The Sevan Podcast - #371 - Jacob Rodriguez

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

"88 kg competitor Jacob Rodriguez put on the best performance of his career at the ADCC West Coast Trials. Brother of heavyweight standout Nick Rodriguez, “JRod” secured six submissions out of seven matches, the most of any competitor on the day. Jacob was a blue belt during the trials and received his purple belt from Craig Jones after his victory in the final." Partners: https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://www.barbelljobs.com/ - WORLD'S #1 JOB BOARD FOR THE CROSSFIT COMMUNITY https://thesevanpodcast.com/ - OUR WEBSITE https://sogosnacks.com/ - SAVE15 coupon code - the snacks my kids eat - tell them Sevan sent you! Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance, we understand that your business is unique, so your business insurance should be too. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. That's all. I was trying to get some earbuds. All I heard was, I thought,

seriously, when I put my headphones on, I thought your mom was talking to you about girls. She's like, I thought she was like, now Jay, now listen.

You're not Jewish, are you? No. But you just, you just, it just seemed like it because you're from Jersey, and there's like a blend there, Jersey culture and Jewish mom culture. I don't know.

I don't know. It just sat with just the way you said it. Your mom was on the phone gossiping. Yeah. Was she telling the world how great her sons are? Oh, you brought my coffee. You're a fucking queen. Thank you.

I was just like freaking out. Good morning, dude brought my coffee. You're fucking queen. Thank you. I was just like freaking. Good morning, dude. Good morning. My name is Sevan, like the number seven. All right. Nice to meet you. I've been riding your brother's jock for a little while here. Yeah.

Yeah. Like bugging him. Like you got to you got to DM him like five times for everyone. Yeah. On the show. Yes. Four texts and five DMs. And bugging him. Like you gotta, you gotta DM him like five times for every one on the show. Yes. Four texts and five DMS. And then he appears like the special, uh, Nikki rod, but he's cool about it. You know what I mean? It's like, he didn't, he didn't even care. Like just, yeah. You just bug him enough and then he shows up. You, you're, you're, you're, are you tripping for what i don't know anything is it like are you

like god i don't really want to do this podcast but i feel like i should and they told me i should do a podcast because no no no that's all cool yeah okay i want to i want to i want to show people who don't know i know i'm going to get in trouble for this but fuck it who cares let's see you go to share here share screen chrome tab j rod bam here we go your signal is great your signal is great okay watch this people here we Not this guy. Not that other guy. He's coming up. Hang tight. Here we go. That's you with the shirt on, right?

Yep. Do you know right here? Do you know right now? Like, uh-oh, it's over for this dude. No. You don't know? I didn't know until the moment he tapped. No, I had no clue wow okay okay

yeah and what and what's he feeling right here jay so right here uh i didn't i didn't have the submission like fully locked up. So I had taken my other hand and took my knuckles and put it in his throat to help suffocate him. And that's what ended up helping me finish the submission. Oh, and I saw in a training video, I saw Craig Jones do that to you. were on top of him and he slid and he pushed you off of him yes using his very slowly and gently but yes maybe not gently yeah and that's where you pick that up yes fucking craig did wow and that's legit i mean it's it's like it helps finish submissions if it's like a submission like that like i this the choke wasn't fully on but with the extra help of my knuckles

that's what like like really like makes him suffocate it without that how is that move supposed to stop him is it supposed to be his own arm pushing into him him so how's that move supposed to stop the buggy choke is like you're basically the the side of your body his head and his arm goes in between your like right by your lap and you underhook your leg and uh like lock your uh lock your hands and lock your feet yep i can see it here yeah i can imagine at least the backside yeah so it usually comes on fast if it's locked up like fully but he was able to like finagle his way out so it wasn't fully like tight so i wasn't going to get the finish without the knuckles.

Which part of your body would have, if it was in tight and it was in deep and perfect, which part of your body would have choked him out? So your lat? Basically my lat. Yeah. So his throat. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. And would his arm still be right where it is? Yeah. His arm, his arm and his head would just be a little bit deeper in like more into my, my side. Okay. And would his arm still be right where it is? Yeah. His arm, his arm and his head would just be a little bit deeper in like more into my, my side.

Okay. But there's nothing for him to complain about. He can't be over there being like, Hey, but as he put his, his, his fist in my throat. No, that's legal. Yeah. God. And that's your seventh match. Yeah. God, so funny. And that's your seventh match?

Yeah, that was the finals. Wow. And do you know that kid right there? The kid I went against? Yeah, right there. The dude with the shirt off. Do you know him? I've seen him on Who's Number One before, but I don't know him personally. I've never seen him compete before that or anything.

And then Craig Jones runs out here and gives you your purple belt. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. It's a little overwhelming, right? Yeah, it was. I didn't even know how to, like, interpret getting the belt at the time. But, yeah, yeah. The win was fucking crazy.

To win like that in the finals is, like, ridiculous. A lot of people, like, say that move, the buggy choke, is, like, stupid and, like, bullshit. Even Craig and I say it. But it works sometimes. Does he know – how does Craig know to have a purple belt there? Does he just travel with a suitcase of belts? I think Nicky Ryan had told him, like – had told the guys, like, oh, if I win, get, like, bring, like, a purple belt in case I win. No shit.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Also, my teammate Damien had also gotten his belt, so they probably said the same thing for him. And did he win also? He qualified? He didn't qualify, but he took third. He got his belt on the podium. The dudes who qualified – so ADCC is Abu Dhabi something championship? Combat championship?

Something like that. I have no clue, honestly. No clue. I just go on floor and mash people yes i don't know letters um uh so so the people who've qualified from your camp um the b team are uh nikki ryan uh your brother nikki rod uh ethan crowdstein am i saying his name right uh krellstein i think it's it's pronounced krellstein yeah where's he from uh he's from it's a nice jewish name pretty sure yeah good jewish boy uh uh j rod that's you j rodriguez

and uh craig jones you guys have all qualified yep and and where did your brother qualify at um well nick placed in uh the last Worlds. Right. Back in 2019, he won the West Coast Trials, the same trials I won this year. And then he went on to the World Tournament and placed. He took second. So I think because he took second, he got an automatic invite. So he doesn't have to do any of the trials. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. When you automatically qualify like that so wait so does that mean next year you'll automatically qualify um i would have years i would have to do like really good at this tournament the the the world tournament in september in order to get invited like i would have to play for like beat some really good people you know okay how hey how old are you uh 20 and how old your brother nick is 25 and are there any other uh rodriguez children yeah we have a uh a younger sister she's 15 does she wrestle uh she wrestles here and there but it's more just like a hobby kind of thing. She just does it for fun, stay in shape and stuff.

I had an Olympian on a couple days ago, David Taylor. Oh, my God. He won the gold in Tokyo. Yeah. And his current wife, he, um, he wrestled her when they were 10 years old at a tournament at a tournament. Yeah. And he said he was terrified because he was like, didn't want to get beat by a girl. And then, you know, like 10 years later he saw her on Facebook and he asked her out and they're

married and they have two kids now. That's awesome. Do you ever wrestle any girls growing up? Actually, no. I've never wrestled a girl. Like in practice, I've like gone against a girl, whatever, but never in competition, never in high school or anything like that. Is it weird going against a girl? Like there's less places. Like my kids do jiu-jitsu, and it's always – the teacher always be like, put your hands on their chest.

