Is John Danaher wearing a wig?

Who’s On Top This Week:

This week we showcase FloGrappling’s official P4P No-Gi rankings, which should cause a few arguments on the mats if you’re paying attention 🤓 

Sitting on his porcelain golden throne at the top of the men’s list is none other than ‘The King’ - Gordon Ryan.

If you’re new to BJJ, you’d almost be forgiven for not even knowing his name, as aside from sparring Jones a little (Jon, that is, not Craig), he’s been largely absent this year.

The women’s rankings have the Welsh sensation Ffion Davies at #1 - and with her title-retaining win over Jasmine Rocha at Tezos WNO 19 this last weekend - I’d say she’s there to stay 💪 

Both of these lists are stacked with talent though and it’ll be damn interesting to see how these tables change before the year is finished.

In fact - that’s probably a good topic for this week’s ‘Things That Keep You Up At 2 AM’ poll (keep scrolling ⬇️)

What’s Happening On The Mats:

A belt ceremony you’ll want to avoid

Anyone else ever have that recurring nightmare where you wake up screaming with your heart racing in a cold sweat - thinking that your professor has taken your belt back in front of the whole gym!? (or worse yet, the whole internet!?) 😬 

Well… for most people it’s only ever a bad dream. But for this guy ⬆️ - it’s a harsh reality. All credit to him though, he doesn’t seem too upset by the whole ordeal and dare I say, even looks a touch relieved.

So - if you ever feel like your jiu-jitsu is trash and maybe you don’t deserve the belt you have - well, this proves you could be right and it might get taken back if you don’t sharpen up 😂 

John Danaher Danahair working his magic

This, in my opinion, is an epic piece of Jiu-Jitsu history 📚

The clip above shows Renzo Gracie & John Danaher in the veeeery early days - getting experimental and developing some techniques that are now widely used within the sport.

In less than 2 minutes you’ll see:

• The origins of classic sumi gaeshi sweep for modern jiu jitsu

• Renzo asking for a hug as John tries to tap him with a ‘spine lock’

• John Danaher with Danahair (that alone should be enough for you)

And with all of it filmed on what has to be an old Nokia mobile, the nostalgia factor is sky-high in this one.

I’d pay good money to have been a fly on that wall - just to witness what crazy stuff they figured out that didn’t make the cut 🪰

Royce Gracie: 1 - IRS: 0

Royce Gracie has got the W over some big, strong and downright dangerous opponents in his time. But until recently, none as lethal as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 📄 💵 

As the UFC’s first champion and the ‘spark’ that lit the early fires of BJJ’s popularity - Royce is a legend in the jits community and managed to do pretty well for himself during and after his career.

From his expansive gym network and other business activities to his personal earnings and even his wife's earnings - the IRS has been chasing him for years, alleging that he might have cooked a few numbers on his tax returns in the late 2000s… to the tune of $1,962,222.25 USD.

Well, in true Gracie fashion, he stormed their dojo (i.e. took out three lawsuits against the Commissioner of the IRS) and had the liability reduced to about ¼ of what they were chasing him for.

Big oss energy 💪 You can find an interesting Forbes breakdown of it all here.

Do Less. No, Wait, Do More:

The Good Option:

Take The Back Like The Welsh Weapon Does

Ffion has slick jiu-jitsu and a great Welsh accent to boot - making her instructionals as pleasant as a warm cup of tea and as dangerous as trying to pronounce ‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch’

Her nifty back-take-sequence in the video below show’s off a great option from the deep De La Riva guard when your opponent takes a big back step to avoid the sweep (doomed if you do, doomder if you don’t) 😈 

Hit play below and use the next 4 minutes of your life to pick up a thing or two from the world’s #1 female P4P No-Gi grappler:

The Not-So-Good Option:

Bringing Your Relationship Issues To The Mat

You never hang the washing out. You haven’t done the dishes all week. And you always leave your stinky knee braces on the floor 😷 

These are all valid problems that any relationship needs to address -but, timing is everything.

Natalie may indeed need to lift her game when it comes to chores at home, but bro, you’ve gotta let it go while you’re in comp.

I mean, you’ve even got mount - life is good! 👍

Things That Keep You Up At 2 AM:

“If you ain’t first, you last” - Richard Robertson

This timeless piece of wisdom applies to BJJ athletes as much as it does Nascar - there’s only one spot at the top and anything less is an L. 

Now, while we are all athletes in our own right (you should see me after a coffee), today I’m talking about the only 2 that sit at the top of the FloGrapling Official No-Gi P4P Rankings right now - Gordon Ryan & Ffion Davies

So… ⬇️

This week’s big question:

Last week’s results:

Last week I asked you - “Do you like a big class warm-up/workout?”

• 66% of you said - ‘🙅‍♂️ Hell No. I can do star jumps at home.’ 

• 33% of you said - ‘💪 Hell Yes. I'm there to get fit too.’

Josh replied to let us know that we really didn’t consider the whole situation and neglected to realise that BJJ might in fact be ruining some people’s star jump training:

I wonder how much money is in professional star jumping? 💫 🤔 

The Meme Open Mat:

‘Sir, you’ll have to leave - you’re abusing our ‘unlimited refills’ policy’ 🥤 🥤 🥤 

Think you’ve got the spiciest BJJ memes going around? Hit reply, send them through to get them featured 🔥 

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So, scratch our back and we will scratch yours!👇 (Note: the back-scratching deal isn’t one of the rewards…)