The Ruotolos Are Building A Gym In Costa Rica From Scratch

By
Filip Zanki
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Brand New Ruotolos Gym In Costa Rica
The Ruotolos are putting their money where their mouth is, literally, and using their recent cash prizes to build a brand new gym in Marbella, Costa Rica, completely from scratch.

Kade and Tye Ruotolo, the most famous grappling brothers at the moment, have had a very fruitful 2022. They both had highly impressive performances at the ADCC and in ONE FC, which, apart from championship accolades, brought them a significant amount of cash. The Ruotolos claimed on more than one occasion that they’ll put the money towards building a new gym in Costa Rica, and they are now doing exactly what they said.

And, in this case, the word building is literal. The Ruotolos are building a gym from the ground up in Marbella. They recently shared their progress on their joint Instagram account:

The Ruotolos also told Jiu-Jitsu Times that:

“It won’t be the type of gym where we’re doing classes every day, it’ll be kind of a “head” training spot for us, so that when we’re out there, we can keep training, and can also run Jiu-Jitsu camps.

The goal would be to bring people out for a week, teach them how to surf, and offer private tsessions hroughout the week, along with other activities. Fishing, archery, mountain biking, all of that.

The plan’s already in motion, we’re trying to make it happen – the gym should be up and finished by the end of the year. That’s the goal.”

How the Ruotolos will manage their new project along with their highly busy competition schedule remains to be seen, but the brothers seem to have a great handle on things for now.

At the moment, there are no scheduled bouts for the Ruotolos, although Tye got into it with Gordon Ryan on social media recently, opening the door for some potentially highly entertaining matches against New Wave Jiu-Jitsu members, or even the “King” himself soon.

From Radical Surgery To Double World BJJ Champion

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BJJ World
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Brian Germain From Surgery to Double BJJ ChampionC

Brian Germain is a 63-year-old lifelong martial artist who underwent major surgery (radical prostatectomy) in April of 2021, only to become a double BJJ champion by winning gold in his division and the absolute at the 2021 World Masters BJJ Championships only 6 months later.

Meet Brian Germain

Brian The T1000″ Germain is a Judo and BJJ Black belt, currently aged 63, a world BJJ champion and a USA Judo Olympic Alternate.

Busy training as much as he could since he was 13, mostly Judo in his 20s and early 30s, and later on, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu through his 40s and 50s. He was using grappling to stay in shape and felt and looked really healthy.

(Un)luckily for him, COVID happened and forced Germain into a hospital, where he discovered an elevated PSA, which is a substance that indicates the presence of prostate cancer.

“Through all my years of training, I had neglected my checkups. I mean, I didn’t know about PSA screenings and how simple they were, but that’s no excuse.” the BJJ champion said. “I take full responsibility for being a dumba** in that regard. I should have known. If I had simply gone to a doc to get checked up I would have known.”

With all the COVID shutdowns, though, it took a year before the Lakeland, FL got to Brian. Just shy of his 62nd birthday, Germain got surgery called radical prostatectomy, which means he removed his entire prostate.

This was April 12, 2021.

Brian Germaine Surgery to BJJ Champion

From Surgery To Double Gold BJJ Champion In 7 months

Germain, being the lifelong martial artist he is, trained right up until his surgery date:

“I trained for my surgery like I would have trained for a tournament. It helped me handle the stress and it got me in really good shape. I figured I’d be ready for anything that came my way.

I even held out the carrot of a comeback to the mat at some point.  I was determined not to let this procedure ultimately define me.”

And that comeback happened in style. Seven months to the date, on November 12, 2021, Brian Germain competed at the IBJJF World Masters BJJ Championships in Las Vegas.

“Training for a world event, at a black belt level, while recuperating from the aftermath of a prostatectomy wasn’t easy, but it made my double gold even more satisfying” – said the double BJJ champion, with an eye on repeating the performance in 2022.

Brian’s fight with his cancer is still not over, as there is still a risk it may come back:

“I must always be ready because, statistically, at least in my head, my cancer has a good chance of reoccurring. So, training for competitions helps me stay ready for any fight. I guess it’s the price I have to pay for being a dumba** and not getting checked out sooner.

