level, and you have to believe in yourself. That’s it, nobody else. Only you.”
Matuda practices what she preaches. She still wakes up every morning, puts on her gi, and chases her dreams – and while those dreams may not always be on an IBJJF podium, Matuda remains determined to use jiu-jitsu to change the world for the better. “You cannot put a limit on anything,” says Matuda. “The only limit is you, your mind. When hard work meets opportunity, that’s when success happens.”
Francis Ngannou was grappling from the very first round as he fought his way to a successful heavyweight title defense.
The first two rounds seemed to go to Gane, but in the 3rd round it was Ngannou’s grappling that swayed the momentum in his direction. First, Ngannou body slammed Gane and came on top, then played a little jiu-jitsu before coming back to the feet. At the end of the round, he was able to secure another double leg that earned the excitement of DC and the commentators.
Round 4 was a bit of a slower pace, but Ngannou was able to land a few more takedowns. In Round 5 Gane got his own takedown and came on top, but Ngannou recovered closed guard, threatens to attempt a triangle and then sweeps Gane and comes on top! Gane attempts a heel hook that seems to be deep for a moment, but Francis escapes. The heel hook attempt seemed like a great opportunity for Francis to land some heavy shots, but he chose to just come back on top and control the rest of the fight from half mount.
At the end of the fight, Ngannou was 4 for 5 on his takedowns with 8:29 of control time. Ngannou landed 71 total strikes compared to Gane’s 79.
In his post fight interview, Ngannou sang praise to his coaches and acknowledged the growth he’s made in grappling, “My ground game is now evolving and I’m gonna be on another level” He also spoke about transitioning to boxing, “Boxing is always in the back of my bucket, it is something I must do before the end of my career.”
The co-main event sported the first championship fight of 2022 as Deveison Figuerdo regained his Flyweight championship from Brandon Moreno. It was this fight that showed the crowd was absolutely packed to the brim with Mexican fans there to cheer on Moreno.
Both fighters seemed to be just having fun and couldn’t stop smiling. In Round 3, the live betting odds mode to -255 for Moreno as he keeps landing heavy shots on Figuieredo. Moreno landed another high kick before Figueiredo DROPS him at the end of the round and jumps on a choke, probably the most significant strike of the fight until that point, and could have taken away all of the work that Moreno had put in and earned the round for Deiveson.
Figuieredo continued to land leg kicks into Round 4 and Moreno was sporting some massive welts, especially on the shin of his lead leg. Ultimately the controversial decision win went to Figueirdo.
The first major jiu-jitsu event of 2022 kicked off with some serious upsets at Friday night’s ‘Tezos Who’s Number One: Craig Jones vs. Pedro Marinho’.
Pedro Marinho was able to secure the victory over Craig Jones by unanimous decision in the main event. As the pair mostly engaged in a hand fight for the first 10-minutes, Jones eventually pulled guard and Marinho was able to briefly pass which ultimately was enough to earn Marinho the win.
Both Tye Ruotolo and Jacob Couch were able to secure heel hook finishes. Ruotolo took home the Welterweight Championship for his well-earned finish over a relentless Jones-Leary. Couch, on the other hand, was playing from a closed guard for most of his match, before jumping on a leg and finishing with an inside heel-hook.
Mikey Musumeci and Estevan “The Giant Slayer” Martinez battled it out until the clock hit zero, with Mikey taking home the Bantamweight title yet again. Mikey was fishing for his “Mikey Lock” at one point, but wasn’t able to secure the finish against a very elusive Martinez, who was able to free his knee-line at every leg attack.
Brazilian Top Team’s Brianna Ste-Marie wore a bit of her own blood on her face as she secured a split decision victory over Amanda Alequin. At one point, both fighters had each other in dueling toe-holds but Alequin was forced to bail on hers in order to defend, as Ste-Marie’s seemed a bit tighter. Ultimately, neither of them were able to secure the finish, and Ste-Marie took home the victory in a close split decision.
The replay of Tezos Who’s Number One: Craig Jones vs. Pedro Marinho is available on FloGrappling.com
// MAIN EVENT //
Pedro Marinho(Gracie Barra) def. Craig Jones(B-Team) via Unanimous Decision *WNO Light Heavyweight Championship*
Tye Ruotolo(ATOS) def. Levi Jones-Leary(Unity) via Submission (Heel Hook) *WNO Welterweight Championship*
Elder Cruz(Checkmat) def. Nick Rodriguez(B-Team) via Split Decision
Brianna Ste-Marie(Brazilian Top Team) def. Amanda Alequin(Gamblers) via Split Decision
Jacob Couch def. David Garmo via Submission (Inside Heel Hook)
Actor and BJJ blue belt Mario Lopez has received the ‘Outstanding American’ award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Lopez, who has been an advocate for martial arts, gave a statement and expressed gratitude,
“It is a great honor to be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame,” said Lopez, “I am grateful to be introduced to the sport at an early age. Wrestling taught me the importance of hard work and staying focused. You cannot rely on a team, it’s all on you to succeed.”
Lopez wrestled in high school for Chula Vista High School in San Diego, California. He finished second in the San Diego regionals and seventh in the California state tournament in 1991.
USA Wrestling’s website explains the criteria for the award, “The Outstanding American award is presented to those individuals who have used the disciplines of wrestling to launch notable careers in other walks of life, such as science and technology, business and industry, government and the military, and the arts and humanities.”
The Jiu-Jitsu community lost a brother this week when Seanna Widjaja, 30, was stabbed and killed outside of a 7-Eleven in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles, California while attempting to break up a fight.
Born in Surabaya East Java, Indonesia, Widjaja was a brown belt in jiu-jitsu and a former team Captain of his high school’s wrestling program. Widjaja earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of California in Santa Barbara in 2014. He also received his PADI Open Water Diving Certification that same year.
Police say that Widjaja was attempting to break up a fight and there are reports that the altercation involved a friend that he was with. The suspects stabbed Widjaja and assaulted his friend before fleeing in a vehicle that was later identified and tracked to an address in Echo Park. LAPD arrested Jose Garibay, Josue Alegria, and Damian Dehorney, all age 26, in connection with the murder.
A memorial service will be held this Saturday, January 22nd, 2022 at Think Prime Restaurant, 29601 Western Ave, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 at 11:00 a.m. Flowers or donations can be sent to Irwan Widjaja in care of McNerney’s Mortuary, 57570 W 5th St, San Pedro, CA 90731.
UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou has partnered with Cash App to receive half of his UFC 270 pay in Bitcoin. As part of the promotion, he will also be giving away $300,000 in Bitcoin to fans who follow @CashApp on Twitter and comment on Ngannou’s tweet.
The Champion is guaranteed to receive $750,000 in his January 20th showdown against undefeated Interim Champion Ciryl Gane. Ngannou released a statement regarding the choice, “After learning more and more about Bitcoin, I truly believe it is the future of money,” He continued, “Bitcoin has the ability to empower people all over the world and that’s why I’m excited to partner with Cash App to give some of my fans the opportunity to own some Bitcoin of their own.”
Ngannou has spoken out against fighter pay in the past, with unsuccessful negotiations leading to Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis fighting for an Interim Title just 5 months after Ngannou last defended his championship. As the upcoming fight is the last on his contract, he has stated that he has his eye on a move into boxing, as he refuses to fight for $500K-$600K.
“I will not fight for $500,000-$600,000 anymore. It’s over. I took this fight for personal reasons, because I want to make sure that regardless of [if] it’s fair, I can make my case that I have completed the fights.”
“100 percent [I need to box],” Ngannou said. “We’ve been having discussions for years. It seems like they are OK with it. Let’s be honest, I do believe that whatever you are doing — whatever the event is — if the UFC is involved, it’s just going to make it bigger. There is no question. So, yes, if I box, I would like the UFC to be on-board.
Ngannou is being creative with his money from this paycheck, seeming to play the long game in his investment. Only time will tell where his next purse will come from and what he’ll do with it.
I believe bitcoin can empower people everywhere. So I’m excited to partner w/ @CashApp to take half my #UFC270 purse in bitcoin. I want to make bitcoin more accessible to my fans, so I’m giving out $300K in bitcoin! Follow @CashApp + drop your $cashtag w/ #PaidInBitcoinpic.twitter.com/8JEvJ1UYu1
Heavyweight legend Zé Mário Sperry has been inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame.
Sperry, a Carlson Gracie black belt, won double gold in 1998 and won 2 consecutive super fights. He is regarded as the first person to tap Royler Gracie in competition, and he is one of the founders of the Brazilian Top Team.
Zé Mário went on to fight MMA and earned a record of 13-4 with 3 submission wins. He retired from fighting and coaching in the late 2000s.
“ADCC Hall of Fame: 4X champion Zé Mário Sperry. Zé Mário is the first superstar of ADCC, he double golded at the first ADCC back in 1998. He would go on to win 2 consecutive super fights, making him and Galvao the only ADCC competitors to win more than 1 superfight. Sperry would go on years later to defeat legends Fabio Gurgel and Renzo Gracie in ADCC legends super fights.”
The Main Event of the night was an absolute barn burner, as Calvin Kattar took a Unanimous Decision victory over KingsMMA’s Giga Chikadze, earning a 50-45 on one judge’s score card.
The pair clashed for 5-rounds and earned Fight of the Night with both fighters coming out bloody and battered. Kattar was able to earn the victory and return to the win-column with his performance after losing to Max Holloway in yet another Fight of the Night bout nearly a year ago.
The only submission of the night came in the 1st-round of the heavyweight co-main event as Jake Collier earned a first round RNC over Chase Sherman, earning him a performance bonus for the night.
The first submission of 2022 locked in by @JakeCollier88
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong will be awarding a $50,000 “Warrior Bonus” at every event, with up to 5 bonuses in any night. The bonus will be distributed based on a fighter’s ‘gamenees’ which Sityodtong defines as, ‘ fighting every second of the fight to finish.’
ONE first introduced the idea of a Warrior Bonus back in 2014, but as of December’s ONE: Winter Warriors event, the promotion will be guaranteeing at least one bonus per night. The bonus earners for Winter Warriors were lightweight contenders Saygid “Dagi” Guseyn Arslanaliev and Timofey Nastyukhin as they put on a Fight of the Year performance.
Sityodtong spoke on Ariel Helwani’s ‘The MMA Hour’, “We’ve always given out $50,000 bonuses but it wasn’t every event, it was only if there were spectacular performances. But this year is the first year in which we will give out every single show several of these $50,000 bonuses.”
The news raised eyebrows around the industry, included ONE signed grappler Gordon Ryan, who posted to Instagram, “@yodchatri and @onechampionship keep stepping it up”
In Ryan’s comment section, Sityodtong clarified that the bonus would be available for all of ONE’s combat sports competitions, including submission grappling, “the $50,000 bonus applies to all types of martial arts competition in ONE, be it muay thai, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, submission grappling, etc.”
See Helwani’s full interview with Sityodtong below.
Last July, Jiu-Jitsu Times published a personal essay, Jiu-Jitsu Belts and Friendships Must be Earned. It was my love letter to the gentle art. In that piece, I named a few people with whom I’ve trained that I predicted would be the future of competitive Jiu-Jitsu.
One of these individuals was a 16-year-old blue belt named Cole Abate.
Jiu-Jitsu practitioners are passionate folks, so it wasn’t at all a surprise that I received pushback on my declaration about Abate. People claimed I didn’t know what I was talking about. I am a 40-year-old Jiu-Jitsu hobbyist, so I’m not qualified to make such an outlandish proclamation. Many claimed I should leave prognostication about the world of Jiu-Jitsu to the professionals.
Photo By: Mike Calimbas
Then, on Sept. 25, 2001—about two months after my essay was published—Cole competed in Who’s Number One Championship against some of the top black belts in the sport.
“Many people felt he didn’t deserve to be there,” said Jeremy Abate, Mendes brothers’ black belt and Cole’s father. “My son’s performance proved them wrong.”
Cole beat No.1-ranked opponent Geo Martinez but lost his next match via split decision to Gabriel Sousa. Many felt Cole won and was robbed. While not winning the competition, Cole made a statement loud and clear: He’s going to have a long career wreaking havoc in the world of competitive Jiu-Jitsu.
I’m a firm believer in losing and winning graciously. That said, I’d love an apology from all the individuals who pushed back on me regarding Cole.
I’ll wait.
“I think it’s funny when people say Cole is sandbagging,” Jeremy Abate remarked to me. “They’re claiming he’s better than his belt. It’s a compliment. He could’ve been promoted to black belt, and nobody would’ve batted an eye. But the goal for Cole’s career is to compete in IBJJF, so he’s too young to be awarded his black belt.”
Photo By: Kyle Huang
Jiu-Jitsu was never part of the plan for Cole. “He had a baseball mitt and ball in his crib,” Jeremy said. His son’s experience with Jiu-Jitsu started when he was five years old, growing up in San Antonio, Texas. He took Cole to a trial class at a local academy. After a few classes, Jeremy figured it wasn’t for him. But every time they drove by the academy, the young Cole asked to go back. Relenting, Jeremy enrolled his son.
There is no shortage of inspirational Jiu-Jitsu social media posts that mention every champion was once a beginner, and this is certainly true for Cole. During his first competition as a grey belt, his only fight was against a girl. “Dad, I’m fighting a girl,” Cole said. Jeremy told his son to be respectful and not hurt his opponent. The plan was to take it easy on her.
Well, things didn’t turn out the way either one of them expected.
“She kicked his ***,” Jeremy said, chuckling. They both filed this experience in the “never underestimate an opponent” category. Especially the young athlete. When Cole learned that his father had told me the story about his first competition, he pleaded that it not be included in the article. “It happened 11 years ago, and it’s still bothering him,” Jeremy said.
After nearly two years of watching his son train, Jeremy began his own Jiu-Jitsu experience. And, Cole said, it’s been beneficial to have his father training with him. “My father is my best friend on and off the mats,” Cole said. “He’s been by my side throughout this whole journey.”
While still living in Texas, Jeremy asked his son where on the planet he would want to go in order to continue his training. Cole had the answer at the tip of his tongue: Art of Jiu-Jitsu (AOJ) in Costa Mesa, California, operated by Gui and Rafa Mendes.