And I'm like, well, I guess it's okay when you're five. Yeah. Yeah. It's always kind of awkward because you don't want to like – Creep them out at all. Yeah. You don't want to creep them out. You don't want to like hurt their feelings too bad because i'm not i'm not i don't want to like tone it down a bit to uh

like go against a girl like i feel like i should treat her equally but at the same time i don't want to like you know i would just think it's such an it's such an intimate sport. It's so crazy. Like some of those videos you guys have on your website, on the B-Team website, you guys show just a lot of just like one-on-one, just guys rolling and just kind of being patient with each other and working. And it's like it's – I mean your body like – I'm not that intimate with my wife. I mean you are like pressed up against someone. wife i mean you are like pressed up against someone now that i think about it too the the women that i see training at my not the little kids but the women that i see training at the academy that my kids go to i'll usually see them training with the same men over and over it's probably like men that they feel comfortable with men who are like creeping on and shit and

and it seems like most of the girls are really attractive too there's not like i don't know yeah i guess maybe just because they're healthy fit girls yeah yeah i don't know it's uh it varies also just like let them roll with who they want to roll with some some people in general some people like don't feel safe rolling with some people like oh this guy might like try to hurt me or whatever. So go roll with who you feel like safer with, you know, you don't want to be like overly cautious of like, like if I get an arm bar, like, like if Craig arm bars me and I'm going to like take an extra like 10 seconds to try to escape. Like I know he has my arm fully extended.

I know he could break my arm in a second, but I feel comfortable with him. He's a safe person to roll with. He's not just going to rip my arm. He's going to let me try to escape and stuff like that. There's trust there. Yes, yes. There's a lot of trust in BTM in general. Is that unspoken?

Like you learn that through having those moments with those guys? Yeah. Or do they tell you ahead of class, okay, jackasses, no one hyperextends someone's arm? Yeah, I mean, like some classes, like when we first started training at B team and they started doing the classes and stuff, there's like certain rules at B team just so no one gets hurt. There's a lot of common, uh, things, common moves that people try to do that, uh, could lead to injury. Um, so like something like a, like a scissor sweep, it's not really, uh, allowed at B team because there's like

you're basically, you're dropping your entire body on their knee and if you do it wrong it could there could be like serious injury so so if you're going to practice that with someone it's just you and the other person will go off to the side and be like okay hey we're going to practice this just intelligently yes because it still has to be practiced right yeah yeah i mean if you plan on putting it you know using, using it in your arsenal, then definitely. But it's more of what you and your partner are comfortable with. You're in Jersey right now? Yeah.

But home for you is Austin. You're there. Yeah. And do you live with your brother? Yeah. So I live with Nick. Right now I'm just like at my parents' house. Because just visiting, vacation, or spring break?

Just visiting family, seeing my family and my girlfriend. Oh, you got one of those too. Yeah. Holy cow. What does she think about all of a sudden? Well, let me go back a second. We'll come to her. I got to get to write her a girlfriend, and I want to talk about the purple belt too. Yeah.

I mean, you're a blue belt before you're a purple belt? Yeah. And how long did you have your blue belt? I had my blue belt – God, I don't know. Less than a year. So you got it there at the B team? No. I had gotten it when I was training here in jersey i i had

moved to texas and started training maybe like six or seven months ago with b team but uh maybe like a a year before that i started training jujitsu and maybe two or three months into training i had gotten my blue belt do how do adults go they go white uh white blue purple brown and then black okay you guys my kids i think there's like two whites three gray then there's a yellow then there's a green and that's confusing yeah it's a lot it's a lot of shit but i guess they kind of do that just to keep the kids like engaged. Yeah. Yeah. Or else your kid wouldn't get a belt for like four years.

Yeah. At least now they can get like a new belt every year or so. Yeah. So tell me about growing up. What sports – what were the first athletic sports things you did? you did um so i think i was really really young i think the one of the first few sports i did was uh football i did it for like a year or two i was really really young though and then flag football or even yeah like yeah i think like fly i really i honestly have no It's, it's been so long, but, um, I did like a year or two of that. I didn't really like it. Um, and then Nick started doing wrestling for like a year or two before that. So I saw him, uh, wrestling and I was like, Oh, that looks cool. I'll, I'll do it. Um,

and then I was probably like five, six years old when I started, or maybe like seven or eight years old when I started doing, um, wrestling, like, uh, for the high school or for the, you know, kids and middle school and stuff like that. And, and did, did you do it because your brother did it? Uh, I did it cause yeah, I did it cause i saw him doing it and he liked it and i wanted to try it so why not and he five years is too old for you to have any like with him right if you're if you're seven and he's 12 he's just mashing you yeah so he was like yeah i didn't start training like with them until nick was like a junior or senior in high school. And I was in middle school.

And by the time I was in middle school, I started going to clubs and stuff. And I was just like significantly better than all the kids at like my high school. So I started training with the high schoolers. Yeah. So that was like when we started like training together. Wow.

That's interesting. Okay. So sort of the same pedigree, your brother, you, you, you, you really enjoyed wrestling and you had a good wrestling background.

Yeah. That footage of your, um, I had never seen it before last night when I was digging through YouTube, looking for videos of you. I saw that footage of your brother wrestling. Um, it was in 2021,

the black dude who was an Olympic medalist. Oh. Man, he was good. Jaden Cox. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's an animal.

Wow. Yeah. A giant like butterfly, like huge and so fast and light. Yes. It was like, it was flowing like water. I was, I remember watching that role in person. It was like, he was so smooth, very smooth. Anyone who hasn't seen that video, or even if you have no interest in jiu-jitsu and wrestling, you should see that.

It's two really big guys coming together. Tell me his name again. Jaden Cox. Okay, I thought he had a French name, Jaden Cox. Jaden Cox and Nicky Rod, and it'll pop up, and it's pretty cool. So then you start doing wrestling, and then eventually you become a wrestling coach. No, no. Okay. I was wrestling.

I wrestled in middle school, and then I wrestled high school, and then right after high school season had ended, I wrestled high school, and then right after high school season had ended, I planned on going to jiu-jitsu because by that time, Nick was like a year or so into jiu-jitsu, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with college or the rest of my life really. And I saw Nick was blowing up in jiu-jitsu, and I was like, I'm a good wrestler. Why can't I do that?

in in jujitsu and i was like i'm a good wrestler why can't i do that um so the plan was right after the wrestling season and ended uh it had uh covet had had happened like the pandemic so um there was you know we had to stay all the gyms closed and stuff so i couldn't train and then while that had happened i got a job with my dad i saved up some money and stuff and a few months after that i started like training full-time jujitsu how how long did you take off between um um did you get fat i didn't get fat but my cheeks were a little bit thicker you know um what did you do to stay in shape during that time you must have needed you needed something didn't you i i didn't train at all uh i not even gym rat shit not even like a salt bike or bench press nothing no i mean like i would like

probably lift here there but it was just like my dad works so much he's crazy like we would what's the job what's your dad do so he works at a warehouse um and now he's like he like uh like runs a warehouse basically but um he will like the job is like at like say it's like eight eight in the morning like the job starts at eight everyone gets there at eight he's there by six and it's like two hours away. So we're up at four driving two hours. We get there at six, he's doing extra work. And then on top of that, we leave, uh, at this, at the same time as everyone else, maybe an hour later than everyone else. So we're doing like three or more hours than everyone else and i'm just like i was it's crazy how much my dad works he is he's insane and then you get home and you're you're exhausted i was dead i was dead we get home and he wants to do like other stuff

i'm like dude i need sleep i need sleep. I need sleep. Oh, man. So and then at some point you're like, I've had enough of this. I'm going to I'm going to try to I'm going to try. I'm going to save money and I'm going to I'm going to somehow make the get a bus ticket, make the leap to Austin. Yeah. So is he is he egging you on? Is Nicky egging you on like, yo, dude, you got to come out here? Or is he kind of like yeah leave it

yeah so he like when he got there uh he wasn't telling me like before he had moved but when he moved uh like a week or so into when he moved he was like dude you have to come here like he really wanted me to come. So, uh, for him or for you or for both, is he like missing his family and missing his brother or is he like, dude, I love my brother and there's great opportunity. He's got to get on this bandwagon too. I think it was mainly the, the opportunity thing because training is so good out there. But, uh,

also, you know, family, he, he misses his family. We all miss our family when we're in texas so yeah i thought i i thought i heard somewhere you were a wrestling coach you never you never taught at the high school or the junior high no i mean i taught like when uh at studio 84 which was when i first started training it that was like the first place I trained at in Jersey. That's where in Jersey? It was in North Jersey or I guess like central Jersey, but it's closed now. Okay.

But I had taught like a few classes or like wrestling classes here and there. And did you like teaching? It was all right. I'm, it was like my first time ever to show i was kind of like nervous and like didn't know how to slow things down but um i think actually being in texas and like watching the guys teach and like just learning from them in general is uh like a good influence because i they take things slow and explaining things to people

like they've never heard of is a good way to go about it because there's a lot of details people can miss and just going slower in general helps a lot and I'm trying to replicate that in my teaching. Yesterday I saw a video I hadn't seen of your brother before also where he was talking about his training and basically saying that he does that.

It seems like he really will just sit down with another guy on the mat and they'll just work on one really specific thing at a time. Yeah, so there's a lot of stuff in jiu-jitsu that can be easily overlooked. Especially as a wrestler, you're just like oh i'm just gonna like i like work this guy like beat him up and then take him down whatever but there's a lot of technical stuff that goes into it honestly and it's crazy to think about when you like there's so much stuff that i've never realized that i see now that i'm with like you know the people I'm with Craig Jones Nikki Ryan like these guys have so much technique and I have no clue what's going on and they're just like levels above everyone else and that's that's where I'm trying to be can you give me an example is it like if you're dealing

with the arm and how the wrist is going or is it like which toe you grab when you grab the foot? Yeah. Or is it like, is it? Yeah. So like a difference from like, so say, uh, I'm on someone's back. Right. And you're hand fighting and I'm trying to get to their, their neck. Uh, one thing, like the way you grab someone, where you grab someone's hand. So say, uh, my left hand is, uh, like trying to, to defend and they're on my back if they take their hand and grab here on my wrist uh i can it's a little bit easier for me to push out but if they're grabbing here it's it's much harder for some reason you have much more control here it's like uh the longest end of the lever is easier to control compared to this yeah so little things like that all over in every position and i'm just trying to like take everything in you

know is is it hard not to over train there um i'm just because you're so excited yeah so like like when you spend too much time with the girlfriend like leave her house and you call her right away you know what i mean yeah so it's it's kind of yeah it kind of is um we try to do uh like like always one session a day, sometimes two, if not two, maybe we'll, we'll lift or something. But, um, there's like three classes. And like, like for example, I had one day I had gone to, uh, I went to an 8am class and then, uh, Nikki Rod had gone to, uh class. And I was like, okay, I'm just going to go to the gym while he's at the noon class. And then after I was done at the gym, they're still training. I come back and I see them all training. I'm like, damn, I really want to train.

Like all these guys are having fun. So, yeah, it's kind of difficult. And do you guys police each other or i guess especially you do you feel like your brother looks out for you more than the other guys like he's like hey dude hey dude um no i mean it's it's all kind of equal you know i mean you you in that in that tournament that we saw that um ADCC trials, you went at 88 kilograms. How many pounds is that? I think 88 is like 190 or 195, something like that.

So you're big. I'm not that big. I weighed in at like 83, 82 kilograms. So I was really light for the weight class. Most people cut, cut weight. So a lot of the people I was fighting, they were like 200 plus pounds and I walk around like one 80, one 85. So I was already giving up like maybe 10 pounds. Why not go down a weight class? Um, too low. 77 was one 69 and I didn't feel like cutting the extra 10 pounds i've cut weight

all my life i'm just like kind of tired of it and also 77 was stacked like all the weight classes are stacked there's like over 200 people in every weight class it's it's there's going to be some really difficult matches either way but 77 had people like you uh andrew tackett uh or not andrew uh william tackett won at 77 there's andy varely uh there's there's so many people pga barch there's so many like studs at 77 and 66 is 66 as well like ke Keith, a Korean Damian Anderson. Like there's so many good people, uh, especially the, the lighter you go,

you had to be more technical. And I thought the way my style is like wrestling wise and stuff. I think I thought I would be better at it. And in the trials, are you only separated by weight? Like, so there's white belts, black belts,

just everyone's in there. Yeah. so there is no belt like uh separation thing and it's only weight classes which is great you know there's ibjjf is like oh blue belt worlds uh purple belt worlds it's uh but like then you see the the people like me i'm a blue belt beating black belts so it's like does it really matter? It really doesn't matter. What's the argument to that? Like to someone, like if I wanted to fight with you, what would I say to you? Be like, no, of course they matter.

But like, what's the argument? I mean, the only, to me, right? to me right to me it's like um the belt is only the only thing the belt means is how long you've been in uh how long you've been training jiu-jitsu so if you see a black belt you know he's like 10 or 15 years yeah yeah he's bound to have like 10 or so years in in jiu-jitsu um you see a blue bow is like okay this guy's new to jiu-jitsu but a blue bow can still fuck you up so it really doesn't matter like i'm a blue but technically or technically i'm a purple bow but i have like i have uh grappling experience like all my life i've i've wrestled but at the same time it's not like there's so many high level wrestlers that don't

like that can't just transition into jujitsu like me and my brother have like uh they cannot they can't like it's i don't know what it is we're like uh they, they just like, they're, they're might be better wrestlers than us. You know what I mean? Like, uh, I think Pat, Pat Downey was, um,

at the, the last trials and he like, he got subbed or something like it's, there's so many good, like really talented wrestlers that can't transition into, um, jujitsu. Like we have.

At Downey, uh uh american submission grappler freestyle wrestler professional mixed uh martial arts oh is he trying to go into mma i think he is but i honestly have no clue i think nikki rodman no more and he's the 2019 uh pan-american Games medalist, 2019 U.S. Open national. So this was the largest ADCC trial in the history of the competition. The ADCC, is that the guy who wins that amongst jiu-jitsu practitioners considered the best guy in the world? Is there a more difficult competition? The Worlds is, but not the trials like the trials is the biggest trials ever so this trials is worth more than all the other trials i would say but um in comparison to the world tournament it's still like you still have so many more like really good athletes to uh you know fight so

and who puts on the world that's the ib the other one you mentioned uh there's i mean there's a few different worlds so we have the like the adcc world championship is that's the one in september that i won the trials to go into yeah would you consider that that would that what happens in abu dhabi the pinnacle of the sport yes that's like that's like so you just won the trial yeah as a blue belt and the only window way to win the trial is to go undefeated yeah only one guy goes only only only first place goes yeah yeah fucking nuts dude yeah and how many trials are there um I don't know. So there's two in North America, but there's like Asian trials. There's like a bunch of different trials. How many people will be in your weight class when you get to Abu Dhabi?

16. Okay, so there's got to be 16 trials. Oh, no, because some people get invited back. Yeah, some people get invited, so I'm not entirely sure. So it's just Savage Central. That tournament is just like... Yeah, top 16 grapplers in the world. Yeah, wow.

It's crazy. Will there be dudes from the UFC there? I'm sure there's going to be. Actually, yeah, I'm sure there's going to be people like celebrities and people from the UFC like spectating. But there might be like some guys from the UFC might get invited. Like I keep seeing Phil Rowe doing a lot of jiu-jitsu. Yeah.

Or your brother went against that heavyweight, undefeated heavyweight Bellator guy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Steven Mowry. That's a big dude. Yeah, he was huge. That's a legit fighter. Yeah, he was huge. That's a legit fighter. Yeah, crazy. When I watch some reports, they say you submitted

all seven guys, and other reports say you submitted six guys. Which one is the one in question? Not that it really matters, but I'm just curious for my own curiosity. I had seven matches, and I had seven submissions. There's not one of them that's being contested like oh he didn't really submit the guy no no no i there were all i had six rear

naked chokes and then the final's two women and do you know if anyone else um had and do all of them have seven matches or some have more some of that some have six um some i had a buy my first round so some people have seven some people have um eight but at the same time like i had my weight class was pretty much full so eight the tournament the amount of people that can go into your bracket is 256 right so um uh some of the brackets weren't as big. So, some of the women's weight classes weren't full. They didn't have the full 256. So, some girls maybe had five or six matches rather than having seven or eight.

Did anyone else in any of the weight classes, men or women, go seven for seven? No. Yeah. Dude. It's crazy, right? Yeah, it's crazy. Hey, how nervous are you going into the final match? Is it the most nervous out of all the previous six?

No, I was not nervous at all. No. No. I was really nervous. really not really nervous but i was nervous the first match i had and then make sense and then after the first match i was like okay we're we're we're good we're chilling um i just made sure i had like the same warm-up same same everything um and i just continued that same process throughout the entire tournament. Does your brother or Craig or anyone say anything to you right before you go on? Does your brother say,

hey, dude, don't be a fucking pussy or hey, I'm going to beat your ass if you don't or hey, don't worry, just do your best or any? No, they just let me do my thing. Yeah. Yeah. No one gives anyone like uh how about how about any more technical stuff than that maybe not some emotional stuff do they say hey dude don't forget you have the best arm bar in the game yeah yeah uh so uh if if they know

what my opponent's gonna do they'll be like oh watch out for his this whatever watch out for his clothes guard watch out for his you know his back takes or whatever so they would give me advice like that like little like tips but um other than that no there's nothing else yeah this episode is brought to you by disney's young woman in the sea now streaming on disney plus i've decided to swim the english channel a woman i believe she'll die in that water. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joachim Roening comes the must-see true story, Daisy Ridley. I go to England or die trying.

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And hiking with them. Is that a squirrel? Bear! Run! Collect more moments with more ways to earn. Air Mile. Did any of those seven you feel just completely dominant? Like, like almost like you couldn't even believe that, um, kind of out of body experience style, like where you were like witnessing yourself just put on a master's class.

Yeah. Uh, the first match was like really easy, but it was against like a, like a nobody. So, um, it was like, I had like, it was probably like a minute total, you know, and I had gotten that rear naked choke had like a minute total, you know, and I had gotten that rear naked choke in like a minute. So that was really like easy. That was dominant. But all the other ones were tough. You know, the people in the tournament are not going to like go down

without a fight. I would say even some of the matches, like some of the guys had like an upper hand. Not that they had points on me or anything, but they were maybe controlling the hand fighting a little bit better or just like being a little bit more aggressive. Um, so I know how to like kick it up a notch at the end. And I did. And when you say kick it up, if, if, what are the, what are the, if someone is winning the hand fighting, or if someone is winning in a domain and you have to beat them in another domain, what are they?

You have to be faster? You have to be more relentless? You have to flow better? So I always try to win the hand fighting, and I always try to have similar energy to my opponent. So if they're going 50%, I try to go like, like 50 or 60%. Like I always want to be doing a little bit more than my opponent. Um, but if they're like controlling, uh, more than I would try to like start more scrambles,

like, uh, start more, like get into more shots and stuff like that. So there's always more you can do. Uh, some people just get too tired for it. Um, and you saw, you saw that, like, it's only a six minute match, which there's not a lot of, like, it's so hard to submit someone that doesn't want to get submitted in six minutes. People can just run away for six minutes. Um, so yeah, six minutes is not, not a long time, but, uh, forcing like scrambles and stuff like that to happen, uh, really help like, uh, you know, get to the better position. So you're kind of thankful for your opponents. They wanted to fucking engage. Uh, yeah. A lot of the guys were like, like, uh, in my semi. Yeah, my semifinals match, the guy was like, super crisp. I think his last name was. He was like, super durable. And he's just like coming really hard forward. And literally, like, like just marching forward and like slapping my my head like really hard college highs and i used

that like against him like as you saw in one of the videos i hit um a duck under so he he's coming forward yeah that duck under was amazing that's your wrestling pedigree right yeah that duck under was nuts i didn't even know what to call it until you just said it and you look straight up i paused it right there i was like holy shit this this is like a poster for a wrestling movie. That's one of the details, though, keeping the head up. So the moment I get my head past his arm, I look straight up so I can take his back easier. And so he doesn't reach back and try to get a grip to face me grip to turn turn like to face me uh i look up and then turn the corner as fast as possible yeah you looked ferocious in that one thank you you

give the you give the uh you give the rotola brothers credit in one of the videos oh yeah um is is that normal to give um uh like sometimes i'll do a podcast and i'll start the podcast being with like yeah i watch this other dude's podcast and i'm just gonna basically steal everything he did and people are like why do you say that i'm like because it's the fucking truth is it normal for you is it normal for guys to admit that like hey you study these other guys and try to learn from them i think if you're comfortable with comfortable with yourself then it's normal you know what i mean i don't really care about uh telling telling the world who i've been studying and stuff like that it's not like i'm studying

like them per se but i've studied their move like you see them hit it in competition all the time like okay i want to learn this move from them so you like go like search up them doing it and like just watch it over and over again and try to get every little detail that they're they're doing um do do do um jiu-jitsu practitioners ever like have an ipad or their phone on the mat and two dudes will be out there and you'll play something like you'll go to an old video and be like hey let's try to do that yeah so if we're uh we'll do something like that after class or something like that so we'll have the like at b team they'll have the the class then we'll go live and then uh um after we'll be like oh let's let's go over this we saw this in a video and we'll we'll screen record the video and then we'll like we'll watch like oh let's let's go over this we saw this in a video and we'll we'll screen

record the video and then we'll like we'll watch it a few times we'll try to hit it and then we'll go over it like drag our finger to see like every little detail like where this guy's hand is where his foot is and um try to replicate it as closely as possible so i like nikki rodd and i will do that a lot of times like if we see something cool we're like wow we have to learn that like this like this here here's a move that you guys i'm still haven't perfected but but i but i think that there's time for you guys oh shit you did perfect it oh shit yes i saw the other video where you guys didn't perfect it. Oh, shit.

Yep, yep. We didn't go as low as I would have liked, but Nick is a heavy, heavy man. Hey, is it – it's interesting talking to your brother. I don't think I've ever like cracked him you know like like i like i i can get at it with some people there's a kind of a reservedness to them or like maybe some parts that are guarded sometimes we get at it we had fun like one time i brought a really really really fucking super hot amazing crossfit girl on with him at the same time and i kind of saw your brother just kind of like be a little more gentlemanly, you know? Um, uh, her name is Danielle Brandon, but, um,

is, is it fun there? Like, is there, is there a lot of like goofing off, like goof, not goofing off is not the right word, but is it, is it familial? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like someone will, someone will like bring a dildo and stick it in your locker. I mean, is there like funny stuff? Yeah. You guys mess with each other? Yeah, of course. There's always like, especially having Craig around, like there's always like banter and stuff like that.

Everyone's always talking shit on each other. But it's in a healthy way. Like it's not like toxic. It's very – it loosens everyone up like it's it's it's very fun it's a it's a nice environment i would say um do you know the island island island island boys are um yeah they have the funny hair and they're covered in tattoos yes okay so so last night the um um last night i was watching on youtube and um youtube suggested for me they were on a podcast with um they were they were sitting down with logan paul you know who that is right the guy who fought mayweather okay i never

know who knows him because like my generation doesn't really know him. Yeah. Okay, so they're sitting on the couch. Have you seen this video? I've seen some clips from that podcast that they have. With those two guys? Yeah, yeah. So they're talking, and Logan's pretty cocksure. It's his show. And then there's a guy to write to him who's kind of like an antagonist.

He wears a hat. Yeah. And then there's a guy to write a, write to him. Who's kind of like an antagonist. He wears a hat. Yeah. And then, and then there's another guy who looks like me. He's like an R a young version of me, like an Armenian guy, like a little chubby version of me, like young chubby version of me. And they're all talking and that guy, those two, those two boys are being serious. Like they're trying to have a serious discussion, but, but then the other guy says something to kind of offend them. That's not even offensive. He's like, Hey, you could always like take all that jewelry and buy real estate. And then in case you ever go broke and you wouldn't have to work the rest of your life. And to me, it just sounds like sound advice, but those guys take it so seriously.

And then they, and I feel sorry for them. I'm like, I, you know what I mean? I'm kind of like, Oh, you didn't have to take that so seriously. Like it kind of makes you look weak. is there that in the b team too like yeah so uh like you can't you better not show your uh like getting offended is kind of like you're a pussy yes right yeah you have to have thick skin especially when you're getting fucked up by Craig every day yeah I see him sometimes in some of these videos on top of you. He's just smushing you.