That’s why I tell all the guys on the mat to know your PSA. Get it checked regularly starting as early as 40 but definitely by 50.”

The BJJ Champion currently lives in North Carolina with his wife and is not thinking about slowing down his training, or his competition preparation.

Double Masters BJJ Champion Brian Germain

First Hispanic Blind BJJ Black Belt Shares His Moving Story

By
BJJ World
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First Hispanic Bling BJJ Black Belt Carlos Alvarez
The very first Hispanic blind BJJ Jblack belt in the world, Carlos Alvarez, shares his inspiring story about the journey from a kid who got bullied heavily in school, in a country where there is no real future for disabled people, to finding a purpose and passion through Jiu-Jitsu.

Carlos Alvarez is a Braziliabn Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Even though there are more and more people with the rank in the world, getting one is still not an easy feat to accomplish. In the case of Alvarez, it was a humongous feat, as he goe down into history as the very first Hispanic blind BJJ black belt.

In the words of Carlos himself:

“I am the first blind Hispanic to be a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu

I used to get bullied in high school like nobody’s business. They used to make my life very miserable when I was in high school because I was like a big target for bullying. I always wanted to learn how to defend myself.

And one day, one friend in high school introduced me to Jiu-Jitsu. I fell in love immediately of Jiu-Jitsu. So, I started to train and I never stopped.”

The first Hispanic blind BJJ black belt proudly attributes his current standing in life to discovering and sticking with Jiu-Jitsu:

“Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a gift that God gave me to add purpose in my life. Because, when I used to live in my country, it was almost impossible for me to go to college or to get a job. So, I didn’t have anything to do. And the only activity that I was able to do as a blind person in my country was Jiu-Jitsu.

Jiu-Jitsu has helped me to improve in everything in my life. It has made me more strong, more positive. And also, I had gained so much confidence. It has repaired my life in a big way.”

 

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Plenty of BJJ and UFC stars, including Ricardo Liborio, Justin Wren, Din Thomas, and Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera supported and commented on Carlos’ video after it came out on the Matmade Show Instagram account.

blind bjj black belt Carlos Alvarez

 

Tom Hardy BJJ Training At Daisy Fresh (VIDEO)

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BJJ World
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Tom Hardy BJJ Training At Daisy Fresh
Actor Tom Hardy has been lighting up the BJJ World lately, showing up to train at some of the best academies in preparation for yet more tournaments under his blue belt. The last academy to host a Tom Hardy BJJ visit was none other than everyone’s favorite Daisy Fresh.

Tom Hardy has been going really strong at Jiu-Jitsu lately. After making headlines for winning a couple of gold medals at two local tournaments, the famous “Venom”, “Batman”, and “Peaky Blinders” actor has been training with some of the best in the business. Less than a couple of weeks ago, we reported the Tom Hardy BJJ visit to Danaher’s gym, and the praise the mastermind of grappling had for the actor.

Hardy has been going at it strong, ending up in another high-level competitor academy in Heath Pedigo’s unique Daisy Fresh school (which is actually called “Pedigo Submission Fighting”).

As you can see from the video, Tom Hardy is carefully listening and learning about Pedog’s knee cut pass details, joining the class much to the amusement and pleasure of all the other students.

As you can hear Pedigo saying, Tom DeBlass is to “blame” for the Tom Hardy BJJ visit his academy got.

DeBlass has been writing a lot about his namesake on his Instagram account, and the two look like they are developing a bond:

“A few weeks ago I woke up to an Instagram tag from Tom Hardy. Turns out he was in the Cincinnati area filming and popped into my affiliate @nkymartialartsacademy with the great Scott Smith my (black belt and police chief).

We ended up exchanging phone numbers.

From that day on there have been some days we FaceTimed two hours straight. Not just jibberish, we talk in depth. From conundrums, ideologies, irony to oxymorons.

The parallels between certain aspects of our life is almost too coincidental. We speak of Jiu-Jitsu often, I send him techniques that I believe can help his style. He’s just quickly becoming an incredible friend, and I am so thankful to have connected with him.

Last night we spoke of my Father. Since my Father died, in the manner in which he did. I felt largely responsible for his death.