Bam! Jeremy, Cole and his mother, Chimele, immediately pulled up stakes and moved to Southern California. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Even Mom, who admits her only involvement with Jiu-Jitsu is filling in as a practice dummy when the need arises.
And Cole is very aware of the lengths his parents have gone for him. “The fact that they sacrificed anything in order for me to reach my dream just shows me how much trust they have in me being successful with Jiu-Jitsu,” he said.
Two and half years ago, Cole walked into AOJ as a green belt. “We started our walk together on this path, and we set big plans that require a lot of attention and work,” Gui Mendes said.
When he started training at AOJ, Cole admitted his only goal was to be the best green belt. “Professor Gui changed my mindset,” Cole said. “He told me that his goal for me was to be the best in the world at my weight. It doesn’t matter what the opponent’s belt is. If there’s a black belt my size, I should be able to hold my own with them. It was like a switch was flipped in me.”
It has become clear that others recognized Cole’s potential, too. The organizers of Who’s Number One Championship reached out to Cole to see if he’d be interested in competing in the 155-pound division tournament. “It was an honor to be considered,” Cole said. “The division was stacked with some of the best guys. They weren’t just regular black belts—they were the top guys in the division.”
Jeremy is grateful for his relationship with Gui. “We are partners in Cole’s development,” he said. “We bounce ideas off each other to decide what’s best for Cole.”
Photo By: Mike Calimbas
There was never any doubt or hesitations for Gui Mendes about Cole competing against top-ranked black belts. “Cole is disciplined, and I knew he was not going to fail when it comes to preparing for a competition,” he said. All parties decided it would be an excellent opportunity to display Cole’s skills. “People who had never seen him training might think he was not going to do well because he was 16 and less experienced than all the other opponents. But for those of us who watch him daily and know his level of Jiu-Jitsu, we just knew he was going to shock the world.”
Before the dust settled from Cole’s upset performance, he was already preparing for the ADCC North American Trial 2021. “We celebrate great achievements, but it doesn’t change our approach,” Mendes said. “All these victories along the way will be collected and appreciated, but it’s not even close to being the final destination. I expect him to arrive at the event very well prepared. Not only to win but have an amazing performance.”
At the age of 16, Cole is officially the youngest competitor to win the ADCC trials. His goal is to be the youngest competitor to win the championship. Rafa Mendes currently holds that distinction, winning the ADCC Championship back when he was 19. “Professor Rafa joked with me the other day about coming for his record,” Cole said. “My goal isn’t to break his record, but I do want to win. My goal is to win.”
“My mission as a coach is to impact the new generation to do great things,” Gui Mendes said. “Rafa wrote down his name in the history of this sport forever, and we both achieved all of our goals as competitors. But records are meant to be broken. Cole winning ADCC is not only his goal but ours, too.”
I interviewed Jeremy Abate at World 2021 IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Anaheim, California. Two blue belts were competing during the quarterfinals on a nearby mat. When one of them won by a slim margin on points, the blue belt ripped open his gi top, exposed his bare chest, and hollered to the heavens like he just won gold. Jeremy sighed. “I’m glad my son doesn’t do that,” he said. Jeremy taught his son that a true champion loses and wins gracefully. “It’s important that he acts like he’s been there before.”
Before the World 2021 IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship, Gui promoted Cole to purple belt. To me, it appeared to be a coincidence that no competitors challenged Cole. While Cole was standing on the sidelines watching the matches with his mother and father, I asked him if he was disappointed that he didn’t have a match. With his gold medal hanging at his side like an afterthought, he surveyed the matches underway. Then he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Yeah, I’m disappointed.”
I reminded him how successful his year was, and his mother and father both nodded their heads in agreement. I suppose that’s what makes Cole Abate who he is—he’s not satisfied with what he’s accomplished because there’s so much more he wants to achieve.
The following is a guide designed and provided by Laurien and Alex Zurhake of Off The Zone, which seeks to provide trauma-informed coaching for martial artists wanting to provide a safe, secure environment for their students and teammates.
Recent sexual harassment allegations shook the BJJ world. In its wake, other athletes from diverse martial arts spoke up too, either through private conversations or publicly. Particularly in the BJJ scene, an overlapping governing organization regarding safeguarding is missing. That is why this guide helps martial arts school owners and coaches with setting up practical safeguarding measures so that they keep their students — regardless of background, age, race, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation — safe. Sometimes when a coach and a student spend a lot of time together, the area between motivational contact and misconduct may seem to become grey. Clear policies should help prevent or solve such situations.
Abusers
People that may end up abusing others tend to gravitate towards professions such as coaching and teaching. At the same time, vulnerable people tend to gravitate to sports such as martial arts in search of empowerment. Often perpetrators tend to set themselves up for success: they seem reliable, trustworthy, and choose victims that are vulnerable, isolated, easy to not believe. In this way, they gain access to students.
Coach-Student Relationship
A coach-student relationship is based on trust and power. Trust that the coach has the students’ best interests at heart and power, because the coach has the authority and skills to positively or negatively impact their students. Remember: as long as the athlete is under the supervision of the coach, there is an imbalance of power.
What about love?
A coach and a student can only start a relationship when the coach no longer supervises that athlete and they are both adults. In this way, there is no longer a power imbalance. Obviously, there are examples where partners start to train under their significant other after they came together. Also in these cases, it is advised that the student is graduated and supervised by other coaches or that clear rules and boundaries are set.
Differences Between Laws and Policies
There are different types of sexual and social misconduct. Some are considered criminal and some may not. Behaviour, however, can be or become inappropriate before it becomes illegal.
You get to set your policies
It is important to emphasize that not all sexual and social misconduct is seen as criminal or illegal. BUT that does not mean it therefore should be tolerated in your martial arts school. You get to decide how to keep your students safe.
Example sliding scale of sexual misconduct
Any non-consensual sexual contact or behavior (from sending photos of one’s genitals all through rape) IS sexual misconduct and should be a VIOLATION of any school’s policy and may also VIOLATE criminal law.
Consent
Consent is at the root of EVERY allegation of sexual misconduct. As a coach, you may face situations where a student comes forward and you need to respond. When a minor is the victim, you ought to report it immediately to the authorities and suspend the accused until further notice. When it involves an adult, it depends on the severity, but any violation of your school’s safeguarding policies should be met by consequences, such as suspending or totally barring the accused from your school. Acting may be hard as you most likely work(ed) with the accused for years. Yet, your students’ safety always comes first!
If it’s the very owner of a martial arts school, a student can choose to report it to the authorities and should definitely leave that school. By leaving, you show other students and prospective students that this school is unsafe.
Consent is:
Informed, knowing, voluntary, active and clear words or actions indicating that a person is legally and functionally competent to indicate permission for specific sexual activity’ (SafeSport)
Need to be of legal age (typically 18, but varies per country / state)
Consent to sexual activity is required no matter race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Consent is not:
a permanent arrangement. Consent can be withdrawn at any time also during a sexual act.
passive: silence in and of itself can’t be interpreted as consent. Passive consent does not exist!
obtained through force (physical violence, threat, intimidation, grooming, or coercion.
obtained where a power imbalance exists.
A person is incapable to voice consent when:
incapacitated (temporarily or permanently), think of unconsciousness, lack of awareness or when asleep.
student has physical and/or mental health conditions.
Consent can also not be obtained through coercion. This is subtle, hard to prove, and on its own not criminal, but should definitely violate your school’s policy.
For instance: repeatedly and intensely texting, isolating, and pressuring someone who does not want to have sex is coercion.
Responding in a Trauma-Informed Way
What are trauma-informed ways to respond when a student approaches you and tells you what happened to them?
Do’s
Assure them you will do what you can to help.
Tell them they have done the right thing by confiding in you and that you believe them.
Let them know the abuse was not their fault.
Remind them they are safe with you.
Try to not show that you are shocked, they don’t know how to interpret that.
Dont’s
Don’t interrogate them; you want to prevent them potentially re-living a traumatic event.
Don’t ask leading questions, instead ask open ones: ‘he must have hurt you’ is a leading question, ‘how did that make you feel?’ is an open question.
Image Source: Off the Zone
Practical measures
By setting physical and interpersonal boundaries and standards, there is a lot we can prevent from happening in the first place by how we set up and inspect our schools. The following shares a (not exhaustive) list of such boundaries and standards that should make your school a safer space.
General safety rules
Having your parking lot lit + install cameras.
Parking lots closest to your entry are reserved for women / families.
Male / female lockers are off limits to the other gender.
Locker rooms policy
Conduct regular sweeps (in teams of two, of the same gender depending on the locker you inspect) of locker rooms/changing areas.
Make sure no child is alone with an adult or much older athlete.
Transparency policy
Conduct meetings where others are present and where interactions can be easily observed and/or interrupted.
If possible, meet in a publicly visible and open area, such as the corner of a gym/school (no locked or closed doors).
Off the mat rules
Make it clear what kinds of off-site / out-of-program activities are allowed (competitions, watching UFC, camps etc.), and what supervision is required for these events.
Set rules around the presence of alcohol at said events.
Travel policy
Don’t transport an unrelated (underaged) student by yourself—have your own child, another student or an adult travel along.
Encourage parents to help organising travel so that more than one adult is responsible.
Don’t worry about hurting someone’s feelings by insisting they follow your school’s policies. Enforcing policies protects students, everyone working with students and your martial arts school.
We hope that this guide helps with creating a safe learning environment and setting you, your students, your staff, and your school up for success!
Mackenzie Dern and Tecia Torres will be locking horns at UFC 273 on April 9.
Dern will be looking to bounce back from her 5-round decision loss to Marina Rodriguez that earned Fight of the Night in October.
Her next opponent, Torres, is another striker. She holds a black belt in karate and taekwondo but a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Dern’s path to victory in this fight should be clear, but she has previously expressed how happy she is with the striking work she’s doing with coach Jason Parillo,
“Just my striking with [Parillo] is making my submissions come way easier than before, when I’m just trying to hug the person and close the distance, and I’m not really knowing what I’m doing. Now, they kind of have to think about my strikes and my punches, and the takedown is coming way easier. I think that’s why my submissions have come even easier because of how Jason Parillo is not making me a striker but he’s making me a champion…”
#-7 ranked strawweight Torres announced the fight via Instagram post,
A local BJJ program is being called “the best way to bullyproof your kids,” according to jiu-jitsu purple belt and kids coach Ross Farrow.
Farrow, who’s been training in “The Gentle Art” for seven years, says that his passion for teaching martial arts to children came from his own experience as a former victim of bullying. “I grew up getting shoved around, picked on for my clothes or my hair… you name it,” he told the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “I started jiu-jitsu right before my twenty-fourth birthday, and let me tell you — no kids have tried to push me around ever since.”
Farrow says that his program is designed specifically to help kids protect themselves before a threat even arises. “I think where I went wrong as a kid… I mean, I’d let all these bigger kids threaten me, then turn the other cheek when they pushed me, then try to hide when they started getting more aggressive. I didn’t take action until it was too late, and the action I did take wasn’t enough,” he says. “I never want my students to go through what I did.”
The bullyproof program Farrow has implemented is focused on preventative action. “My kids know how to prevent problems, not just solve them. A kid looks at you funny in the lunchroom, you take him down and break his arm, let him know he got off easy this time. A girl makes fun of you for not having the latest designer clothes, easy — you choke her with her fancy jacket.”
Farrow’s teammates agree that their head coach made the right choice in putting Farrow in charge of the kids’ program at the academy. “I don’t think anyone else at the gym is better suited for the role,” said blue belt Timothy Peters. “Ross is, without a doubt, the biggest bully here. He knows all the latest insults and manipulation tactics. Hell, he’s even invented some of them. The next generation is being taught by a true master of the art.”
The coach, however, takes offense to the term “bully.”
“What the f***, man. Tim said that? About me?” he said, visibly shocked. “That limp-**** ****! Funny, he didn’t have the **** to say that to my **** when I was **** his *********** the last time we rolled.”
While white belt Sarah Goldstein agrees with Peters’ general sentiment, she believes that Farrow’s true qualifications are found in his physical capabilities.
“Ross really knows how to take someone smaller, weaker, and more vulnerable than him, and just…” She makes an aggressive crushing motion with her hands and doesn’t stop for the next five minutes.
Farrow doesn’t disagree with Goldstein’s assessment. “Kids are smart,” he says. “I can’t just talk the talk. I gotta walk the walk. I tell them, ‘The techniques I show you will make people regret putting their hands on you.’ So obviously, I gotta prove that in a safe, controlled environment in which I’ve consented to let other people put their hands on me.”
Developing a child’s physical prowess is only part of the journey, however. Farrow says that he also places significant importance on mindset development. “If you have a victim mentality, you make yourself the victim. So, yeah, we teach them to defend themselves, but we also show them how important it is to not be a victim in your own mind.” To illustrate his point, Farrow directed the Jiu-Jitsu Times to various comment threads he’s contributed to on various social media platforms. “See, these people are all b****ing about, ‘My teammates are using racial slurs toward me’ or ‘My coach is asking me for naked photos,’ and you know what? If they didn’t make themselves the victims, they wouldn’t be victims. So I tell them, just as I tell my students, to stop being soft piles of s*** and at least try to make Joe Rogan proud.”
Farrow acknowledges, however, that working with children is different than passing on advice to adults. “Kids cry over everything, obviously, so I have a technique that I call ‘transferring the tears.’ Someone hurt you? You wanna cry about it? Not on these mats. You take ownership of that feeling. You take a moment to recognize what made you want to cry. And then you pass that s*** on to someone else. You make them cry, by any means necessary. Then it’s not your problem anymore.” He nods. “See? Transferring the tears.”
While Farrow says that some may call him a ‘hero,’ he prefers the term ‘success story.’
“It’s all come full circle,” he says, proudly looking on as a ten-year-old orange belt ignores the desperate tapping of an eleven-year-old using a loaner gi. “I hope — and believe — that these little alphas will take the same path that I did.”
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV is set to host a battle between welterweight superstars Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.
Being a main event, the fight is scheduled to take place over 5-rounds. #2-ranked welterweight contender Covington.
Both fighters are coming off of a loss to welterweight champion Kamarudeen Usman, a fact that upset welterweight contender Leon Edwards, as he awaits his chance to fight for the title, “2 bums coming off losses”.