Yes. It's, it's fucking terrible, dude. It's crazy. The levels, like the levels that are in jujitsu. Like I won 80 CC trials,

which is like, or what's goes trials. The, the, one of the biggest in the world. Um, and there's people like Nikki Ryan, all the,

all my training partners just fucking murder me. Like, and they're just levels above me. Craig Jones can just sit on me all day long and I can't do anything about it. It's kind of terrifying. Like how someone can just control you and you can't do anything about it. Uh, it's not just because he outweighs you by 20 pounds,

40 pounds. I'm sure the the the weight has a little bit like uh something to do with it but um he's still like really good like really strong like he's not just big but he's really good yeah and he's like he he wrestles with me like he doesn't even like he doesn't he'll hook me like people i see people in the comments like oh obviously he's gonna have obviously jayrod's gonna have good leg like defense he rolls with craig craig has never gotten into a leg entangle with me like here there maybe if i force a leg entanglement but he is never trying to do legs with me like

he's always trying to wrestle with me his wrestling is really good for no reason and for those of us who don't know what what is the when you say wrestling how is wrestling like how would you say wrestling is different than jiu-jitsu um so wrestling is like uh nikki rod says this it's like the art of taking someone down like setting up a good shot and taking someone down uh in jujitsu it's like i doing the same thing but what do you do after you go to the ground because in wrestling you take someone down you pin them and that's it it's the match is over and you just you have to learn how to you know advance learn how to take someone's back learn how to submit someone in uh in a scenario like that. That's interesting.

I hadn't even thought of it before, but when I had David Taylor on and I was studying him, they were saying that he was a, I guess there's two kinds, they divide wrestling into two, standing wrestlers and mat wrestlers. And they said that, you know, Jordan Burroughs was good on his feet and David Taylor was better on the mat.

They called him a mat wrestler. Okay, that's really interesting. And then there are some kids in my kids' jiu-jitsu school who go to the high school to practice wrestling. And I always hear the parents say it's for takedowns. So I'm just connecting the dots. That makes sense. Do you think that it's good the way you did it? If you had kids and you wanted – would you start them off with wrestling before jiu-jitsu?

Or would you do both at the same time? Would you start them off with wrestling before jiu-jitsu, or would you do both at the same time? I think if I wanted them to be good, I would want them to wrestle first. I don't think I would want them cutting weight. You didn't like that. You don't think that helped you. You don't think that was good for you as a kid. It's tough, right? Because wrestling in general, it's hard. And if you want to be good, you have to be mentally strong. But a part of being very talented and very mentally strong in general is cutting weight for some reason. Like I remember, I remember like a night before a competition, a night before a match, I'm like nine pounds over and I'm like, fuck, I gotta go run for

two hours, uh, in the freezing cold. I can't feel my fingertips and, uh, lose this weight. Um, and then every night somehow I would fucking do it. Um, and it's, it's, uh, it's rough, but mentally it makes you so much stronger. Um, cutting weight does and the sport in general does, like I said, but I think cutting weight does and the sport in general does like i said but i think cutting weight also like makes you stronger um but yet you wouldn't have your kids do it i don't think i would i i don't think i would want them doing it unless i could see them like pursuing a career like i did but i don't i don't think i would want them doing that. Right. I don't like the thought of my kids cutting weight either. Yeah. It's not healthy.

You see some people, it just stunts their growth. They cut so much weight. And then they're just always the same height for the rest of their life. Wow. Yeah. Well, I ate as much as I could. And I never grew past 5'5". Imagine if I had cut weight, I'd be 5'3".

I did hear in another interview, David Taylor say that like, he, he spoke about his years as a young man is miserable. Like, like in, because of food, he'd be like, I was miserable for two months. And I was like, miserable for two months. I was miserable for five minutes once. Yeah. It's, it's really hard. It's really difficult. Like if, if you're like, like in the, in the position I was where I was like, I was fortunate enough to, uh, I was the best on the team. So I could, I could go whatever weight class I wanted. So I could go like one, the weight class was like 182, 170 or 160. And I was walking around 185 at the time.

In high school, you were still that big huh yeah in high school damn well this was my senior year um like i grew a lot throughout the the years uh my freshman year i was 100 and i wrestled 126 and then the next year i was 145 and then the next year i was 160 and then the next year i was 1705. And then the next year I was 160. And then the next year I was 170. So just going through puberty, just going from boy to man. Yeah. So, yeah. So I grew a lot within those years.

But I would, like, for certifications, which is like, okay, you have to make weight the first time. There's no match or anything, but you still have to make the weight. Um, I was like, okay, I was one 60, my junior year senior. I'm like, I think I could make one 60. Um, and I'd probably like be really good at one 60. So I made the cut to one 60. I thought I was going to die the night before I couldn't sleep. Uh, I went in the sauna, uh, the night before to like, I had like an extra pound and a half. I knew I could probably sleep off a pound, but I was like, this half pound is like, I don't want to risk it. So I was like, I'm just going to go to the sauna. I went to the sauna with a friend,

to risk it so i was like i'm just gonna go to the sauna i went to the sauna with a friend sat in there for 25 30 minutes didn't drop a single like beat of sweat i've heard of ufc guys talking about that that really can happen yeah it's it's really scary and i i got out i got like imagine what your body's doing imagine the physiological response your body is doing. I refuse to sweat. Yeah. Oh, my God. So after that – That's crazy. Yeah, it really is crazy. I drive home.

I'm like, okay, I'm going to get some sleep. Are you spitting at this point too? No. I was spitting like two or three days before, but I couldn't spit at that point. It was just cotton mouth. It was just like cotton balls. I couldn't spend that point. It was just cotton mouth, which is like cotton balls. I was spinning literal cotton is disgusting. And I didn't sleep. I slept maybe an hour or two.

I was just like so hungry, so dehydrated. And then I weigh it. I make the weight. I made 160 and I was like, I'm never on the button on the button. I think I was like, I was like one, one 59.8 or whatever it is. Okay. Yeah. But, uh, I was, uh, I made the weight and I literally had like, I think nine or 10 pounds

of fluid, like just water, just, uh, Pedialyte and stuff like that. Like I was just so hungry. I wasn't even like, or so thirsty. I didn't, I didn't want food at the time. Um, and then I was finally hydrated and stuff. Did, did, did it feel good to drink water or was there like a, did it just get better from there or was there like a it was did it just get better from there or did it was it rocky it was just significantly better after i had the water like awesome it took time to like like get the water in me and like i guess like fucking my body realized like oh wow you

drank some water thank god but um so even though that wasn't for a tournament you had to do that at the beginning of the year to prove you could do it. And you said, yeah, you never did it again. So you never even wrestled that year at 160. Yeah. So I never wrestled 160 that year. I made the way to 160. And then I was like, I'm never doing this ever again. I'm going I'm going 170.

And then I wrestled 170 throughout that entire year. I was like the fourth seed in uh at states i was um i was the fourth seed at states i was undefeated going into the state tournament so wow um is your diet pretty clean now uh no i love peach rings and gummy bears what's the word you use peach rings peach rings you know like the candy it's got uh it's it tastes like like a artificial peach it's got like sugar all over it oh did you say peach rings yes peach rings as a peach rings oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i probably haven't had those in

i don't know 10 years but, but man, those are amazing. Yeah, I'm addicted. Yeah, wow. Yeah. Do you have any sponsors? Yeah, I have Level Black. They're a jujitsu company. They're super supportive.

Always send me gear whenever I need. Yeah, Level black's great um i have a few other people talking to me like uh oh submission nutrition they're uh and over so these guys these guys are your sponsor yeah it's a cool website yeah their gear is very simple but i i like it and it's all like really good quality stuff yeah it, it's cool. Hey, do those shorts – so jiu-jitsu shorts don't have pockets, huh? No. Yeah, you get shit caught in them.