Tom is a smart smart man. He knew exactly what to say and how to say it to remove the dagger that has been sticking in my heart since his death. I will replay those words for the rest of my life.”

Brianna Ste-Marie vs. Mayssa Bastos To Make WNO History

By
Filip Zanki
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Brianne Ste-Marie vs mayssa bastos WNO history

Brianna Ste-Marie is absolutely enjoying life after ADCC, set to fight fellow ADCC competitor Mayassa Bastos in the first-ever WNO women’s main event, and getting honored by the mayor of her hometown Montreal for her ADCC success.

The First Ever WNO Women’s Man Event

Brianna Ste-Marie is a Canadian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt representing Brazilian Top Team. The Who’s Number One (WNO) 135 lbs champion and ADCC silver medalist is set to become a part of history once again in 2022 by facing off with 4x World champion, EBI champion, and WNO champion Mayssa Bastos.

The two exceptional grapplers will face off in the main event of the November 11 WNO event, after the original main event between light Heavyweight champion Pedro Marinho and Giancarlo Bodoni fell through because of injury.

Brianne Ste-Marie has only been a black belt for less than a year but is already writing history and becoming one of the best pound-for-pound grapplers. Her stellar ADCC silver medal performance saw her take out one of the favorites Bianca Basilio.

Mayssa Bastos, on the other hand, is an experienced black belt with titles in IBJJF, EBI, AJP, WNO, and CBJJ. She also competed at the ADCC, which is the only title she lacks at the moment, but lost to favorite and eventual bronze medalist Bia Mesquita.

Brianna Ste-Marie will face Mayssa Bastos at bantamweight but is going to have the size advantage. With Ste-Marie favoring pressure passing, and Bastos the owner of one of the most exciting guard gams in BJJ, this main event promises to be an action-packed affair.

 

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Brianne Ste-Marie Is On A Roll

After her impressive ADCC performance as a fresh black belt, the first Canadian to ever get an ADCC medal, Brianna Ste-Marie was honored back home by the mayor of Montreal.

Montreal mayor Valerie Plante sent the following letter to Brianne Ste-Marie congratulating her on her historic achievement at the ADCC:

“It is with true Montreal pride that I wish to express to you my enthusiasm following your victory at the last world grappling championship. First Canadian medalist at this competition and athlete honored more than once on the podium, you contribute to the spread of your sport in the most beautiful way.

Behind each victory and each title belt, I detect your discipline, your sacrifices, and your enormous passion. This determination commands the greatest respect. The significance of your success at the 14th ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club) Submission Fighting World Championship is, however, historic. At 26, you have already made national grappling history and the future is just as promising.

On behalf of Montrealers, I congratulate you on your performance. In the process, I also underline the importance of your achievement for a more active metropolis, in particular through the various Brazilian jiu-jitsu courses that you offer to the population.

Wishing you a long career at the height of your ambitions, please accept, Madame Ste-Marie, the expression of my distinguished consideration.”

 

Kyle Bohem STRIPPED Of Polaris Title For Instagram Comment

By
Filip Zanki
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Kyle Boehm Stripped Of Polaris title
Kyle Bohem is ending up drawing attention to himself quite a lot lately. Now, Polaris has decided to strip him of his heavyweight Polaris title as a result of comments about the Holocaust he made on Instagram.

10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu black belt and top competitor Kyle Boehm needed up without his Polaris Heavyweight world title after commenting on NBA player Kyrie Irving’s post on Instagram in regards to the Holocaust.

Kyle Boehm denied the Holocaust in a post from Irving where the NBA player apologized for unintentionally posting an anti-semitic documentary “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” which landed him in trouble.

Bohem’s claimed in his comment that the Holocaust was a hoax, replying to one person on the comments thread:

“That’s the truth, it didn’t happen”, and following that up with a reply to another person “it’s a hoax.”

Kyle Boehm Polaris title strip comments

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, Polaris seems to employ a zero-tolerance policy for behavior like this and have decided to strip Kyle Boehm of his Polaris title following his comments.

A story on the official Polaris Instagram account stated that:

“We were recently made aware of comments made by Kyle Boehm on social media that are not in line with Polaris’ code of ethics.

In response to Boehm’s actions, we have stripped him of his Polaris title and he will not be invited to compete for our promotion again.”