Masvidal and Covington have a history together, not only being former teammates at ATT Florida, but also becoming roommates at one point. In fact, the pair can be spotted cornering one another through out their previous matches. After a falling out happened between the pair, it has been nothing but bad blood ever since.
Before the contract was signed, Masvidal took to Twitter to call out Covington, “They gonna call you and hopefully the 4th time is a charm you ******* coward. Don’t ***** out now @ColbyCovMMA”
Covington had his own choice words delivered in a text to ESPN’s Brett Okamato, “He better ******* show up.”
UFC 272 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 5 and can be streamed on ESPN+ PPV.
They gonna call you and hopefully the 4th time is a charm you ******* coward. Don’t ***** out now @ColbyCovMMA
I’ve been asked about training with an injury and I’m sharing what I practice myself. Everyone has different reasons for training, so the answer may vary depending on your goals, lifestyle, and priorities. The answer will also vary depending on the injury. Someone who doesn’t compete will not hold jiu-jitsu as a top priority, therefore healing their body needs to be first and foremost. Also, other factors to consider include your job and daily responsibilities. The health of your body is very important to be able to continue to do jiu-jitsu as long as possible, whether or not you are an athlete.
I’m a big advocate of doing whatever you can while injured if it is at all possible. Obviously, there are some injuries where that is not the case or at least it isn’t at the beginning of the injury. I spoke about doing strength and flexibility work in my last article which can help prevent injuries from happening. There are those random ones that happen during rolls, yet many injuries develop from overuse. The first step is taking care of your body, so you don’t have to deal with an injury. By doing so, you’ll have to be aware of the techniques you use most often. For example, I’ll have pain in my knee if I don’t take care of the tight muscles on my left thigh. Using a rubber guard often has a motion where those muscles will get tight which alters the position of the joint over time. This scenario will happen anywhere on the body with repetitive movement even if it doesn’t involve jiu-jitsu. I’ve witnessed people with injuries from using a computer too often. The repetition doesn’t have to involve sports or be dynamic.
If you do get injured, make certain you rest whatever body part is injured. At the same time do what you can by working around it. Even if you can’t do jiu-jitsu, you often can do some type of strength training to improve your jiu-jitsu in the meantime. You can also watch plenty of jiu-jitsu videos or watch the class you normally attend. You don’t want to come back too soon and reinjure yourself. I know it can be difficult to stay away from jiu-jitsu, yet coming back too soon often leads to more total time out of the gym. If you are out for 2 weeks and come back not completely healed, it is more likely you will get reinjured. When you do return, it may be another 2 or more weeks away from training. If you originally waited 3 weeks and were completely healed, then it is actually less time overall. If you are unsure of the healing process, since everyday motions compared to jiu-jitsu feel different, then start with light drilling and go from there.
I once had a pinky finger bend in the opposite direction. Initially, I couldn’t use that hand. Once it healed for everyday use, I did guard passing drills without using that hand. We were currently doing guard passing drills without using our hands to improve leg dexterity. I worked a lot on those drills since it was something I could do while still healing. Sometimes there are just very minor injuries that are bothersome during jiu-jitsu. If something is slightly bothering me, but not injured to a point to have to stop doing jiu-jitsu, I obviously don’t want it to get worse. I change my game according to how my body feels. The example above I gave with my left leg and rubber guard is a perfect example. If I am currently working on that leg and it is feeling tight, I change my game for a time period, so I’m not working on any rubber guard. I feel like it is a win-win because you are healing while being forced to develop your game. If you’re an athlete with a match coming up, then there are other factors to take into account. For everyone else, take care of your body, so you have longevity and happiness with your jiu-jitsu journey.
Fight2Win commentator and jiu-jitsu brown belt Nicholas Birgel, along with roommates Robert Parish and Dan Ryland and neighbor Fabiana Jorge, tell a story common among jiu-jitsu aficionados. Bonded by a mutual passion for the sport, the four of them have enjoyed a friendship spanning so many years and shared experiences, they’re more akin to family. Parish and Jorge, black belts who first met on the mats a decade ago as early training partners, are now a couple. Jorge describes Ryland and Birgel as being “like brothers to me.” Their quiet Colorado neighborhood served as the perfect home for their nascent community, a warm and steady reminder of the life they’d built together.
Nicholas Birgel
Then, on December 30, they lost everything.
The Boulder wildfires, which have recently ravaged local Colorado suburbs, struck their neighborhood that afternoon. “I was at training in Boulder when I first heard about the fire,” Parish recounts. “I knew there was a smaller fire going on, but it was far away from our home, so I didn’t give it much thought. Right at the end of class, I was told that another fire had started, and it was in my neighborhood. I immediately grabbed my things and headed home.”
“Winds were whipping all morning that day – at a certain point, I could smell a fire, and then it all happened so fast,” says Birgel. “I couldn’t even walk two steps without needing a sweatshirt to cover my mouth and glasses for the winds and fire in my eyes.”
The smoke thickened so rapidly that navigating their way home proved impossible. Panic struck. Helpless to intervene as their home burned, Parish was forced to shelter at a friend’s home for the night. “I was a complete wreck,” he says. “Couldn’t stop crying the rest of the afternoon into the night. I was devastated that I couldn’t make it home, but still had no idea of the extent of the damage. We were monitoring the fire from one of my friends, as he was on the border of the evacuation line. I was at a complete loss for words, and couldn’t imagine what was actually happening.”
Jorge, meanwhile, suffered an entirely different nightmare during the time of the fire – trapped overseas while traveling an entire country away, she discovered the extent of her loss only piecemeal, through texts and calls. After a text message from a friend in Boulder alerted her to the disaster, she immediately called her boyfriend, Parish, to find out more about what was happening. “By the tremble in his voice, I already knew,” Jorge remembers. “I was frantic. My signal wasn’t the best, and I kept trying to call the Superior Fire Department, but no phone calls were going through. I called his roommate Dan, and he didn’t know what was going on, or if my animals were alive because he was at work.”
The damage, as it turned out, was overwhelming. “Our home is completely burned to the ground,” says Parish. “The only thing I had was the gear I was training in, and the clothes I was wearing that day. Even five days later, we couldn’t go back to the area. Everything I’ve ever worked for was in that house, and it was gone in an instant… Each day, I realize things that I can never get back. Sentimental items that hold more value to me than I can explain. It’s all gone.”
“My emotions are all over the place right now,” he adds. “I feel like I am either numb or crying, without much in between. It’s so hard to accept what happened. I feel like once we’re allowed back in the area and can see for ourselves that nothing’s left, it’s going to hit me even harder. From the pictures, I know it’s just rubble and ash. I don’t really know what the future is going to look like. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, and thousands of people are in the same boat as us right now. It’s just too hard to think about why this had to happen, and why life slapped us across the face as it did.”
“We lost everything,” Birgel admits frankly. “Down to the hand-made Peruvian scarves, down to hard drives of memories and photos. Everything material, and everything sentimental.”
The worst losses, however, were Jorge’s animals. “I don’t care about my material possessions,” she confesses. “All I really cared about were my animals. My cat Bubbles was my pet for about ten years. I got him a sophomore year of college at CU Boulder. But my dog, Bruno, he was only with me since July 24, 2020. He was two months old when I adopted him.”
Bruno, explains Jorge, had been her emotional support animal. After a long and hard-fought battle with mental illness issues, she adopted Bruno in 2020 hoping that he could help – and for a time, he did. In an Instagram post featuring her beloved dog, Jorge writes, “Many times I’ve wanted to leave this world in the last year or so, before finally getting him. But he kept me here.” In her final message to Bruno, Jorge confesses, “You were so much more than a dog. You felt like you were meant for me. You were my source of comfort. It felt like you were supposed to be my emotional support animal and you did your job so well… You were a part of my life like no one else was. So how can I go on without you? I don’t know. And I’m so sorry. I wish I didn’t leave you on this last trip. I knew I didn’t want to go anymore and I still left. I feel like I died with you on Thursday.”
When asked about his emotional state since the events of December 30, Birgel’s first words are also for Jorge’s beloved Bruno. “I am heartbroken for the loss of Bruno, coyote-dog, most,” he confides. Parish echoes the same sentiments: “More than the material possessions I wasn’t able to save the animals, and nothing hurts more than that. Every thought of it makes me sick to my stomach. Don’t get me wrong, losing my savings and everything else hurts, but nothing can ever take the pain of losing the dog go away.”
Yet tragedies are rarely – if ever – absolute. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may have famously written, “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy,” in times of devastation, we may as well read the quote backward. Show us a tragedy, and sure enough, we’ll find heroes among the rubble.
When Birgel jumped into his car to flee his burning neighborhood, he’d been thinking about survival. Smothered by smog and heat from all directions, he didn’t have the bandwidth to process much beyond his own need to stay alive. “I thought my car was going to explode when I was driving around the flames,” he confides, then for a bit of levity, “I felt kind of like Pierce Brosnan from Dante’s Peak.”
The sudden bash on his car window, however, brought his frantic escape to a halt. Outside was a middle-aged woman, suffering from severe burns, and stranded without a car. Birgel immediately rushed her to a hospital, where she was treated for burns on her face and hands, as well as severe smoke inhalation. While the woman was put on life support, Birgel called her family and emergency contacts to inform them of the situation. “Felt kind of weird to be that guy,” admits Birgel. “Crazy powerful energy as well, when death and life come together like that.”
Life prevailed, in this case. The woman survived. On New Year’s Day, she reached out to Birgel, letting him know that she would be discharged from the hospital the following day – and that, thanks to him, she was safe.
Since then, Birgel and his friends have been floored by the support offered by their community. “I would like to thank every single person who has sent us kind words, love, donations, and anything else to try and help us,” says Jorge. “I can’t explain the immense gratitude we all feel. So many strangers have helped, and I really have a hard time because I want everyone to know that I’m so thankful, but all I can really say right now is thank you.”
“I am sad for my friends, sometimes for myself, but I’m also kind of hopeful,” says Birgel. “Out of disasters come miracles. It’s a stage of life, the rebirth after destruction. It breeds life. There seems to be support for us around every corner. Maybe that’s the reason for my naive positivity. Everyone seems to be reaching out like I’m family. Feels good, man.”
The feeling appears to be mutual. Members of the Colorado jiu-jitsu scene have rallied around Birgel and his friends, expressing just how much they mean to the local community. “When we think of Rob [Parish] and Fabi [Jorge], we feel graciousness and serenity,” writes Steven Bryant, a GoFundMe organizer on Parish and Jorge’s donation page. “Attempting to convey just how much of an impact these two have on the jiu-jitsu community would be in vain.”
“Nick [Birgel] works his *** off for Fight2Win every weekend,” says Birgel’s boss, Fight2Win CEO, and promoter Seth Daniels. “He’s an ambassador for good times, and always has a great attitude. Without Nick, life would be a lot less f*cking cool.”
Seth Daniel, Edward Johnson, Nicholas Birgel, Brittney Olinda Elkin
The community response to the Boulder fires – and to the life-altering devastation experienced by just four people among thousands – has been a testament to many things: to resilience, to friendship, to the bonds built upon jiu-jitsu mats and beyond. But most of all, perhaps, it’s a testament to our ability, as people, to care for each other. To open a door, as Birgel did for a stranger stranded amidst the smoke and fire, and to ferry each other toward safety, warmth, and the fragile, stubborn chance of a kinder tomorrow.
To add to the support for Birgel and his friends in the aftermath of their losses, you can contribute to their GoFundMe pages below:
It is important to take responsibility for yourself and be accountable in all areas of your life. Jiu-jitsu is one area where responsibility is required to be able to enjoy it and keep your body healthy. We all learn about tapping to submissions and may hear the “tap early, tap often” quote. It’s excellent advice for the ego and your physical health. When you physically tap, be very clear that you are tapping. There are a lot of body parts in contact, so be very clear that your tap is obvious. I like to verbally tap, so there is no discrepancy. If your tap is verbal, make certain it is loud enough for your partner to hear.
If you’re new, you can gradually determine how long you can wait to tap. It only applies to certain submissions such as an ankle lock. When it was early in my jiu-jitsu, I immediately tapped when I felt pain. It’s better to be safe than sorry and have longevity on the mats. I did want to see if I could withstand more pain without injury or discomfort afterward. I gradually held out longer and longer before I tapped. This process was very gradual, so I didn’t get injured. When I got to the point where I tapped and my ankle was slightly sore that day and the next, then I knew that would be my limit for competitions and slightly sooner for class.
If you have an injury, let them know you have one. At the same time, tap even earlier, and don’t leave it up to your partner to remember which arm or leg in the middle of rolling. It’s good to let them know to bring awareness and so they know why you are tapping super early. With this said, also choose partners you can trust to roll accordingly.
You want to choose partners that let go as soon as you tap. There is already the possibility of injuries when everyone is operating smoothly, so you don’t want any additional ones. You also want to listen or feel for their tap. Sometimes when you are concentrating on what you are doing, then you may get distracted from what your partner is saying or doing. At the same time, you are not responsible for them. Some people are training for tournaments and maybe rolling at a different pace than someone who is not. Everyone can still be responsible for themselves. If someone’s pace doesn’t give you enough time to tap even if you feel you tap quickly, then choose different partners.
When there are partners that may be not so technical with their movements, let them know. You both can still choose to continue to partner with each other. Keep in mind the belt level and what is typical. Some can use more strength and “spazzy” movements at the white belt because we didn’t have much skill. At that level, it is somewhat understandable because they are in the process of learning. If someone much larger than you is using a lot of strength, then neither of you is learning. Rely on technique as much as possible and communicate with your partner. If they are unreceptive after telling them more than once, then move on to other partners that will respond and reciprocate. It is important that we are both learning and improving our techniques. We all want to be happy on the mats and get better at jiu-jitsu.
Rafael Mendes has officially joined the ranks of the ADCC Hall of Fame.
Mendes is a 2x ADCC champion with over a 54% submission rate. He earned gold in 2009 at just 19-years old, marking him as the youngest ADCC champion in history. Rafa is a black belt under Ramon Lemos and is the co-founder of California’s Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy.
The announcement comes via an Instagram post on ADCC’s page,
“ADCC Hall of Fame: 2X champion Rafael Mendes. Rafa burst onto ADCC in his 2009 debut, subbing everyone up to the finals where he would beat the legendary Cobrinha. Rafa is the youngest champion in ADCC history, winning gold at only 19 years of age. Rafa also has over a 54% submission rate in ADCC.”