My son plays – my kids just basically play tennis, skateboard, and do jiu-jitsu basically and repeat like every day. But I can't find tennis – I don't like shorts that go past their knees. And all kids' shorts go past their knees. And he needs tennis shorts so he can put balls in his shorts. But I'd hate shit that goes past my knees. Do you like shit that goes past your knees? No, no. I always wear like five-inch stuff.

I want it like mid-thigh level longest. I really don't like when it's too long. Yeah, the 90s whole like gangster thug movement. Fuck clothes on. Yeah, I don't like it yeah okay sorry what and what's your what's your other sponsor i want to look at them um oh they're not really sponsored but they like send me stuff whenever uh submission nutrition um they're like an overnight uh yeah overnight oats company uh and their stuff is really good they um it's like oh interesting okay yeah yeah so it's kind

of like a wow it's a bjj yeah wow it's very unique for sure i like it a lot their stuff is really good my favorite one is uh either the multibarry one or the the one. I can't. These dudes are sold out. Yeah. Yeah, their stuff is pretty good. Crazy. Yeah. Rolled oats, sliced almonds, hemp seed, raisins, cranberries, apple juice. Oh, they got to take that sunflower oil out.

Pumpkin seeds, ground flax seed. Oh, yeah. There's no sugar in this. Yeah. Very simple, but it's good. Yeah, there there's no sugar in this. Yeah. Very simple, but it's good. Yeah, there's no added sugar in this. That's dope. That's not cheap either because they're using good shit.

Yeah. Well, that's cool. They need to send their nutritionist over to you and clean out your closet with all the gummies and peach rings. How did you meet your girlfriend? We met in high school. And you've been with her – so you're 20, so you've been with her like five years. It's been three years. It's about to be three years.

Okay, because – okay, yeah, high 17. Yeah. Wow. And did she trip that you went to Austin? She'd rather me be here, but it's, it kind of is what it is. You know, I have to pursue this career and she's doing the same thing. You know, she's going to college for a softball. She's going to beat one and stuff like that. So she, she plays softball.

Yeah. Yeah. And she likes boys? She likes me. Okay, right. She likes at least one boy. Yeah. So she understands. Did you say she's a Division I softball player? Yeah, she's going to do one.

Yeah, that's no joke. Yeah. And what position does she play? She does outfield, like center outfield. Man. And she's crazy athletic. Yeah. She's she can run. She's really good at sprinting. Yeah. Do you enjoy watching her? Like, yeah, I mean, I obviously go for her.

So it's it's cool seeing her and stuff. She's yeah, she's she's good. It would not be fun watching and stuff. She's good. It would not be fun watching her if she wasn't good, but she makes it entertaining. She does? Yeah. I love watching humans move. I love watching humans move. All of them.

You know what I mean? I like watching TV and watching giraffes run too. Any movement, human movement is cool, but it's kind of especially cool if you love a chick and then you get to see her like to do whatever workout run you know throw shit as long as they're not goofballs yeah um and so she i was really surprised um how serious that your brother's been in a long serious relationship too and that always catches me off guard because as a young man, and he said something actually funny to me, I said, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but I said, you know, at your age, that's all I did was just chase pussy. Like that's like all, like, that's just, I was a nut. It's like all I wanted to do and not, not, I never had any like one night stands, but I was just like, all we, I needed girlfriends. Yeah. You know, at 20, like I wanted girlfriends. i want to be at a party with the girl i want to be at the beach with the girls yeah i

want to play frisbee with the girls and i was like how do you have time to chase girls and your brother basically looked at me like i was nuts and he goes dude look at me does someone like me need to i never would never chase a girl they yeah i i i don't chase women like basically women chase me like he's like the lion who sits on the top of the hill and the lionesses just roll in i'm like what i didn't even know that was possible that women could chase you yeah but um but he just has one girl and i said does your girlfriend cause you any problems with your with your goals and he's like no if she did she wouldn't be my girlfriend yeah yeah that's that's how it is is it is it that cut and dry for you too it's like uh yeah for sure uh we have there can be no drama like you have to be

focused each of us have to be focused on our prize we're both supportive of each other you know uh it it uh it works both ways and it's it's good because she's kind of in the same position as I am. She wants to pursue softball in college. And it's not like she's like, oh, she's, she's, she's not that good at softball. She like might get a scholarship or whatever. She's, she's going D1. She's very talented on the field. So as I am on the mat, so it's healthy. We're, we're both supportive. We both watch each other compete.

Even if we're not in person, I'll watch. There's always live streams of her games. I'll watch her stuff. She'll watch my stuff. Yeah. And what if she texts you or you text her and she doesn't get back to you while she's on tournament? Do you get angry or it's like, Hey baby,

low stress. I just wanted to say, hi, good luck. Don't worry about getting back to me. Is it that chill? No. We text each other all the time throughout the day.

So if like, if we can't text each other back, we know we're, we're busy. We're always like super, uh, like we always talk about what we're doing. There's no like,

Oh, is he at a tournament? Like she knows I told her I have a tournament this weekend or whatever. So she might not hear from you for a couple of days. Not late at night, but like I'll call her at night after everything. It's, we always try to,

especially when we're apart, we try to call every day and text her out the day and stuff like that. Cause when I think of your generation and even the one that came before you i just think that you guys put such i imagine that you guys put such high demands on each other for technological comms communications yeah uh i think with that it can be a bit much just like always texting throughout the day yeah um especially when you're like you guys like like we live like five minutes away from each other here. So it's like, I don't really need a texture. It's just like, hey, come over.

And that's it. Like, I was like, oh, I had practice. Okay, come over after practice. Yeah. That's, that's really it. But when it's, when we're long distance, I think texting more often makes it, makes it easier. And calling as well. Do your parents like you?

Yeah, of course. We wouldn't be together this long if they didn't like me. As your brothers – is there any tension between you and your brother and your brother's ascent into stardom? Or is it admiration and like yeah go bro no no it's it's completely uh healthy we're super supportive of each other um i i wouldn't be uh living with him if it wasn't for that you know what i mean um if it wasn't like healthy like it is uh i want to follow in his footsteps and and all these other guys footsteps um so it's all like i'm just looking up to these guys like these guys are just like like athletes and and crazy good at what they're, what they're doing. You know, it's,

it's like you're watching some of the best grapplers in the world. Like, like this is kind of history, you know what I mean? Like just watching these guys train and stuff and it's crazy to be a part of it. Yeah. And the sport seems to be growing through some sort of blossoming, right? Like it was a plant that struggled for a while. Not struggled, but it was a plant that shot up, and now there's fruit on the tree.

Yeah, so I think it's grown a lot within the past two years. The sport is rapidly changing technique-wise and stuff like that, but it's also growing, uh, like so much, especially, I think a lot of people realize how important wrestling is after like Nikki Rod winning, uh, you know, taking silver at the last world tournament. So, um, I'm sure that's, that's got a big part of it. But also, you know, the people just in general, like people like Gordon Ryan bringing like trash talking into jiu-jitsu. Some people really like that stuff and it's entertaining for a lot of people. So that's what people want to see. And that's what brings more eyes into the sport.

That's what we need. It's almost – when I go to his account, or it's kind of why I was attracted to David Taylor too, there's an honesty to them. Yeah. Their life's not compartmentalized. Like a lot of – I have like zero respect for – I almost have zero respect for anyone who plays in the NFL or the NBA. I think they're complete sellouts. I think that they do more damage to the world than good, just all that shit. But this sport seems to be more like – these are just real dudes. Yeah, so I think it's –

It's just one character. Yeah, and this sport, you kind of – Like I don't think Gordon Ryan's trying to be think it's just one character yeah in this sport you you kind of like i don't think gordon ryan's trying to be he's just being himself yeah he's just being himself he he's a bracelet he's yeah he's gonna say what he's gonna say yeah that's the thing with jujitsu like you're kind of advertising yourself and uh like in a sport as big as the nfl like these people don't really have to uh like advertise theirself like right they already have these contracts they're making millions whatever but these guys are like we're just being ourselves like you see people like hillbilly hammer he did crazy good at that that one uh

tournament and everyone loves him especially after uh like he the post-fight win interview or whatever. He's just being himself. He's drinking Mountain Dew and stuff like that. You wouldn't see that from these NFL guys or whatever. But people being themselves, people like that. Something they can relate to. That video that they have on Flow where he goes back to his trailer park and he's talking to the lady who raised him in that fucked up trailer park situation. Yeah, that shit's just real as shit, right?