Polaris strip Kyle Boehm of title

Just recently Kyle Boehm accused the former Danaher Death Squad, and now the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu team of fixing matches in some of the biggest professional BJJ events, by doing fake close-out matches, and denying other athletes a real chance at winning something.

Bohem’s latest grappling performance was at EBI 20: the Absolutes, where he lost for the first time ever in the Eddie Bravo Invitational to B-Team’s Nick Rodriguez via a rear-naked choke in overtime.

Heel Hook Finish In A Street Fight (VIDEO)

By
Filip Zanki
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Heel Hook Finish In Street Fight
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu might not be the most glamorous way to engage in a street fight, but in a 1 on 1 scenario it has yet to fail. Here is an example of a heel hook finish ending a scrappy street fight with lots of cringy grappling in it.

Would you use Jiu-Jitsu in a street fight? If your answer is “it depends on the situation” then you are one of the smart ones. Going for a heel hook finish in a street fight might not seem like a good idea, but when a street fight enters grappling mode, pretty much anything is a go. Obviously, knowing leg locks can come in handy, even if you do them like in the WWE.

In the video below, a recording of a street fight shows two people engaged in a street fight, with one of them clearly intent on grappling his way to victory. Preceding the heel hook finish of the fight, as the video starts the “grappler” is holding some sort of a very bad single leg takedown position.

The other person is obviously heavier and throws several punches to the abdomen and ribs of the “grappler”, who eventually gets the fight to the ground, getting in top half guard. He then decides to stand to his feet, getting a heel hook grip on one leg as the bottom person tries some hook kick/up kick hybrid.

The “grappler” is now obviously set to go for a heel hook finish, and he sits back, throwing a leg over to enter a sloppy double outside ashi, with an outside heel hook now pretty tight.

He is forced to roll once, as the other guy preceded to kick him with the free leg, but at the end, gets a cranking heel hook finish, as the onlookers (and whoever is recording) urge the other guy to tap out.

A guy comes to pull them apart after the tap.

 

Polaris 22 Results: Jimenez Shines, Condit Submitted

By
BJJ World
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Polaris 22 results: Jimenez wins, Condits taps

Polaris 22: Middleweight Grand Prix had exciting matches throughout the night between the Grand Prix and a big-name super fight. Roberto Jimenez walked away as the new Middleweight Grand Prix Champion and UFC start Carlos Condit got submitted in the super fights. We bring you all the Polaris 22 results in detail.

Polaris 22 Results: Middleweight Grand Prix

Last night (November 5) Polaris 22 took place in Southampton, England, featuring an exciting showdown between 8 of the very best middleweight grapplers on the Polaris roster.

Roberto Jimenez walked away with the belt, after a stellar display that saw him get past Shane Fishman, Hunter Colvin, and Jed Hue on his way to the Polaris Middleweight Grand Prix title and a $20.000 cash prize.

Jimenez defeated Fishman on points, before submitting Colvin and Hoe with a  triangle choke and arm triangle, respectively.

England’s Jed Hue had an impressive way to the finals himself, racking up wins over top-shelf grapplers like Alan Sanchez and Oliver Taza.

The detailed Polaris 22 results show how the action took place in the Middleweight Grand Prix:

Round 1

Hunter Colvin def. Owen Livesey (RNC)

Roberto Jimenez def. Shane Fishman (Points)

Oliver Taza def. Mateusz Szczecinski (Decision)

Jed Hue Def. Alan Sanchez (Points)

Round 2

Roberto Jimenez def. Hunter Colvin (Triangle Choke)

Jed Hue def. Oliver Taza (Points)

Final

Roberto Jimenez def. Jed Hue (Arm Triangle Choke)

Polaris 22 Super Fight: Williams vs. Condit

Ash Willimas earned a heel hook victory over former UFC star Carlos Condit in the Polaris 22 super fight.

Condi, with the obvious size advantage, scored a takedown over Williams early, but Williams displayed some trademark high-level guard play to lure “The Natural born KIller” into a leg entanglement, where he quickly go the tap with a pretty tight 50/50 inside heel hook.