As nice as it would be if everyone could safely and comfortably roll with everyone else in jiu-jitsu, we all know the feeling of trying to avoid eye contact with someone when it’s time to match up for a roll.
I am a staunch believer in the “right of refusal” when it comes to rolling. The whole premise of jiu-jitsu is that it’s based on consent — when we want the action to stop, we tap out, and it should stop. Sometimes, though, we tend to forget that this principle also applies before a roll. Even though we “know” that it’s ok to say no, we may feel pressure when we’re asked to roll with someone we don’t want to roll with, or maybe we feel stung when we get turned down for a roll.
I’ve been on both sides of that conversation, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel awkward at best and upsetting at worst. It sucks when someone is a great friend, but an unsafe rolling partner. It also sucks when you’re very eager to roll with someone, but they tell you ‘maybe later’ when you ask them to pair up. But understanding that you and everyone else in the gym has the right of refusal is crucial to having a safe, comfortable experience in the gym.
In general, I firmly believe that everyone should be able to turn down a roll. Some women may only feel comfortable rolling with other women, and some men may only feel comfortable rolling with other men. Maybe the issue is a size disparity, or maybe the intensity you want to train at doesn’t match the intensity of your chosen partner’s. Maybe you’re coming off an injury and only want to roll with a very select few trusted teammates until you feel comfortable again, or maybe it’s a matter of religion.
Unless the refusals seem to be motivated by something more nefarious, such as racism or homophobia (in which case, finding a rolling partner is the least pressing issue that needs to be dealt with), I don’t see anything wrong with turning down a roll with anyone, whether it’s a one-off refusal or indefinite. Jiu-jitsu is an intimate, close-contact sport, and everyone deserves to feel comfortable and safe while they train. Obviously, your training may suffer if you only have three trusted rolling partners, but if that’s a sacrifice you’re willing to make, then that should be your choice.
Still, many people in jiu-jitsu struggle with the emotional side of a one-sided rolling request. They don’t know how to politely but firmly tell a training partner ‘no thanks,’ or maybe they get personally offended when they receive a ‘no thanks.’
Making this a comfortable experience for everyone involved with minimal hurt or awkwardness requires one simple thing: communication. Not avoidance, not excuses, just clearly and respectfully speaking your feelings, regardless of which side of the conversation you’re on.
This doesn’t mean you have to rip your teammates’ jiu-jitsu to shreds when you tell them that you don’t want to roll with them. It can be as simple as saying, “I’m being picky about who I roll with today.” I’ve found that most of the time, people tend to take that just fine, understanding that you have your own personal reasons for declining a roll with them.
If the issue is likely to persist, though, it may be worth chatting with either your teammate or your coach about the issue. Many newer jiu-jitsu students, in particular, don’t realize that they have dangerous habits when they roll. They may need someone to let them know that their chaotic style is deterring people from rolling with them. Or, if your teammate is harassing you or otherwise making you uncomfortable, have a private discussion with your coach about it and let them handle the problem.
Now, if you’ve been declined a roll, it’s your job to meet your teammate in the middle and either take their polite refusal at face value or communicate to better understand why. Either way, be gracious about it, just as you’d want someone else to be gracious if you had to turn them down.
If you’re consistently turned down by the same person (or multiple different people), it’s generally okay to ask why. The important thing is that, whatever their reason may be, your response is either to accept it or offer to help solve the issue. For example, if your teammate tells you that you’re a bit too large and aggressive for them to feel safe during a roll, it’s fine to offer to flow roll. If they still say no, though, accept it and move on.
While you’re allowed to have your own feelings about being turned down for a roll, be cautious about being too pushy. Just because you don’t think you’re a clumsy training partner doesn’t mean you aren’t a clumsy training partner. Your experience doesn’t invalidate theirs. If the solution you offer isn’t enough to persuade your teammate to change their mind, accept it and move on.
A declined roll between two decent people shouldn’t feel like a middle finger; if it does (whether intentionally or unintentionally), it may be time to get your coach involved to help sort out what may be a deeper issue. The ideal situation in any jiu-jitsu gym is that everyone enjoys rolling with everyone, or at least feels safe and comfortable rolling with everyone. But when that’s not possible, the bare minimum standard should be that everyone feels safe and comfortable communicating with each other.
One of the most dominant stars in the Heavyweight division may not compete in the 2022 IBJJF Worlds circuit due to lack of fighter pay.
ATOS black belt Kaynan Duarte is speaking out about IBJJF pay, and is considering dropping the gi circuits this year in order to focus on ADCC, where the pay is significantly higher for the grapplers.
IBJJF currently pays $10,000 for Absolute winners and up to $7,000 for weight division winners, depending on the size of their bracket. Duarte emphasized his gratitude for the organization and what they’ve done for his career. However, ADCC pays $10,000 for weight division winners and $40,000 for absolute winners. A hard difference to ignore.
Duarte gave his thoughts in an interview with Vitor Freitas,
“I still don’t know if I’ll fight the next Worlds in 2022. I don’t know if it’s going to be something I’m aiming for, you know? I want to be better paid, have more support. Surely the reward could be better. What they (IBJJF) are paying is nothing, you know? I did seven fights in their event. I fought because I wanted to, you know? I’m fighting because I want to. When I don’t want to fight anymore I won’t fight. They helped me in some ways for sure. Where I was and where I am today is because of the IBJJF. I can’t not be grateful. But a fight I do in another event I win three times or four times more than I win at the Worlds. I won $5,000 at the Worlds. In a fight with Meregali I would make a lot more money, you know? A big fight. That $5,000 amount doesn’t even pay for my preparation.”
#4-Ranked welterweight contender Neiman Gracie is set to take on #5-ranked Logan Storley in the main event of Bellator 274 at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino on February 19.
Gracie, a KingsMMA fighter, holds an MMA record of 11-2 with 9 submission wins. His last fight at Bellator 266 was his first TKO victory. Across the cage from Gracie will be Logan Storley, who holds an MMA record of 12-1 with 8 KOs.
The winner of this fight could be next in line for a title fight for the 170-pound championship.
The 2022 ADCC West Coast Trials will take place on April 2nd and 3rd at the Westgate Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Registration and tickets are now available on the ADCC website
“THE ROAD TO ADCC 2022 STARTS HERE. Registration for The west coast trials is underway, don’t miss your chance to win an invite. ADCC Trials will be hosted in Las Vegas, April 2/3, 2022 at the Westgate Resort. Discounted hotel rooms are also available at the Westgate.
For more information on registration and discounted hotel rooms, visit www.ADCC-official.com”
Perhaps one of the most shocking submissions of the 2021 has now earned the title ‘Submission of the Year’ from Ariel Helwani and ‘The MMA Hour’.
In February of 2021 at UFC 258, Anthony Hernandez earned a Performance of the Night bonus when he submitted Rodolfo Vieira late in the 2nd round via arm-in guillotine. The fight’s outcome was completely unexpected as Vieira came in as a -470 favorite, and the odds of Hernandez winning by submissions sat at +3000. The loss also marked the first time an ADCC World Champion was submitted in the UFC.
Vieira started the fight well, bringing it to the ground and attacking submissions right from the start. Hernandez was able to survive long enough to get back to his feet, at which point he started chipping away at Vieira with powerful and accurate strikes. By the end of round 1, Vieira was completely gassed out and had taken a lot of damage. Round 2 wasn’t any better for Vieira and resulted in more shots to the head until Hernandez locked an arm-in guillotine, sat into guard, and got the tap.
Check out the replay on ESPN+ and see the rest of the 2021 awards for ‘The MMA Hour’ on
After surviving the first round, @Ilovebamf just submitted multiple-time BJJ world champion Rodolfo Viera
Dean Lister, one of the most notable names in all the combat sports, has officially joined the ADCC Hall of Fame.
The announcement comes via Instagram post on ADCC’s page,
“ADCC Hall of Fame: 3X champion Dean Lister. Dean has the highest submission rate in ADCC, a staggering 84% and achieved the ADCC triple crown(winning division, absolute and superfight). Dean was a pioneer of leg locks(why would you ignore 50% of the body?).”
Lister also fought in the UFC and gained a professional MMA record of 13-7 with 11 submission victories. He defeated Jean Jacques Machado in a 2005 ADCC superfight and defeated Rodolfo Vieira in 2011 via heel hook.
He joins the Hall of Fame ranks among Royler Gracie, Braulio Estima, Kyra Gracie, Ricardo Arora, Marcelo Garcia, Andrè Galvao, and Roger Gracie.
A 49-year old white belt was on vacation with his wife in Mexico when they encountered a group of pickpocketers. Using his jiu-jitsu, he was able to stop one of the thieves, contact police, and ultimately receive his wallet back.
Reddit user u/wodan_cat made a post to the subreddit r/bjj,
“Short video (my wife only caught the end):
Full Story (Cross-Posted to Mexico City – Safety):
First of all – Mexico City is an Amazing City – and we will definitely be back!
It is generally safe, but we had a run-in with petty theft:
This unfortunate man is part of a network of at least 4 thieves who stole my wife’s wallet from her bag, while we were seated at a cafe in Roma, Mexico City. They did the old pass-around, and I was certain that one of the female thieves had the wallet, but I was not sure how it would look if I had dragged her to the ground, so this man had to suffer.
We did NOT press charges – mainly because we felt sorry for this man. Petty criminals do not bother me as much as the truly evil people in the world, who are doing much worse things than this man (stealing wallets with no cash in them, and soon-to-be-canceled credit cards).
Also, he thought he was dying – you can hear me telling him “It’s okay,” over and over – and even patting him on his lower back at the very end. I wanted him to know that better days were in front of him.
He just picked the wrong targets. I look like just a normal dude. My wife also does martial arts – I just got to him first.
I’m only a white belt in BJJ (I have a higher belt in another martial art), but even I know that a better head-and-arm choke position would be for me to use my head to press his own deltoid against the carotid artery on that side, but he was bleeding from the mouth, and I was comfortable holding him with my head at that distance. In addition, I wanted him to maintain consciousness, so that the police could ask him about the wallet. Also, I didn’t want to get more blood and dust on my stylish jacket.
We also did not press charges because we got the wallet back! Here’s how it happened:
Another patron of the cafe (I got the story directly from him afterward) followed one of the other thieves and saw her get into a waiting Mazda. He gave the license plate number to la policia, who found the car on a security camera, and saw her throw the wallet out of the car, tied up in a black plastic bag. La policia retrieved this bag, and returned our wallet to us within 45 minutes. Bravo private citizen! Bravo Departamento de Policía de la Ciudad de México División Roma! Muchas Gracias!
My wife knew something wasn’t right about the three thieves sitting next to us. Always trust your intuition! The cafe staff alerted us to what was really going on in this confusing situation, and really helped us out. Thank you to the amazing staff at the Boicot Cafe!
If you are considering visiting Mexico City, definitely do so! I know I will be back. I was never afraid for my personal safety.
99.9 % of the people will look out for you! They are the most polite and courteous people I have ever met, and the food is outstanding!
2021 ended with a massive upset as UFC’s Sean Brady earned a judge’s decision victory over Craig Jones.
As the match began, Jones sat on guard and was able to get into a closed guard at one point. Just about the rest of the match displayed Jones’ z-guard with a high shield as Brady attempted to pass but never could. Neither fighter had any sweeps, takedowns, passes, or submission attempts. FURY Grappling 3’s rules didn’t allow for heel hooks in bouts with UFC fighters, so a big part of Jones’ game was taken away. In the end, it was Brady’s top position that earned the upset victory.
Brady, a black belt under Daniel Gracie, spoke to his hometown of Philadelphia after the win, “Craig’s the best grappler in the world, you know. I’m a jiu-jitsu guy but I’m a MMA guy, too. So I just wanted to use my pressure, use my top game…. I’m so happy to be here in front of my fans in Philly. No matter what, Craig Jones is great but I wasn’t losing in my hometown.“
The undefeated @UFC welterweight @SeanBradyMMA earns the judges decision!
Carla Esparza is taking a last-minute call to face Danielle Kelly at FURY Grappling 3.
The replacement comes as Rose Namajunas is out of the match due to COVID protocols. Esparza, a brown belt in BJJ, is the former UFC and Invicta Strawweight Champion.
Kelly responded to the change in opponent with a simple post on Instagram, “new opponent same goal…”
Esparza expressed her gratitude for the opportunity in her own post, “Philly here we come! Excited for this last-minute opportunity to compete in the main event for @furygrappling! Lesssss go!”
Fury’s biggest event of the year also added Philip Rowe vs. Jonathan Piersma and Gillian Robertson vs. Chrissy Briggs to the card. The full lineup is now:
Danielle Kelly vs. Carla Esparza
Sean Brady vs. Craig Jones
Joe Solecki vs. Donald Cerrone
Clay Guida vs. Billy Quarantillo
Chase Hooper vs. Renato Moicano
Nicky Rod vs. Steve Mowry
Kevin Holland vs. Kody Hamrah
Neil Magny vs. Joaquim Silva
Philip Rowe vs. Jonathan Piersma
Alex Caceres vs. Eddy Torres
Phil Hawes vs. Andre Petroski
Gillian Robertson vs. Chrissy Briggs
Matt Pontano vs. Eiad Kassis
Ryot Quinn vs. Brayden Cain
The event streams on UFC Fight Pass on December 30 at 4:30 p.m. PT
EBI Is back for 2022 and they’ve dropped their first promo video for the Welterweight event.
The video is featured on the @ebiofficial Instagram account. The post stated that the event will feature the Ruotolo Brothers, Nicky Ryan, Oliver Taza, Dante Leon and more.
The event will be streamed exclusively on UFC Fight Pass. The exact date hasn’t been announced.
Royler Gracie has officially joined the ranks of the ADCC’s Hall of Fame.
He was the first person in ADCC history to win a division 3-times in a row(1999, 2000, and 2001) and is credited as the first ADCC 66kg superstar. He also won Pan-Ams in ‘97 and ‘99 and IBJJF Worlds in ‘96, ‘97, ‘98, and ‘99.
He has been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since he was 3 years old and learned from his father(Helio Gracie), brothers and cousins. He is a 7th Degree Coral Belt and has co-authored 3 BJJ books. His illustrious career includes 20+ years of grappling at the black belt level and 11 professional MMA fights.
Gordon Ryan has addressed the inappropriate comments he made about Erberth Santos’ young daughter, calling them “fair play” due to comments that Santos has made about Ryan’s girlfriend and late father.
Days ago, Santos shared a screenshot on his Instagram story appearing to show a conversation between himself and Ryan on the app. In the screenshot, Ryan had shared a photo of Santos’ toddler, Eloa, which had been cropped from one of Santos’ recent Instagram posts. Below the photo, Ryan wrote, “She’s cute” and then, “Nice ***”.
Santos responded to the messages in Portuguese, saying, “Do you like kids, then?” and, “Here in Brazil, whoever does that doesn’t last very long!”
When the Jiu-Jitsu Times reached out to Ryan for comment, he replied, “Use whatever you’d like. People will just spin it however they want anyway. Every major story ever released about me ends up turning into something that it wasn’t even close to in the first place. This will be no different. I’m sure you guys will storm up a nice clickbait headline.”
Ryan addressed the screenshot, which was shared by BJJ World, in a comment on Instagram:
“Just to put this in context everyone so you don’t get your panties In a bunch, I don’t talk about people [sic] families unless they open that door. Erberth has said on multiple occasions on public comment sections that if I ever came to Brazil he would shoot me in the head and rape nat [Santoro] on top of my dead body. He was making fun of big gord the week he died and said I would be visiting him soon, implying I was gonna get killed, so I told him I’d bang his daughter when she turned 18. I think that’s fair play. Ps- if you think I’d ever comment this seriously abour [sic] a kid, you’re a different level of stupid.”
The comments that Ryan references come from since-deleted Instagram posts by Santos, one of which said, “Soon your son will visit you” over a post of Ryan kissing his late father’s head at his funeral. Santos’ post was shared just days after the passing of Ryan’s father.
Tom DeBlass also shared his thoughts on Ryan’s comments to Santos in reply to another Instagram user:
“I think gordon was a fkin moron for saying that (if he said it)imstill holding onto hope it was photoshopped and he isn’t that stupid. I literally can’t fathom it. I also remember thinking that eberth [sic] should [coffin emoji] when he threatened to r*pe nat on top of big Gords dead body. I think eberth [sic] deserves no respect, yet gordon saying this is literally the most mind boggling and ridiculously stupid thing he could have said. It’s simply not justified. Does he feel that was [sic] truly? No, he said it to bother eberth [sic], but i can think of 28282 better ways to get eberth [sic] back.”
Ryan has not said anything to indicate that the screenshots have been digitally altered.
After another Instagram user expressed concerns about Ryan’s comments, Ryan responded by telling him to “try not to be so offended.” He then stated that “pedophiles should die” in response to another comment on the same thread.
The Jiu-Jitsu Times has also reached out to Erberth Santos for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
2021 is closing out with one of the year’s most notable grappling cards at FURY Grappling 3 on December 30th.
The card has officially added Sean Brady vs. Craig Jones and Clay Guida vs. Billy Quarantillo to their event. Sean Brady is currently ranked 9th in the UFC’s Welterweight Division with 2 submission wins. Craig Jones is coming off of a Combat Jiu-Jitsu victory over Donald Cerrone as he continues to cement his name as one of the best grapplers in the world.
Fury Grappling 3 is already stacked with multiple UFC names, including a headlining match-up between Rose Namajunas and Danielle Kelly. As it currently stands, the card features:
Rose Namajunas vs. Danielle Kelly
Sean Brady vs. Craig Jones
Clay Guida vs. Billy Quarantillo
Kevin Holland vs. Kody Hamrah
Eddy Torres vs. Alex Caceres
Neil Magny vs. Joaquim Silva
Chase Hooper vs. Renato Moicano
Nicky Rodriguez vs. Steve Mowry
Andre Petroski vs. TBA
Pat Sabatini vs. TBA
Catch FURY Grappling 3 on UFC Fight Pass December 30th at 6:30pm ET.
‘Car Jitsu’, a niche style of submission wrestling that takes place within a midsize sedan, is making its way to the US.
‘Car Jitsu’ was created in Russia by Vik Mikheev, whose YouTube channel has dozens of videos of matches with nearly 2 million total views. Mikheev is an MMA fighter, a black belt in judo and BJJ, and holds a Ph.D. in Math. He envisions ‘Car Jitsu’ as a way to develop jiu-jitsu for smaller spaces.
“In 2020, I came up with the idea of doing competitive grappling in vehicles.” Mikheev notes, “Since October of 2020, I and my friends run small tournaments of Car Jitsu to study the aspects of jiu-jitsu application in such a confined space.“
Nick Turnbo isn’t your garden variety combat athlete. Born with cerebral palsy, a motor disability that affects his strength and balance – in Turnbo’s case, primarily his legs, which necessitates the use of a walker – he’s no stranger to training through adversity. “He’s a survivor,” says Turnbo’s mother, Patty. “He’s twenty-three now, and he’s been working hard and surviving his whole life.”
These days, Turnbo does a whole lot more than just survive. He’s been thriving on the local tournament circuit in competitive jiu-jitsu, claiming a gold medal this November at an American Grappling Federation event, where he won his match by submission with an Americana arm lock. “I felt confident that I was going to win,” Turnbo tells the Jiu-Jitsu Times. “I went for an omoplata, but when the guy started to roll out of it, I caught his leg, got back on top of him, and went into mount.” Taking advantage of the dominant position, Turnbo was careful to maintain his balance, despite his opponent’s best efforts to escape. Shortly after, Turnbo locked up the Americana and earned the tap – along with his latest medal.
Turnbo’s most recent AGF win isn’t the athlete’s first rodeo either – he entered his first tournament all the way back in 2017, where he also won his division by submission. “I was kind of nervous going in,” he confesses, “but then I won by bow and arrow choke! I didn’t get all the details perfectly right – I’d just learned that submission two days [before the tournament], but it worked. The organizers of the tournament wound up including my bow and arrow choke in their highlight reel, which they posted on YouTube.” Grinning, he adds, “Now, every tournament, I try to do a different submission.”
Turnbo has only grown as a jiu-jitsu athlete in the years since that unconventional bow and arrow submission – he’s worked hard at improving both his takedown game and his ability to apply pressure to his opponents – but he’s always been all-in on the mats. Currently a three-stripe blue belt under Rickson Gracie black belt Professor Rodrigo Vaghi, Turnbo started his training under Team Vaghi affiliate Mike Rogers at St. Charles MMA, who eventually recommended that Turnbo train directly under Vaghi after seeing how seriously Turnbo was taking his jiu-jitsu career.
“Team Vaghi is unique,” says Turnbo’s mother. “They’ve been around for so long, they already know what a lot newer jiu-jitsu gyms still need to realize – which is that jiu-jitsu really is for everybody. You don’t have to have an able body to do it. Someone can come in with a disability, and be able to do this. [Team Vaghi] helps everyone who’s there realize that you can enjoy yourself – you don’t just have to sit at home.”
Turnbo’s training schedule is intense. He trains an hour each week with strength and conditioning coach Brian Fitzmaurice to improve balance and leg strength; in addition, he takes jiu-jitsu class twice a week for two hours each, including both instructional and sparring time. On days that he isn’t training with Fitzmaurice or on the mats, Turnbo is hard at work at home doing his own strengthening and stretching exercises. It’s a routine that might seem grueling even to most able-bodied athletes, but Turnbo embraces the regimen wholeheartedly, eagerly explaining the ways that his jiu-jitsu practice has improved his overall well-being. “I concentrated a lot on stretching when I was growing up,” says Turnbo, “but through training in jiu-jitsu, I’ve found that strengthening my legs and core are what really help my balance. It also keeps my muscles loose.”
As an athlete affected by cerebral palsy, Turnbo finds creative ways to accommodate his physical disability on the mats. Because cerebral palsy primarily affects his lower body, the ground-based nature of jiu-jitsu has, in many ways, proven itself the ideal martial art for Turnbo, who can play off his back through clever modifications and apply his comparatively powerful upper body strength.
“In some ways, the cerebral palsy ends up being an advantage,” says Turnbo, “since it means my movement on the ground is unconventional, so opponents don’t always know how to deal with it.”
Despite his own myriad accomplishments, Turnbo is more eager to talk about – and shout out – the remarkable network of martial arts and physical fitness professionals who have supported Turnbo’s jiu-jitsu career since its inception. He credits Vaghi, Rogers, and Fitzmaurice with going above and beyond to help him develop a jiu-jitsu game that not only accommodates his disabilities but also enables him to best able-bodied athlete in competition. Turnbo also considers Rodrigo Vaghi’s black belt Professor Todd Fox a longtime mentor. “[Fox] has all of the qualities I strive for,” says Turnbo. “I am inspired by his commitment, and do not believe I would have achieved so much without his guidance.” In his spare time, Turnbo has been reading Fox’s nonfiction book on self-defense, Protection For and From Humanity.
Turnbo has also bonded with luminaries in the world of combat sports, including UFC star Michael Chandler, a fellow alumnus of Turnbo’s alma mater, Northwest High School. After seeing all the memorabilia at the high school showing off Chandler’s wrestling accomplishments – and seeing how far a fellow hometown boy could go – Turnbo was inspired to take his grappling game to the next level. Turnbo finally got the chance to meet his hero at Thoroughbred Wrestling Academy in 2015. Ever since, Chandler has kept in touch with Turnbo, even taking time out of his schedule to catch up over video chats. “He’s a really good guy,” Turnbo says of Chandler. “He worked hard to get where he is, does what he says, and he always follows through.”
Turnbo also sees support and frequent encouragement from local up-and-coming pro fighter Evan “The Phenom” Elder, who met Turnbo via fights at nearby MMA promotion Shamrock FC. Fighting out of Sanford MMA, Elder is currently undefeated, boasting an impressive 7-0 record, but is never too busy to spend time with Turnbo. Turnbo once asked, a little nervously, “If you make it to the UFC, are you still going to talk to me?” Elder’s response was an enthusiastic affirmative.
Jiu-jitsu and MMA aren’t Turnbo’s only athletic passions either. A true multi-sport athlete and die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fan, Turnbo also plays baseball with Challenger Baseball. While baseball and combat sports might not initially appear to have much in common, Turnbo is quick to compare the camaraderie of his baseball team with the social bonds he’s built at Team Vaghi. “We think of jiu-jitsu as an individual sport, but the support from professors and teammates really helps on a mental level,” Turn bo explains. “It’s the social aspect. It’s not about how good you are, it’s about being around people – the camaraderie, the support, the socializing.”
Through his passion for jiu-jitsu, baseball, and sports in general, Turnbo hopes to inspire others to get moving. “Find something you’re passionate about, and do it,” he advises. “Others should not be afraid of people with disabilities. We are not fragile. We are stronger than they think!”
Stay updated on Nick Turnbo’s jiu-jitsu career by following his Instagram and Twitter, or checking out his LinkTree.
Toro Cup is a full day of Jiu-Jitsu superfights in Durham, North Carolina where half of the proceeds earned in ticket sales directly benefit a charity or an individual in need. Toro Cup was founded by active Jiu-Jitsu competitors who saw a demand for local superfights and an opportunity to give back. The event involves top-tier local talent as well as popular competitors in the Jiu-Jitsu scene, including Joao Miyao, Ethan Crelinstein, Nicky Ryan, and UFC MMA flyweight Miranda Maverick. The organization is currently run out of the same facility that houses Cageside MMA and Toro BJJ, which is the predominant leader in producing local Jiu-Jitsu/MMA fight gear.
Competitors apply for a chance to compete on Torocup.com, from where they will be considered for a match. As active competitors, the matchmakers have extensive knowledge of the local, national, and international competitors and pair opponents to ensure matches will be fair, entertaining, and enjoyable for all. The rules format is a timed “submission-only” which transitions directly to points, then over time, where the winner is the first to score. In over 400 matches, there has always been a decisive winner. There are no referee or judge’s decisions. There are title matches for championship belts, cash bonuses for quick submissions and the roars and excitement from the crowd say it all.
The beneficiary for Toro Cup is an organization that holds a special place in the community’s hearts or an individual in the community that has recently endured hardships. Through 18 Toro Cups, the event has donated over $40,000 to various organizations and individuals. Previous beneficiaries include individuals who have battled cancer, suffered strokes, survived domestic violence, veterans, people undergoing financial hardships, as well as organizations like local animal shelters. Toro Cup 19 on February 5th, 2022 will benefit BJJ brown belt, Amber Agee.
Amber recently suffered a catastrophic training injury while preparing for Pans. She will require several surgical procedures due to the severity of the damage to her leg and knee. Amber’s pet grooming business, Pet Provisions, has also been severely affected due to her injury. Not only is Amber a pillar of the local Jiu-Jitsu community and a frequent competitor in the IBJJF, but she has also competed in ten previous Toro Cups, helping to raise money for someone else in need. It is now our turn to help Amber.
Toro Cup would not be possible without the generosity of sponsors, the matchmakers who work diligently to set up matches, the amazing athletes who come together to put on an exciting show, and the spectators who come to support the event. It is incredible to witness the hundreds of people who come together to bring positivity to the local community.
Apply today to sponsor and/or compete in Toro Cup. Attend the events for an opportunity to spend time with the Jiu-Jitsu community while watching exciting matches or tune into the live streams to show support. Follow Toro Cup on social media to stay up to date on fight announcements and exciting updates. The motto and meaning behind every single Toro Cup remain true, even 19 events later, and is what distinguishes it as one of the most honorable competitions to participate in. Live to Roll, and Roll to Give.
ADCC has inducted Braulio Estima,2009 Weight and Open weight champion & super fight champion, to the Hall of Fame list.
He is the 5th grappler to be added, joining Roger Gracie, Andre Galvao, Marcelo Garcia, and Kyra Gracie
It was announced via Instagram post:
ADCC hall of fame: Braulio Estima. Braulio is a 3X ADCC champion, winning double gold in 2009 and then winning an ADCC super fight against Jacare. Braulio’s double gold run in 2009 is arguably the second-best ADDC performance after Roger’s 2005 run.
