B-Team Jiu-Jitsu is undergoing some changes now that Craig Jones will be retiring and apparently they’re planning on becoming an MMA gym. It’s a pretty big pivot for one of the world’s most popular BJJ academies but it does actually make sense based on some of the key figures involved and the opportunities in front of them. The news came at the beginning of a recent episode of the Simple Man podcast; which is run by three of the four remaining owners of B-Team Jiu-Jitsu. Nicky Rodriguez, Damien Anderson, and Ethan Crelinsten run the show and for this particular episode, the final team-leader Nicky Ryan joined them.
The departure of Craig Jones and what he originally announced as the end of B-Team was first on the agenda, and Anderson explained exactly what’s happening for the rest of the squad:
“Basically what’s happening is, Craig (Jones) and Seth (Belisle) are super busy with CJI, right? It’s a f***ing massive tournament. It’s just easier for us to run the ship, we’re already doing it. So it’s just a transfer of ownership, literally nothing is changing in the gym.”
Anderson is right of course, the CJI 2 lineup features some of the best grapplers in the world and the promotion has quickly become one of the biggest in the sport. Rodriguez then clarified that there will be some differences to the way they used to work:
“Some things will change. We’ll adjust the culture a little bit, different ideology behind training. Especially with this whole eco stuff, it’s like making a transition towards it… It’s more of a rebrand than an ending of anything.”
Anderson then elaborated on what those changes will look like for B-Team, including the reveal of plans to offer all aspects MMA:
“We want to rebrand to a family gym where we can focus on the next generation of athletes and have like full encompassing martial arts. It’ll be striking, wrestling, grappling…”
Although Anderson is an excellent MMA fighter in his own right already, he’s also right in the middle of his rise to the top and is currently focusing on becoming a UFC fighter. Rodriguez explained that it’ll be someone else taking their striking classes:
“We’ll specialise obviously in Jiu-Jitsu but when we’re ready for the expansion of other martial arts like striking, we’ll make sure that we have somebody who’s absolutely one of the best coaches in the world.”
Ryan also gave fans a bit of perspective on how that switch to being an MMA gym could actually be an excellent business choice in their current location:
“There’s not too many like full MMA gyms in Austin, there’s a lot of Jiu-Jitsu gyms but there’s not really any like super high-level MMA gyms. So we kinda plan to become like one of the first ones in Austin.”
The full episode of The Simple Man Podcast where the B-Team Jiu-Jitsu founders reveal their plans to rebrand into an MMA gym was uploaded to their official YouTube channel:
