It’s official, John Danaher has decided to uproot his life and move to Puerto Rico to continue training with and coaching his elite team of grapplers, the Danaher Death Squad. News broke a few days ago that the top two competitors from the squad would be moving to Puerto Rico together, Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones. It’s been well known that Gordon’s younger brother Nicky has been living with him for some time so it made sense when it was revealed that both he and fellow recent Danaher black belt Ethan Crelinsten would be moving to Puerto Rico with them.
However, despite all of his best students leaving the tri-state area for the sunnier shores of Puerto Rico, it never seemed feasible that John Danaher himself would uproot and leave the place that he’d called home for so long. After all, Craig Jones had only recently moved over from Australia and both of the Ryan brothers were used to travelling from New Jersey to train at Renzo Gracie’s New York gym. Danaher on the other hand, he had been a fixture of the blue basement for a quarter of a century. He was part of that gym from the very beginning and had worked his way up to become the head coach, it seemed crazy that he would make such a drastic change so late in his career.
And yet, here we are. Aside from some of the younger training partners and the hobbyist grapplers who no doubt make up the bulk of Renzo Gracie New York, it seems that Puerto Rico will be gaining a virtual carbon copy of the blue basement somewhere. This should be enough to create a new hub of Jiu-Jitsu in the area as it’s likely that plenty of competitors will take the opportunity to travel and train alongside some of the best grapplers on the planet. Danaher announced the move on his official Instagram account in the below post:
I used to run in to John Danahar on the Subway all the time back between 2003-2010, back when he had hair. I did not know who he was but, he was the buff guy who was always in a rashguard. A funny anecdote, on of my friends younger brother Steven Willams was purple belt at Renzo’s back then. Richi, (stevens brother) and I are riding on the 1 train and guess who gets on and sits next to us? John Danaher, his rash guard gave away he was a grappler- my buddy asks John, “hey do you wrestle?” to which John smiles and says, no I learn BJJ, to which richie asks him “where”? John says Renzo’s, then my buddy blurts out, do you know my brother Steven, he’s the best guy out there'” to which John smiles and softly says…hmm, and nods. Little did we know who we were talking to back then, we still cringe and are embarassed by that memory. But the moral of the story was John Danahars humbleness, he said he was a student, and just smiled- that was greatness. Now to richies brother Steven Williams, he went on to become the youngest black belt to come out of Renzo Gracie, and is a excellent teacher/practioneer himself. Now to his moving to Puerto RIco, could it be that he just wanted a slower pace of life and better weather?