There are certain topics I repeat to students when I’m teaching the class. One of them is about working on strength, flexibility, and cardio to enhance your jiu-jitsu game. All of them will also keep you healthy or overall and help to prevent injury. Of the three, I emphasize flexibility the most, since it is not actively being practiced in class. You’ll get cardio work during some drills and rolls. There will be some strength work when you roll that will vary for several reasons. Most people tend to use more strength than lower belts when their technique is at a lower level. Also, the smaller partner will be forced to use more strength with larger partners and everyone will use strength when working on submissions such as chokes.
As for flexibility, there isn’t active stretching during a roll. There can be mobility work during some drills that might help, but flexibility is something that is important to practice outside of class. Being flexible can be very beneficial to your game and health. Usually, people tend to think of specific techniques, such as rubber guards, where a certain amount of flexibility is necessary. I speak about many positions where flexibility is involved that students may not realize. Some examples are when your windshield wiper your legs. The more flexible you are the better range you have with the windshield wiper motion. Another example is the mount position. To maximize hip pressure some straddling of your legs is required. Those examples are just two of many positions. With all of the techniques, flexibility will always help. It will also help in keeping your joints more pliable during rolling, hence more resilient to submissions.
When it comes to strength, there is that saying in jiu-jitsu about technique “beating” strength. I definitely agree with learning and using proper technique as opposed to strength, since it is more efficient. My point is that you also want to have strength along with the technique. If you and an opponent have the same level of technique, then the stronger person is going to have the advantage. Keeping your body strong will also help your joints stay strong and more resilient in jiu-jitsu.
Cardio is used most during class but the intensity can naturally vary depending on how you and/or your partner roll. The same is true with drills. The nature of some requires more cardio than others and you and your partner can intentionally control the speed. Cardio is unavoidable in jiu-jitsu, but if it is your weakest link of the three, then you want to put in extra time outside of class.
Training your flexibility, strength, and cardio can be done in the convenience of your own home. Flexibility work can be done anywhere, even if you’re sitting and watching television. There are many forms of cardio that can be done outside or in your home without a machine. As for strength training, you can do plenty even if you don’t have any equipment. There may be fewer options, but push-ups, core work, and lunges are examples that can be done anywhere. There are many more options where are you only need minimal equipment. Look at your strengths and weaknesses of the three mentioned, and create a plan accordingly with emphasis on the weakest. The result is better jiu-jitsu and health!
When we think about the origins of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in the United States, the classic Hermosa Beach garage ran by a young Rorion Gracie is at the forefront of any recollection of jiu-jitsu history. Without its humble beginnings in the Gracie Garage, jiu-jitsu would not be where it is today as a multi-national sport and self-defense system that serves many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, around the globe.
Behind the organic growth that jiu-jitsu was visibly garnering is what many consider an ‘unsung hero,’ the glue that held it all together, the matriarch of the household that built jiu-jitsu in America. We remember Suzanne Gracie as an indispensable part of developing what is now modern-day Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, not because she had the fiercest triangle choke on the block, but because as Rorion taught upwards of 12 hours a day in his garage, Suzanne was busy running the household and raising five kids, all of whom would play major roles in the growth of the art taking after their father.
Suzanne recently passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her children after an aggressive bout with cancer. At a belt promotion ceremony the previous week, her second eldest son Rener shared these emotional reflections on her life:
She is survived by her children Ryron, Rener, Ralek, Sage, and Reylan, her 10 grandchildren (Rylan, Rakai, Valyn, Vemma, Raeven, Alua, Faro, Renson, Rovan, Rocqlan), and her husband, Mark. Besides her cherished role of raising her children and grandchildren and her career in real estate, she was also pivotal in establishing the roots of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the United States. She enjoyed her weekly walks on the beach and the family has recently set up a GoFundMe ( CLICK HERE ) to raise money for a bench in her memory to be installed near where she frequented.
On a personal note, I was lucky enough to share a dinner table with Suzanne and a few others at the 2015 Gracie Academy Holiday Party. I could not have been more impressed with the grace with which she carried herself, the kindness she exhibited in holding a candid conversation with a complete stranger such as myself, and the unwavering love and pride that she had for all her children and grandchildren. Unbeknownst to me at the time, here I was sitting with a woman who had been there every step of the way in developing Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in America, that had lived through the struggle of helping grow a martial art with relatively little traction at the time, and that had a front-row seat from the very inception of critical moments in jiu-jitsu history such as the first UFCs, the Gracie in Action tapes, the original Gracie Academy in Carson, CA, as well as the very birth of industry leaders that play a major role in jiu-jitsu today.
The Jiu-Jitsu Times would like to extend our heartfelt condolences and prayers to the Suzanne’s family and friends. The indispensable contributions to the art we all know and love will not be forgotten or overlooked. Everyone in the jiu-jitsu community should be aware that without Suzanne Gracie, the martial art we know as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu would not be a fraction of what it is today.
Please introduce yourself and please identify yourself with your ancestry. – [ ] My name is Ruben Miribyan, President of the Jiu-Jitsu National Federation of Armenia, – [ ] jiu jitsu black belt from Professor Alberto Crane .
What prompted you to practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
I consider myself a member of the generation that grew up watching Bruce Lee films. During my adult life, I have mastered different martial arts. In the 1980s I took up karate, then taekwondo . Everything changed with the first UFC tournaments when all martial arts fans could actually see and appreciate the real fight, one martial art versus another martial art. Skinny and not very athletic Brazilian guy easily defeated athletes far superior to him in mass and muscle strength, unforgettable feelings. For me personally and for many others in my generation, it was a real revolution, and also at that time we did not have enough information about BJJ even videos to learn the techniques of this amazing martial art. But in Armenia, we have very good sambo, judo and wrestling schools. So for me, it was a smooth transition, from percussion martial arts to wrestling style. After serving in the army I temporarily stopped practicing martial arts but tried to keep fit with strength training. In 2010 one of my close friends and martial arts expert Vahan Tadevosyan, with whom we trained since the early nineties, told me that in Moscow he met with representatives of the Gracie Academy and they have a BJJ self-defense online program. So after a long break at the age of 37 with my old friends, with youthful enthusiasm, I put on a white belt and began to study BJJ. In 2012 we founded the jiu-jitsu national federation and in 2013 invited to Armenia the first jiu-jitsu sensei 3 times world champion Roberto Atalla, the founder of the Rio Grappling Club.
3.Tell us about the current state of jiu-jitsu in Armenia.
Currently, we have three international clubs in Armenia. It’s “Rio Grappling Club Armenia”, as mentioned above, “Legacy BJJ Yerevan team” under my Jiu-Jitsu brother, Professor Alberto Crane, and “Hayastan MMA” under legendary Sensei Gokor Chivichyan. We organized the first tournament in 2017, in addition to our athletes, we also invited sambists and judokas, instructed them, introduced them to the rules, and then we had about 80 90 participants. in 2021, together with the UWW Grappling Federation of Armenia, we organized 3 tournaments, about 400 athletes participated in each tournament. According to the results of the tournaments, a national team was assembled. Also since 2015 our athletes have been participating in international competitions and winning medals. We work with all organizations, clubs, or Individuals that are interested in the development of sports in our country. We are always open to cooperation. Our friends regularly visit Armenia. I like to especially mention the world-famous champion, our compatriot Edwin Najmi, who often shares his invaluable knowledge. Professor Aberto Crane, Judo Sensei Joao de Sousa, legendary Sensei and champions coache Gokor Chivichyan , World champion Arin Adjamian and others. Also recently, at the invitation of the President of Armenia, one of the top athletes of jiu-jitsu all times, Rodger Gracie visited Yerevan to participate in an international conference and conduct seminars.
4.You are the President of Jiu-Jitsu in Armenia, as well as the owner of a gym. What makes Jiu-Jitsu special for you and what motivates you to keep promoting the sport in your country
I believe that jiu-jitsu is one of the most correct paths for self-development. I know this from my own experience. It is an amazing kind of martial art growing all over the world confirms it as extremely positive in all aspects. As I said earlier, in general, the Armenians are quite successful in various martial arts, the past 10 years of our federation show that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has a great future in Armenia. It has already been proven that our athletes, even after short training sessions, can successfully compete in international tournaments. I believe that in the near future World-class champions from Armenia will appear in international competitions. After all, this is a way of life for most of the people who practice BJJ
5. Plans for the future? One of the priority tasks of the federation is, in the first place, the preparation of the trainer in order to open new schools. Opening of new schools in various regions of Armenia. Qualified referees courses. Prepare Yerevan Open 2022 tournament in memory of Garik Arevikyan. Make your own video content with famous athletes and coaches in Armenia and abroad. Another direction is summer camps. Armenia is a mountain country, we have beautiful nature with clean air. Since the time of the Soviet Union, all conditions have been created for camps and training, especially in high-altitude conditions. Jiu-Jitsu unites nations and different religions, so looking forward to meeting you in Armenia. Thank you
UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber has joined CJJW: The Featherweights for a superfight against current champion, Elias Anderson.
The news comes as Rashad Evans has been dropped from the card. The 16-man tournament features Ben Eddy, Michael Wacker, Gabriel Austin Daffron, Zack Schneider, Chris Lencioni, Dillon Masington, Cody Owens, David Weintraub, Jordan Holy, David Acuña, Estevan Martinez, Keith Krikorian, and more.
Stream CJJW: The Featherweights on UFC Fight Pass this Sunday, December 19 at 3 pm PT.
The great-granddaughter of Carlos Gracie Sr. has officially cemented her own legacy into BJJ history by being inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame.
Kyra Gracie is one of only two women in the Gracie family to achieve a black belt in BJJ. She is a 4th degree black belt in BJJ and a black belt in Judo.
The 36-year old is ADCC’s youngest female champion, winning her first at the age of 20. She won ADCC 3 times and never lost a match, with an overall record of 9-0.
The announcement came via Instagram post to ADCC’s page. Gracie’s husband, Brazilian actor Melvin’s Salvador, commented on the post, “Wow! I’m so proud my love! Our kids have a super mom”
Alliance black belt Gabi Garcia has long reigned as a champion among champions. Her retirement from the IBJJF competition – which she announced this weekend at Worlds, no less – will no doubt shake up the women’s jiu-jitsu scene, which Garcia has dominated for years, ruling the absolute weight divisions in particular as a final boss against whom true greatness is tested. In the aftermath of her retirement announcement, the Jiu-Jitsu Times chatted with Garcia regarding her career thus far – and what’s next.
Photo: The Grapple Club
The following interview has been edited for length, grammar, and clarity.
Jiu-Jitsu Times: You announced this weekend during IBJJF Worlds 2021 that you’ll be retiring from IBJJF competition, but will continue to compete at ADCC and in MMA. Why this shift in focus?
Gabi Garcia: Yeah, every year, I try to compete at Worlds. I’d compete this year, maybe next year, and after six years, you know, new generations and everything [have changed] my life. And I realized that if I push for one or two more years, I can compete at the highest level. Everything has changed in my life. I think my jiu-jitsu is a hundred percent better.
After Japan closed the borders, and they pushed my fight again, I called Fábio and asked what he thought about me competing in Worlds, and he said “let’s go, Gabi, let’s go there, you know the way, let’s try.” Fábio always pushes me. He’s always very confident in me. My cardio is good. I train MMA every day, no-gi every day – well not every day, but maybe three days a week, and gi almost every day […] I always compete for myself, for me, never to make other people happy. I compete because I love jiu-jitsu, because I love my job, and I love competing in Worlds. It’s a different feeling.
But I know the way to be a champion, and right now I have my business [and] new projects coming up […] and I need to focus on my students at my school. There are so many things in my life, and I can’t be good at everything, but I always want to give a hundred percent [in what I do]. I have so many gold medals. There are people who talk **** about me, who don’t believe [in me], but I want to show those people who Gabi Garcia is. No one will remember them, but history will remember Gabi. I definitely want to show people that jiu-jitsu is a job – that we make money with jiu-jitsu, that I make a lot of money with jiu-jitsu. I opened my own school, am opening a second school right now, have my own brand. I have so many things in my life, and all of it is because of jiu-jitsu. Everything I have is because jiu-jitsu gave me this opportunity, and I need to show people that it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a guy – it’s possible.
I’m super happy, and thankful to the IBJJF, the Gracie family, and my [jiu-jitsu] lineage for everything. Everything I have right now comes from the gi. I love competing in the gi. I was crying like a baby because I love competing at Worlds, and I love competing for the IBJJF. It’s done there, but it’s not just that I’m focusing on no-gi. It’s not that. There’s a lot of challenges in my life – these past two years, I’ve had depression, I’ve had a lot of personal problems […] and I decided that what makes me happy is to compete. Two weeks ago, I felt almost free of all these problems in my life, and was like, “let’s go, Gabi.”
I want to compete. I want to thank everyone who believes in my career. But right now, I have time to prepare for the ADCC – to rest and eat […] I have new projects, and so many things, but ADCC is my priority. It’s sad, but I need to make the championship now and keep my legacy alive.
Photo: The Grapple Club
JJT: It sounds like you’re hanging up your gi to focus exclusively on no-gi. What kind of changes might this necessitate in your training and strategy?
Garcia: Before, I thought no-gi would be better for me, because the [other] girls can’t hold me, and keep the score at zero-zero. I started training more in no-gi, but I love competing with the gi. I train with the gi every single day. But the training for ADCC is different. It’s brutal. It hurts. […] We train like six hours, and with Marcelo Garcia, with Cobrinha, we train a lot. We hurt a lot […] We need the technique, we need cardio, we need to be in shape. If you start right now, you’d be overtraining by the time ADCC comes. It’s brutal.
Right now, I need rest. I have a lot of injuries, and I need to enjoy [time with] my mom, who’s going to be visiting me here. I have my school, my business, I have other priorities right now. I’m sad for my retirement, but [was] so happy to see everybody stand up [for me]. It’s unbelievable, what happened [when I announced my retirement]. I don’t know how many thousands of messages I received. It’s priceless. I’ve been working toward this day, and I’m super happy. I can’t answer all the messages, but I wanted to say thank you to the whole jiu-jitsu community. I never expected so many messages from my idols. I competed for seventeen years – that’s three or four generations [of competitors] – and I’m so happy, I’m crying. People hated me before, and now I’m receiving so much love. It’s priceless.