Yeah, yeah. If you don't like him, something's wrong with you. Exactly, exactly. I was happy for the guy winning those few matches he did. And he kind of blew up after that. He got some more matches from who's number one, which you can't not be happy for the guy. When you see someone like that, he was supposed to go against your teammate, right?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's Nicky Ryan? Yeah, Nicky Ryan. And then Nicky Ryan had to pull out for an injury, and then he has to go against Gordon. Does everyone in the community know that at this point it's a – what's that called when it's like not a real match like when mayweather fought logan paul it's a x oh oh shit i lost you all right fine hour and seven minutes wow mr rodriguez that's cool i can't tell you how excited I am now that I've interviewed both brothers. How neat. They're good people, right?

Oh, look, he's back. He's back. There he is. Let's see. Just shut off. Hey. Does everyone know it's like an exhibition match at that point? I think so.

Because a lot of people, like, I mean, Gordon Ryan's obviously he's the best in the world. Um, but, um, you saw some, some people like still saying like, Oh, I, you know, he's always, he always has a chance. Um, uh, you saw, he had like a little bit of success with, uh, him trying to force a leg entanglement, but, um, yeah But yeah, you can never really completely shut someone out from a potential win. But at the same time, it's Gordon Ryan. When your brother started and he went over to that team, I think the guy's name is Dana here, right? Dana Herr, yeah. Dana Herr and Gordon Ryan. And they had guy's name is Dana here, right? Dana. Yeah.

Dana, her and, and Gordon Ryan. And they had some crazy name for the team. Didn't they? What was it like? Uh, or squad or. Yeah. Dana, her death squad. Dana, her, Dana, her death squad.

Did you ever go over there and train? No, I never went there and Jane at that time. I was still in diapers. Yeah. I was still, I was still in high school i breastfed yeah did you know at that point that your brother had gotten mixed up with like like he had fallen into a bag of diamonds like holy cow did had it did it hit you like what when he told you that we were like what or did you not know at that point i think it's hard to realize the significance to it when you're so new to the sport right now

even like like nick it's like maybe he didn't even know what he was gonna like yeah he's this guy's the best in the world but like nick's already training with them so it's like what really is the significance of this and like who else can do this but as time goes by you realize like okay not everyone is capable of doing what what nick's been capable of so so other people would have could have even been given the opportunity but they wouldn't have been able to hang they would have got spit out exactly crazy crazy crazy crazy is is is um what's an ideal – is your situation pretty ideal now? Yeah.

I mean we train every day. Austin has great food. All I need is food and training. Training is great. Food is great. That's about it. Is there anything that you read like about that? Like, Hey, if you want to be great, you have to keep a really minimalist lifestyle.

Things can't be complicated. I get one girlfriend, I get one job and I get one training and like, you know, like I would hear that about Einstein that like he had three things he liked, um, violin, uh, physics and, violin, physics, and sailing. And that's it. Nothing else could come in. Yeah. I mean, I think if you have the energy for it, have at it.

But I can only do so much in a day, especially recovery-wise. I'm young, so I can recover pretty fast from a lot of the stuff, a lot of the training. I get hurt, not hurt injury-wise, but your body gets sore a lot. You're trying to kill someone for 45 minutes out of your day every single day. So it's not easy. Is the b team is it's a it's a place right yeah it's a and is it on the first floor yeah and is there is there anyone up above you guys uh no and in in all the videos it always looks clean sometimes the floor looks like someone's trying to build a swimming pool in there but other than that it looks clean. Sometimes the floor looks like someone's trying to build a swimming pool in there.

But other than that, it looks like a very clean, like, conducive environment for training. Yeah. And it's big? Yeah, mat space is really big. It's probably, like, I don't know, like, the square footage or whatever. But it's, like, three times the size of the last place I was training at. So, like, mat space wise and um how are is it's exploding in popularity correct yeah is there always how do you get how does someone um go in there and train you have to sign up on the internet or yeah just walk up to the door is there a chance that if you go there, there won't be room for you? So usually there's room unless it's like an open mat.

If it's like an open mat and there's going to be a lot of people. Like the last open mat they had, I think there was like 100 or 150 people on the mat. It's like, okay, they had to stop accepting people from coming in because there's too many people, too much people in the gym. But anyone can walk in, just like drop in. It's a $50 walk-in fee. And I'm not sure how much the membership is, but you have to apply or do a tryout. So you can like have a drop-in and be like, hey, I would like to join you guys. And you'll like roll with, you know, the guys or whatever.

They'll watch your roles. And if, if you're, if they think you're, you're good, then they'll accept you. And by good, you don't mean just good at jujitsu. You mean like a fit? Yeah. Yeah. It has to be healthy fit. They don't want, we don't want like weirdos in the gym like guys like just in general we don't want like a bad environment we don't want like there's some girls that we don't want fucking creeps in the gym you know right um so we have

to make sure like you're a good person and obviously you you're good at jiu-jitsu but also what you're like what your goal is most of the people at b team are competitive they want to pursue a career in jiu-jitsu they want to get better at jiu-jitsu so that's mainly what they're looking for are they in there too milk guys cops are there a lot of those or no i don't think so that i know that i can think of but there's honestly so many people it's kind of hard to keep track yeah um do you do you have a role with people you just don't know like do you have a role with someone you've never seen before or yeah do you have your group yeah so i kind of have like a like the people that i'm i'm comfortable with that I know are safe. And I know that are going to push the pace. Um, but also I'd like to like, if I go in one time, I'll be like, okay, now I, right now I want to go hard or like right now I want to go, like,

I want to focus on this technique. So, uh, usually the people that are dropping in aren't as good as like the guys I'm training with daily. But yeah, yeah. I'll, I'll roll with whoever, you know, especially if I see a new face, I'll, I'll like to, uh, you know, ask them for a role. It sounds like with all of the things you're saying too is like hey you don't want to roll with someone who's a who's an idiot you don't want to roll with a new guy who's 280 pounds who's broided out of his mind who's accidentally going to fucking yank your shoulder out of the socket

but then other than that you're willing to go at it with anybody yeah if you're going to get injured it's going to be in a tournament it's not going to be in practice yeah yeah exactly um uh what about um when you ufc fighters um i had volkanovsky on the show and i i think it was i think it was on that show he told me did he come over there to the b team i think he told me that he was you guys were just getting behind him in the rear naked choke and sinking in as hard as possible and then they would start the clock and he'd have to get out did i hear that right or uh and were you part of that i was not a part of that he might have been there when i wasn't there because i'll come to jersey wherever for like a week or so i here and there so I don't think he's been to B-team.

Maybe it was when he was training with – because Craig is kind of like his jiu-jitsu coach, scrapping coach. Yeah, Craig's in his corner during the fights. It's crazy. He was at the Korean zombie fight. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe he was doing that with Craig. Okay.

I thought maybe your brother had done that too to him. Is that normal? Like will you do that? Will you like let someone sink something in just as deep as possible? Yeah. Okay. Time to get out. So if we're like drilling, yeah, we'll do that. But it's kind of hard to do that during the live. I actually went to sleep. Like we were drilling a guillotine escape. It's on my Instagram. We were drilling a guillotine escape, and I have my own way that I normally escape. But Nicky Ryan is showing this way.

I'm like, okay, this has to be – you can never guillotine Nicky Ryan. So this is like the way to do it. So I'm like – Where is it? How far down is it? It might be yeah keep keep scrolling yeah it's a little bit further down it's like one of the shitty like security footage uh videos okay go on you can keep talking if you oh it's there. The middle one? This one. Yeah. So, I'm like, okay, let me get in on this. And literally the first escape I tried doing, I immediately go to sleep.