Immediately after wrapping up the Polaris 22 results for the night, Williams issued a call-out to current UFC champion Aljamain Sterling who, after his impressive performance at High Rollerz, looks like he doesn’t mind filling the time in between UFC fight with high-level grappling matches.

Danielle Kelly One FC Title Shot, Inspiration, The Musumeci Diet

By
Filip Zanki
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Danielle kelly One FC Title Shot, inspiration, diet
Danielle Kelly One FC performances have earned her another trip back to the circle against Mariia Molchanova soon. Before their match, she talked about training Sabmo herself, drawing inspiration from other grapplers, and thinking about trying the Mikey Musumeci diet.

In anticipation of the next Danielle Kell One FC performance, her third, set for November 18, at One on Prime Video, Kelly has been quite active on social media and different outlets, talking about many different subjects.

Danielle Kelly is looking to become the first ever One Submission Grappling female world champion, and going 3-0 with a win against Sabmo World Champion Molchanova would no doubt get her a title shot in her next outing.

Even though an official Danielle Kelly One FC title shot offer still has to wait until after November 18, the Karl Pravec black belt has her sights firmly set on it:

“Whoever I go against for the title, if I ever compete for the title, it would mean the world to me. It’s because it’ll just be another accomplishment that I wanted to accomplish since I was a kid doing the sport since I was 11.”

Despite begin an accomplished BJJ black belt, Kelly has some Sambo experience:

“I competed in a few sambo tournaments. So the rules are kind of weird, but I think when I was starting to do sambo tournaments, I was focused on the leg locking because I want to just work on that when it started to become popular.

“I feel like they get a submission or they get an arm or leg on you, you would have to be really intelligent and actually know what you’re doing when you’re trying to get out of [the] submission. We can’t just let them take an arm or a leg, or they’re going to break it.”

The Danielle Kelly One FC career can be a log one, perhaps even extending into MMA in the future. For now, though, the 26-year-old draws inspiration from Mikey Musumeci and the Rutolo brothers’ performances in One submission grappling:

“When I saw Mikey winning the world title, at first it made me really motivated because I do wanna win the ONE championship world title for women’s grappling. It brings a lot of motivation and Kade and Mikey winning it was really good to see.”

Speaking of Musumeci, Danielle Kelly is looking to put some muscle on, and is considering giving the Musumeci pasta and pizza diet a go (The MMA Superfan):

“I’m a small person. I walk around 115. I’m a natural one-fifteener so I don’t really gain weight, which is kind of sad. So right now lately, I’ve been trying to gain some muscle so I’ve been trying to eat a lot, so I might just do the Mikey [Musumeci] diet.”

Brandon McCaghren: Stop Quitting Early In Training!

By
Filip Zanki
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Brandon McCaghren on Early Quitting in BJJ
1oth Planet Jiu-Jitsu standout coach and ADCC commentator Brandon Mccaghren has something important to say on the notion of quitting early in BJJ, or worse, faking being tired and scrambling at the very end. Everyone should listen to this.

The head coach of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu in Decatur, Brandon McCaghen shared a very insightful video on his Instagram account. In what seems to be an after class addressing to everyone in the room, he calls people out, in a very polite and respectful way, on quitting too early during rolling in class.

Brandon’s focus is on the syndrome of claiming you’re done and have nothing left but then scrambling like there’s no tomorrow a couple of rounds later. Rolling hard is all tight, and scrambling hard is also perfectly fine… but when you do it right, you shouldn’t be able to scramble at the end of class.

According to Brandon McCaghren: “There should never be scrambling at the end of practices“.

Scrambles are all good, but you should use them in trying to apply your game to any roll possible. There is no real point in quitting early vs. some people in the room, just to go all out berserking when nobody expects it on others at the end of practice. This takes away from everyone’s ability to learn.

McCaghren also adds, challenging his students without offending anyone in particular:

“If you have nothing left, hey, no problem, cry, quit, there’s nothing left, I get it. But if you cry, quit, give up, “I need a beak” and then you are scrambling at the end, I don’t know… “You tell me.”

The takeaway message here is that you can quit if you have to, and it is perfectly okay,. However, either quite when you’ve got nothing left in the tank, or if you quit early, stay out. Otherwise, you’re just gaslighting your training partners.

 

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