For ADCC, everything is different. We need to take care [of ourselves]. It’s not just conditioning, not just going to the gym and training in no-gi. It’s six hours nonstop. We just change clothes and keep training. It hurts a lot. For me, this next year will be different. I need to make history. Everything is okay because the girls think I’m done, but they don’t know what’s happened in my life. I’m glad they think this way. I’m not the same anymore. [Garcia chuckles.]
JJT: Throughout your IBJJF career, you’ve famously matched up against some of the greatest female grapplers in the BJJ world. Which opponents gave you the biggest challenges, and what do you think made them so tough?
Garcia: A hundred percent, Bia Mesquita. We have different sizes, of course, but she’s always at the top with me. […] Right now in the new generation, I think Yara [Soares] is the hardest one. She’s good, and she’s tall, and I’m a big fan of her career. She’s of course one of the girls who beat me […] but she’s super respectful. She’s the one that I hope will be a champion, and keep the legacy going. The legacy, the way I see it, is that people look for the girls because you need to be humble, you know? This new generation has no respect, but I think Yara is good, she’s doing her job, and that’s my opinion. She’s the toughest one right now.
JJT: You’ve conquered multiple world titles in jiu-jitsu. Of all your accomplishments so far, what are you most proud of – and what are you still hoping to achieve in the combat sports world? What do you hope the “Gabi Garcia legacy” will be?
Garcia: My dream was to be a world champion one day, and I’ve won eight professional world championships. I have won so many titles so many times […] and I think people only focused on me because, for ten years, no one scored points on me. […] One day, Nathiely [de Jesus] asked me why I keep competing, what motivates me when most people only dream of winning one ADCC championship. The answer is that I motivate myself. I challenge myself. I break records. I’m not scared of losing one match. People think I’ll die if I lose one match, but no, this happens. I know when I lose. I lost against Yara. She was better than me in the match.
I need one more ADCC. And I need to make my students champions – world champions. I need to keep the Alliance lineage alive.
Photo: The Grapple Club
JJT: We recently saw you play a minor – but very fun! – the villain in Halle Berry’s gritty MMA movie “Bruised.” What was working in Hollywood like, and can we expect to see more film or TV roles from you in the future?
Garcia: It was wonderful for me, working with Halle Berry. She’s so nice, and she’s so humble. I’ve learned a lot with her, like how to be a professional. She’s more than fifty years old, she broke her ribs, she did all these scenes from 4 AM to 11 PM, like twenty-four hours, and she was super professional. She’s so sweet. It’s a pleasure for me, working with her, and this movie opened the door for other ones for me. I need to work on my English, but I’ve received other opportunities, and a hundred percent, you’ll see me in two more movies I have coming up. […] I never thought about movies, or being in front of a camera, but this opened a lot of doors for me.
JJT: Finally, the question that I’m sure everyone wants to know the answer to: do you think we’ll ever see you face off against Craig Jones, as previously suggested? If you did, what kind of strategy would you seek to employ against him?
Garcia: It’s hard to answer, you know because it’s like one fight inside my mind. When I fight MMA, people want entertainment, and now they want this. […] I don’t know if this is good for me or not, but we have offers, and if they pay me well, then yes.
I can’t say I’ll make Craig Jones tap, because I know the reality of a guy against a girl. He’s very technical, but a hundred percent, I’m gonna put a little bit of pressure on him. I’ll have to [watch out for] leg locks because of my ligament. […] I’m a girl, you know, and I have pressure on my shoulders, and if he lost this match, if anything, I’d ask for his retirement from no-gi, because it’s the only thing he does. I never see him in the gi. The difference is that I’m good in both. I’m the best in the world in gi and no-gi. If he retires from no-gi, I don’t know what he’d do in life. When I retire from the gi, I have no-gi, but for him, there are no other options. [Garcia chuckles.]
I want to thank [the Jiu-Jitsu Times] for giving me this opportunity. I just need to say to my fans: thank you so much for your support, for all the messages. You guys make me cry, it’s so much love. History is not about medals. History is about a girl who never gives up. The girl everyone throws stones at, but never gives up. I just need to send this message to people. Working hard doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a guy. Work hard, be honest, and everything will work out for you. Don’t give up. Show people your power.
I showed everyone after seventeen years who I am – who Gabi Garcia is. I never give up. People hated me, and now they stand up for me. I’m super, super, super proud of my career. Proud of my career, and proud of who I am. Everything has been made possible because of my master – thank you, Fábio, I love you. Thank you, guys, I appreciate everything.
Learn more about Garcia’s ongoing career developments and upcoming events by following her on Instagram.
After an amazing performance at IBJJF Worlds 2021, the twins fought each other in the brown belt finals.
Today Tye & Kade Ruotolo has earned their BJJ Black Belt at Atos HQ under Andre Galvao.
The twins posted on Instagram:
“Jiu Jitsu has been in our lives ever since we can remember and after 15 years we have finally made it to black belt
We are super grateful for all of the experiences we’ve had and proud of our accomplishments so far. Thanks to everyone who have been a part of our growth on and off the mats ”
FURY Pro Grappling 3 has booked Danielle Kelly Vs. Rose Namajunas to headline their last event of the year. The card will also include UFC’s Kevin Holland, Chase Hooper, Neil Magny, Sean Brady, Andre Petroski, and Patrick Sabatini.
Danielle Kelly addressed the news in an instagram post, “The rumors are true- I’m competing against 115lb ufc champion @rosenamajunas for @furygrappling December 30th. Thankful for this opportunity to showcase women’s bjj! Welcome to my world””
Alexander Volkanovski has earned his BJJ Black Belt at Freestyle MMA under Joe Lopez.
The promotion comes after Volkanovski recently displayed his guillotine defense on the biggest stage in martial arts against one of the most deadly submission artists in the sport.
The promotion was announced in a post on instagram,
Erin Blanchfield’s win makes for 5 in a row and improves her record to 9-1. She finished the fight with 12:00 of control time and outlanded her opponent in total strikes 96-42, as she worked her way to a single-fight takedown record of 7. She earned the Unanimous Decision victory with all 3 judges scoring the fight 30-27.
Ryan Hall put on a clinic as he grappled his way to a Unanimous Decision victory.
In Round 1, Ryan Hall was relaxed entering with bruises from cupping on his back. The fighters felt each other out for a minute before Hall rolled for a leg and locked an outside ashi, but Minner frees the knee and they both stand up. Hall rolls again, gets Minner’s heel revealed, attempts a heel hook but uses it to come on top. Minner grabs a single leg and Hall sits in full guard, looks for an armbar, Minner backs out and stands up. Big uppercut from minner, hall tries to roll, both stand-up, .heel hook lots of scrambles. Hall on top in half guard. Minner goes to lockdown and holds Hall’s head down to break the posture. Hall lands ground and pound tries to pass. Round ends.
Hall gets rocked. Rolls to leg pops up for triangle, pulls full guard. goes triangle, almost gets an armbar, Minner picks him up and drops him to escape and hall goes back to full guard. locks up triangle, lands vicious elbows. Rolls to an omoplata variation and lands more punch to the head.
Booth announcers praising Hall, DC didn’t know what he was doing.
Round 3
Hall comes out showing off some kicks, Minner rushes with a flurry of punches, Hall rolls, and lands in a triangle. Goes to full guard. Grabs a leg and locks a deep heel hook, can’t get the tap, and comes on top secures a full mount with 3 minutes left in the round. Minner holds Hall down with head and arm control. Hall attempts a head and arm choke.. 130 left in the fight. Hall gets a head and arm choke and keeps landing body shots before locking his hand. Doesn’t go for a choke, just uses position to control. Fans boo.
Overall judges scored it 30-27, 30-27, and 29-27 for a Unanimous Victory. Hall racked up 7 submissions attempts and 5:37 of control time as he outscored Minner 163 to 56 in total strikes.
The Ruotolo Brothers delivered on their promise to not close out at IBJJF Worlds this Friday, as they faced each other in the championship round of the brown belt division.
The twins stayed true to their exciting styles and didn’t hold back at all, putting on a show for fans. Tye was able to secure the gold with a win over Kade via Armbar.
It has become common practice for two grapplers of the same team to “close out” a division if they make it to the finals together. That is, they agree upon who the winner is and don’t actually compete for the finals. Many spectators and competitors have spoken against this practice, including the Ruotolo Brothers.
Yvone Magalhães Duarte is a woman who should need no introduction. One of the earliest documented pioneers in women’s jiu-jitsu according to an extensive research project by BJJ Heroes, Duarte is not only Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s first female black belt – as of 2021, she’s also the sport’s first female coral belt. This week, the Jiu-Jitsu Times was granted the tremendous opportunity to chat with Duarte about her iconic career on and off the mats.
Please note that the following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Jiu-Jitsu Times: Let’s start with your early days in martial arts. You began training jiu-jitsu in the late 70s and early 80s when very few women were on the mats, and before many people outside of Brazil had even heard of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. What was the first thing that appealed to you about the art, and did that change all over time?
Yvone Duarte: The movement of the bodies, the plasticity of the fight, caught my attention. The first time I saw jiu-jitsu was during a championship. On the tatami, Sergio Penha and Rickson Gracie were fighting. I saw how the possibility of winning or losing was intrinsically linked, and that both the near-victory and the near-defeat could be reversed in seconds.
The concentration of the athletes caught my attention, [their] look transforming during combat, subtracting something human and emerging [as] something transcendental. At the same time, [I saw] what is all too human coming to the surface: exhaustion, fear, strength, sweat – and on the other side, the resistance, the overcoming, the patience of the samurai trying to transcend.
Throughout my practice, I was trying to understand what that movement represented, that chessboard being played with bodies commanded by intelligence, emotional control, skills, and the fighting spirit of each player. I was [incorporating] the values and principles, improving techniques, and many of my first impressions naturally changed.
The power of jiu-jitsu lies strictly in the daily practice, in seeing your limits, possibilities, and abilities, in an intense and laborious process that can improve your emotional structure and allow you to change paradigms, which will certainly lead to good results for all dimensions of life.
JJT: According to BJJ Heroes, in addition to being Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s very first female coral belt, you were also the sport’s first female black belt – promoted to the rank in 1990, well before most women even involved themselves regularly in jiu-jitsu, much less advanced through the higher ranks. Were you determined from the start of your jiu-jitsu career to achieve such heights? What motivated you?
Duarte: When I was a child, I practiced other sports. I already competed and liked challenges. In jiu-jitsu, after some time of training, I wanted to experience the efficiency of fighting. I didn’t think I would win the first championship; I was still stuck to the paradigm of “the strongest, the biggest, and the heaviest win the fights,” the street fights. It was necessary to experience [fighting] in order to convince myself, in practice, that jiu-jitsu has indeed transformed this maxim forever.
JJT: Your brother is a fellow coral belt, Pascoal Duarte. How did he feel about his sister getting involved in jiu-jitsu? Did he encourage you?
Duarte: My brother, Pascoal Duarte, introduced me to jiu-jitsu, and was always by my side in fights, in the gym, in life. He was the one who deciphered jiu-jitsu for me, and showed me how jiu-jitsu transforms us from the inside, giving us other psychosocial abilities.
My brother would prepare my afternoon vitamin; he would take me to the beach, to shows, to the most incredible outings in Rio de Janeiro. I always felt safe walking in Rio. I developed this feeling of security from his care: from the self-defense tips that he gave me, from the idea he already had that a woman needs – and can have – autonomy.
JJT: Did your teacher, Master Osvaldo Alves, ever offer you any particularly memorable advice as you advanced through your jiu-jitsu career?
Duarte: Osvaldo Alves, my master, was always a great motivator. He liked to see the lighter and smaller athletes winning the internal challenges in the academy […] His advice had two fundamental points: do not get complacent; do not play to win, play to finish.
JJT: As early as the 1980s, you were already campaigning for women to compete in jiu-jitsu tournaments. Do you remember what your first tournament was like, or who your toughest matches were?
Duarte: I prepared for the first women’s tournament in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which was the epicenter of [Brazilian jiu-jitsu]. With daily classes of 3 to 4 hours, it was very exhausting. I did 3 fights in my 52kg weight class and then I fought the absolute.
Note from JJT:Here, Duarte includes a quote from her brother, coral belt master Pascoal Duarte, who recalls the following memory regarding his sister’s first tournament:
“The first time I saw Yvone competing was in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, in an all-female championship. I had followed her in training and knew that she was well prepared technically and physically. Moments before the first fight, I was by her side. She was accepted in her category and in the absolute category. She was wearing a kimono, just waiting to be called, and I was looking around for the opponents. I felt as nervous, if not more nervous than if I was going to fight myself.
“When I found the opponents, I soon realized that they were bigger and stronger than Yvone.
I did not say anything to her, but she read my mind. She looked at me and said one of the phrases we learned on the streets of Boa Vista, our childhood town:
‘Brother, that is… only big enough. You will see!’
“In the first fight Yvone finished her opponent in less than three minutes, starting a historical trajectory, fighting in the weight and absolute, and becoming an undefeated champion for two decades, in the ’80s and ’90s.”
JJT: What was it like starting your own jiu-jitsu team? What were the greatest challenges and the greatest rewards?
Duarte: Life kept giving me opportunities to train, fight in championships, and advance in belt rankings, and consequently the time [came for me to pass on] some of the knowledge I had accumulated. When I moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, I received invitations to teach at the Police Academy and at four other academies in the city. After I was promoted to black belt, I created my own team. Today I have students giving classes and who continue to practice good jiu-jitsu.
JJT: Between being both Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s first female black belt and its first female coral belt, you’re a true pioneer for women in the art. Do you have a particular accomplishment you look back on as your greatest achievement in jiu-jitsu?
Duarte: I consider it important to have been able to [set forth] the first jiu-jitsu championships, having managed to overcome the barrier of placing women’s divisions in the state and national championships in 1985. I didn’t do it alone; my friends […] such as Marina Alcântara, Jeane Xaud, Laila Zalfa, Fernanda Bulhões, Ana Maria D’Ávila are also responsible for this achievement. They were also the ones who fought in the first championship at Tijuca Tennis Club. I prepared myself, but my son was born before [I could fight], and I was replaced by my cousin, also from the team, who had an excellent fight and finished her opponent.