And then Nicky Rod's there rubbing my belly. And they're all laughing at me. And who did that to you? It was me and who did that to you uh it was it was ethan's little brother and and why didn't you tap you didn't even know i think i don't know if i tapped or not but it was it just came on so fast it was too fast for me to tap i guess wow yeah oh look how sweet your brother is yeah who's the guy who's lifting your legs uh that's damian anderson that's the guy that took third at uh at west coast trials

oh you know i i love seeing that your brother rubbing your stomach another guy i mean they give a shit they get people give a shit yeah yeah yeah like i said it's healthy they're laughing at me but uh they're you know they're there to fucking put blood back into my head wow yeah and that's just that's just okay and is that the only time you've ever gone out yep that's amazing yeah it's crazy to go out fucking drilling like that it came on so fast i had no clue wow and that guy obviously knows what he's doing uh yeah yeah he's good wow crazy um and and i think i saw one of your matches, um, this past weekend or the ADCC, you put someone to sleep, right? Um, I didn't put anyone to sleep.

I think I saw a video of, uh, one of the Tackett brothers putting something to sleep. Okay. Maybe that was it. It was in some highlight. Yeah. Highlight reel. I saw some dude. He put someone to sleep.

Yeah. It was, it was the blonde haired dude. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's, uh okay that's uh that's andrew tackett he's a fucking stud yeah he looked pretty he didn't make it though right no he actually lost to uh damien they had a really uh close fight yeah and he seemed like a great

sport about it too yeah he seemed like a cool dude did you know him yeah so uh we trained a long time ago once when Nick was on like tour before a B team was at Texas and stuff. And then we were, we're actually both on the flow grappling has who who's next. They have a reality TV show coming out and he's on it. So we got to, you know, talk and stuff there. So we know each other, we got to talk and stuff there. So we know each other. We follow each other and stuff like that. Do you like doing the media with Flow Grappling? Do you like the media, or is it kind of like a necessary pain in the ass?

That's cool. I mean, I like the attention is good for me as, as an athlete and stuff. So I don't mind. Someone wants, someone has a question down here. The comments are going nuts. What does Jay think of Dylan Danis? You know, I've been watching UFC for years for, you know, I watch it every Saturday, like crazy. Right. And I, but, but, and I only know this guy's name because just from like shit where he's like in the back of a truck like throwing coke at someone. Yeah.

Or he's like – I think he was with Conor McGregor when Conor McGregor got in some fights. So that's the only reason why I know his name. Is this guy a real fighter? He's a jiu-jitsu guy that transitioned into MMA. Okay. um he's a uh jujitsu guy that transitioned into mma okay um i think he fought like a few nobodies and just like talk shit online for like years now um it's been a while since he's fought i'm pretty sure but i don't think i like him he just talks shit all the time but has like nothing to like back it up. Really. We have to see him perform. Yeah.

We have to see him perform. Okay. He's got a blue check mark. I think I've actually asked him to come on the podcast before. Oh, okay. I, okay.

Yeah. It's pictures of him with like Mayweather and, and Conor McGregor. Yeah. Okay. Well, shit. I hope it's working for him.

Oh, he, he got chubby. Oh, did he a's working for him. Oh, he got chubby. Oh, did he? A little bit, yeah. Interesting. Oh, it looks like he had surgery. All right.

Well, hey, dude, I really, really appreciate you coming on. Awesome. When is the ADCC event? September. uh awesome again when when are when is the adcc event uh september i don't know when it's in september but september okay so it's a ways off yeah will you compete at all between now and then yeah i have something coming up it'll actually be in philly uh i'll be on fury uh yeah i'll be on fury grappling oh and and that's on ufc fight pass i believe so oh do you know the date on that uh may 28th and do you know who you're going against no i don't know does anyone know if i look it up right now will it tell me um maybe i might not be allowed to say

though i don't know okay okay okay okay gotcha. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. And did that come up? Did you get that gig because you won the ADCC trials? Yeah. I had some, uh, people come, come, uh, offer me fights like immediately after. Oh, that's awesome, dude. Yeah. I'm stoked for you. I can't wait till you get a fat sponsor. Man, you and your brother are so cool. Thank you. Yeah.

And more than just you're doing well, you're just good dudes. Thank you. And people need to just know good dudes. It seems like that whole team and all the video, like you're just – it's healthy environment for boys. It's healthy man environment. Yeah. So it's cool. All right, brother.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on. I appreciate you giving me access. You've been great in the text. And I'll stay in touch and keep bugging you. And like it usually takes me five texts to get a response from your brother, and I don't mind. So I know you guys are busy. So don't ever feel like you have to respond, but I'll be bugging the shit out of you.

It's all good. All right, dude. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. See you around. All right, dude. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. I see you around. All right. Bye.

Bye. Ooh, that's a good dude. 20 years old. Is that old? He said he was want to show you guys something. I think it's over here in the YouTube comments.

Oh, maybe I should save it for a live call-in show. All right. Maybe I'll save it for a live call-in show. Wow. The Tom Porter show is doing great. People really like that show. All right, guys. Thank you so much.

So tomorrow I go on the road. I do not like leaving my house. I cannot stand leaving my house. I'm such a homebody. And by leaving my house, I mean I just don't like to leave within 50 miles of here. The farthest I like to go is maybe Dave's house or Greg's house.

Go to Aromas. But I'm hitting the road. So the next two weeks are going to be a little weird. I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh man, did you see in the – did you see, Gabe, that in the newsletter that went out, we put the wrong link to Paper Street Coffee?

Fucking rookie hour over here. Well, it was our first newsletter. If you guys signed up for it and you didn't get it, it's because it went to your spam. There's something we did that made it all go to spam. Talk shit online, Sevan. I don't know what that means. Go to Josh's house. Is that when the camp is?

I will be down there in that area, which is kind of funny. Yeah, Miranda's been so nice. She said I could come on Sunday, I think, or something. You did not receive the, uh, the newsletter. Uh, Melissa, just check your spam. It's gotta be in there. I think it went straight to my spam. I think that's how I know that. All right, guys. Uh, Oh yeah. I was going to look and see what we're doing tomorrow. What's the plan?

Oh, we're going to be on tonight. Tonight I'm coming on with Brian. Oh, it's not on the calendar. I better tell Sousa to put that on the calendar. Can you put tonight on the calendar, Sousa? You did get yours, alright why in the newsletter it pushes subscribe but we are getting we are already subscribed so

basically since we're just launching I want that subscribe button so if you forward it to someone that they just see subscribe just right up in their shit you know what i mean so that's what i'm hoping i'm hoping you forward it to a thousand of your closest enemies and okay so tonight we we have a show but good question adam um and then tomorrow i travel so So, um, tomorrow's a good Friday and Passover. I don't even know what that is.

And then the 16th, I don't have anyone scheduled the 17th. I'm supposed to do live from Ukraine, but I, I, oh, I better call you Evgeny and tell him that's going to be so hard. Oh man. Shit's getting weird. Uh, okay. I'm going to figure this out. We have tons of amazing guests lined up in the queue i just haven't scheduled them yet i don't know what's gonna happen it's gonna like i'm getting like

so anxious i gotta pack up like so much of my shit and take it on the road with me not this shit but i got like a backup system too i wish you guys could see this system i don't know if there's a way i could show you where i sit you should take a picture and post it sunday's my birthday i need a birthday show seven will be making fun of people from the hotel lobby again oh yeah i forgot about that show you're gonna cancel on the i don't know if cancel it would be a dick move i might do a dick move i i have potential to be a dick. I was thinking more. I, I reschedule. Oh God, there's so much funny shit. Speaking of dick moves, I want to show you guys,

I need to do another live calling show, show you all these silly videos that I've been getting anyway. Okay. Bye. Love you guys. Have a good day. And I will see you guys this evening with Mr. Brian friend. I've invited Angelo too, but I haven't heard back from him. Bye.