Another issue that brings me a mix of concern and satisfaction is the link I have been trying to build between self-defense and fighting violence against women and the LGBTQ+ community. I find it satisfying to have created classes in public universities so that low-income people who are threatened by – or victims of – violence can practice jiu-jitsu, especially self-defense. In addition to the National University of Brasilia and the Federal University of Roraima, I have sought to expand this project, and right now I am [discussing the project] with the Federal University of Bahia.
I am concerned about the very high rates of violence against women and [the LGBTQ+ community] in Brazil. So we can’t be complacent; we have to insert jiu-jitsu in a wide network of protection to these [communities]. We will not solve the problem alone, without public policies, but jiu-jitsu needs to call itself to this challenge, which belongs to all practitioners of any martial art. And fighting against cowards, aggressors, abusers, and rapists is a great battle!
JJT: Are there any passions and interests outside of jiu-jitsu you’re engaged in now that you’d like to share with us?
Duarte: I am a woman in love with life. I love spending time in the Amazon region, more specifically in the streams and rivers of my childhood, the Caracaranã Lake and the Cotingo River. I miss my backyard, the backyard of my godmother Yeda, worlds shared with my cousins Hadime, Jeane, and Haron Xaud.
I have a passion for samba, maracatu, xote, the pandeiro, the atabaques, the moonlit violas, Brazilian popular music, the poetry of Manoel de Barros and Carlos Drummond de Andrade; I have a passion for the Chapada dos Veadeiros, where I met the love of my life; I have passion for my country of the river, beach, Amazon, [and] this country of ethnic [and] cultural diversity. Do you know it? Come and get to know it!
You can find out more about Yvone Duarte’s ongoing projects, passions, and accomplishments on Instagram.
ADCC double gold champ Gordon Ryan has been approved to compete in the 99+ division at ADCC 2022.
Ryan has previously competed and won, at 88kg, 99kg, and absolute. This will be his first ADCC at 99+.
The bracket will supplement his super fight against Hall of Famer, Andre Galvao.
ADCC Head Organizer Mo Jassim(@mojassim80) commented on the post, “Just a few points. 1.) This has never been requested before. 2.) While the ADCC Absolute has always been on Sunday, the super fight used to be held on Saturday. I know personally of 2 people who asked to enter the absolute in the same ADCC and it was voted down since if they won we would have the same superfight next ADCC. 3.) I think Gordon is crazy to do both. 4.) This was approved by the ADCC bosses. 5.) 99+ kg could have a historic 5 ADCC champions in it.”
Content warning: The following article contains graphic accounts of sexual assault.
Marcel Goncalves, Fight Sports, and Roberto “Cybog” Abreu have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Goncalves’ alleged victim, according to a press release sent to the Jiu-Jitsu Times.
The lawsuit was filed in connection with the 2018 arrest of Goncalves, who was charged with felony sexual assault after being accused of having a sexual relationship with “Jane Doe,” who was sixteen at the time. Goncalves was released on bond, and in August 2021, Abreu and Fight Sports black belt Vagner Rocha released statements after it was revealed they’d had further interactions with Goncalves since his arrest. In September, Goncalves failed to appear for a mandatory court date, and abench warrant was issued for his arrest.
The alleged victim is represented by attorneys Michelle Simpson Tuegel (who represented multiple US gymnasts in the Larry Nassar case), Mark O’Mara, and Andrew Dao.
According to the lawsuit, Goncalves and “Jane” were alone at his home when he allegedly assaulted her “under the guise of a massage.” Goncalves, who at the time was a trusted family friend of the alleged victim and her father, is said to have sexually assaulted “Jane” the next night and “every weekend for months” in the academy formerly known as Fight Sports Naples, as well as in his car in Naples and Miami, per the lawsuit. The press release also states that, at least once, “Goncalves wrapped a seatbelt around [the] plaintiff’s neck while he assaulted her, making it difficult for her to breathe.”
The lawsuit also cites a complaint by a woman who claims that she was assaulted by a fellow attendee at a 2016 Fight Sports training camp in Brazil. The woman first told her story to ADCC promotor Mo Jassim, and the New York Times later published her account in a comprehensive story that also includes details of the Goncalves case and Mandy Schneider‘s accusations against Rodrigo Oliveira.
“As a result of this horrific abuse of power by a coach our client trusted, [Jane] has suffered extreme physical, mental, and emotional harm and she left a sport she loved and excelled at. While Marcel Gonçalves committed these despicable acts, Abreu and Fight Sports enabled the abuse and failed to ensure the safety of the minors under their care. We sadly expect there are other victims in this sport, and we would encourage them to report the abuse so the adults who failed to protect minor athletes are held accountable,” said Simpson Tuegel.
The Jiu-Jitsu Times has reached out to Abreu for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
ADCC has inducted Ricardo Arona, 4x Champion, to the Hall of Fame list.
He is the 4th grappler to be added, joining Roger Gracie, Andre Galvao, and Marcelo Garcia.
Arona has won the 99kg division twice, the absolute division once, and won a super fight against Mark Kerr. His undefeated ADCC record of 13-0 boasts wins over notable grapplers such as Jean Jacques Machado, Vítor Belfort, Tito Ortiz,
In MMA, Arona fought with the Brazilian Top Team and held a record of 14-5 with 2 wins by submission. He fought in PRIDE and held the Middleweight Title in RINGS. He holds wins over Wanderlei Silva, Dean Lister, and Dan Henderson.
Nate Diaz has earned his 3rd Degree stripe on his BJJ Black Belt.
The ceremony was held with Cesar and is so Renzo Gracie in attendance.
Diaz, a black belt under Cesar Gracie, started training jiu-jitsu 22 years ago when he was 14 years old. He will be eligible for his 4th degree in 5 more years.
If you’re reading this article, you most likely do jiu-jitsu or are thinking about joining. A piece of advice to keep in mind is to be aware of learning how you learn and using several methods to learn jiu-jitsu. I competed in gymnastics and track when I was a kid, so those are the only sports references I can personally use. I often tell students that everyone knows how to run, yet they will be taught techniques on track to improve their running. As for gymnastics, it is not typical to join and automatically know how to flip without plenty of learning (although those people do exist). I use gymnastics as the analogy to jiu-jitsu. It needs to be broken down in detail to grasp the techniques and takes time to learn.
In all of my years of teaching, I have learned that paying attention is half the battle. It is extremely common for your mind to drift for a moment or to be distracted by something in your life and simply miss what is being said. Once you are fully paying attention, you need to know how you learn best. Since there are four limbs involved with the technique, you can’t be focusing on both arms and legs at the same time. I remember being so focused on the arms and then we are about to drill and I wouldn’t have any idea what happened with the legs or vice versa. Now when I’m teaching, I show the arms first, then the legs, then repeat the technique with both.
I’m big on asking questions. If your instructor asks if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask! Most of the time others are thinking the same. It will give you the clarity you need. If your instructor asks if you need to see the technique again, say yes if you do even if you are the only one.
Being that there are so many movements and each with a name, the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic are all involved. You’ll be able to assess which one helps the most. I know people who can watch videos and easily learn that way and others who don’t. I’ve realized that when I’m learning something new, certain moves feel more natural than others. How they feel is how I choose which techniques I want to add to my game. Some feel as though I can pull them off live with much fewer reps than other moves. Many times, it is because of former sports and similar movements. I use that to my advantage when adding to my game.
Using a jiu-jitsu journal can help you learn by committing it to memory. When you write something down, you tend to remember it more than if you didn’t. You can also go back and reread to memorize it especially if it is challenging to remember the names. The same can be done with videos to help remember. A combination of both is ideal to reinforce the visual movement with the names of the techniques. Of course, drilling is most important and required to solidify the technique into your muscle memory. When you don’t have the option to drill, then utilize your journal and videos to do mental drills. Learning what works best for you will only enhance your game and help you grasp new techniques quicker.
Kade Ruotolo of Atos Jiu-Jitsu has announced that he’s open to facing off against twin brother Tye Ruotolo in the finals of their division at the IBJJF Worlds 2021. In an interview with FloGrappling, posted to YouTube on December 1, 2021, Kade quickly rejects the notion of closing out with his twin: “We’re so against closing out, you know, we’re not down to close out.” Kade promises a “war” if he and Tye meet in the finals, explaining, “If you close out, there’s no winner, you know? I feel like the third place is the winner if there’s a closeout… so we’ll definitely make sure to scrap it out in the final if we make it there.” With a grin, he adds, “Or when we make it there.”
Although both brothers politely demurred when the Jiu-Jitsu Times approached them for further comment on the matter, it’s not hard to believe in the potential for a war there – just sneak a peek at FloGrappling’s footage of the twins’ playful yet highly aggressive garage grappling battles. These two are clearly no strangers to going up against each other, and going hard. As Grappling Insider’s Ben Coate observes, the twins favor an athletic and submission-oriented style that tends to be a crowd-pleaser – whether sparring with each other, or facing down opponents with a medal on the line – and have already showcased impressive performances in other major competitions this year, including WNO championship wins for both brothers.
For newcomers to sport jiu-jitsu, “closeouts” occur when members of the same team are matched up against one another in the finals of a tournament, and elect not to fight it out. Instead, one competitor – usually the more junior – forfeits, taking second place on the podium, and essentially allowing their teammate to win gold by default. Closeouts are a longstanding tradition on the competitive jiu-jitsu circuit, particularly in the more highly visible levels of the sport. This past year alone, another set of twin jiu-jitsu phenoms, Paulo and João Miyao, closed out the black belt light-feather division at IBJJF Masters Worlds, with Paulo taking gold and his brother silver. Similarly, the legendary Wellington “Megaton” Dias won gold in his division after Gracie Humaitá teammate Ricardo Guimarães conceded to a closeout.
The reasoning behind the closeout tradition is manifold: some proponents argue that closing out prevents bad blood and petty rivalries from erupting between teammates. Others worry that the prospect of competing against a teammate in the finals might damage valuable training partnerships, while some simply claim that closeouts are a symbolic display of unity and strength as a team. That said, closeouts have recently begun generating more controversy within the jiu-jitsu community. Some consider closeouts an act of cowardice that succeeds at nothing more than preserving fragile egos, while others complain that closeouts ruin the spectator experience of the sport. According to Attack the Back’s Richard Presley, five out of nine divisions at the 2014 Pan American Champions ended with a closeout, leading to disappointment from viewers who had been looking forward to real showdowns between seasoned grapplers at the tops of their divisions.
The Ruotolo twins, however, aren’t the only Atos teammates who have been willing to buck tradition. According to the BJJ Heroes stats, back in 2017, Keenan Cornelius, an Atos star at the time, and teammate Josh Hinger faced off against each other in competition not just once, but four times, with Cornelius taking three of those victories – once at the Seattle Open, and twice at American Nationals – while Hinger triumphed once in no-gi at American Nationals. Nor is Atos the only major jiu-jitsu team that has defied closeout tradition. In 2019, for example, Gordon Ryan famously tapped out fellow Danaher Death Squad member and mentor Garry Tonon at ADCC – though, as pointed out by Josh Hinger himself in a 2016 FloGrappling article, it should be noted that ADCC is among the non-IBJJF tournaments that do not officially allow closeouts. FloGrappling’s footage of the match between Ryan and Tonon has well over 500,000 views on YouTube – along with, of course, an ample comment section.
Whether you’re for closeouts or against them, one thing is a near certainty: if the Ruotolo twins match up in the finals of their division at Worlds this year – and given their respective track records in the sport, there’s a decent possibility that they will – spectators will be treated to a good old-fashioned war on the mats.
Kaitlyn Sterling, a jiu-jitsu instructor based in Michigan, has fallen ill and is currently on a ventilator and fully sedated. Her family is in dire need of any assistance the jiu-jitsu community can provide.
Katilyn’s boyfriend and instructor, Stan Myaskovskiy shared a bit about Kaitlyn and her love of jiu-jitsu
“Kaitlyn is a blue belt under me at Keweenaw Jiu-Jitsu. I’m a brown belt under Josh Passini at 10p Chicago. She’s been training for just under 5 years and was most recently training 5-7 days per week.
Kaitlyn is also one of my kid’s instructors and a fill-in adult instructor. She used to run our women’s program also. She’s super dedicated and hard-working. She really enjoys the sport and especially sharing it with others.”
We don’t know much about Kaitlyn’s condition but Stan shared a bit with us
“Medically speaking, she was a perfectly healthy fit 25-year-old with no known issues besides allergies to ragweed and some other seasonal allergies. She fell ill with what seemed like a cold or flu for a week, then was diagnosed with pneumonia and given antibiotics, steroids, and a Nebulizer. She tested negative for Covid several times. After a week-long course she did not improve and I took her to the emergency room where she was quickly transferred by flight to another hospital. She was then put on a ventilator and fully sedated. She’s now being airlifted again to a bigger hospital in Minneapolis for ECMO treatment.”
Stan is dedicating all of the proceeds of his tournament, the Checkmate Submission Only tournament being held this weekend at 10th Planet Chicago to help pay for Kaitlyn’s medical expenses and a Gofundme has been set up for her family.
Kenny Kim has released the much anticipated first episode of his new online series, ‘May Made’.
The series follows Kim as he travels the country, visiting Jiu-Jitsu hot spots, finding compelling stories in the local gyms, exploring the food scene, and more.
In the first episode, Kim travels to Nashville Tennessee, where he meets up with UFC veteran and commentator Din Thomas. Together, they visit a local gym, the Liberdade Academy, owned by Kim’s friends Milton Bastos and Alex Barcelona: a couple who are both World Champions.
Kim rolls and talks with a blue belt student, Heather, and shares her story of how Jiu-Jitsu helped her cope with and overcome abuse, insecurities, and trauma. Overall, her story highlights the philosophical principles that are associated with the sport.
Beyond jiu-jitsu, the cast also battles it out in a Nashville Hot Chicken challenge at Party Fowl, a local chicken shop. Later, they dig in on some BBQ at Peg Leg Porker and chat a bit more before checking out the Nashville nightlife at Wild Beaver Saloon.
ADCC 2022 competitors no longer need to worry about getting strangled by a 16-year old blue belt, now that Cole Abate has officially earned his Purple.
pockets the first ONE X performance bonus! 
Meregali's no-gi debut does not disappoint!
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