The break up of Danaher Death Squad

The formation, the break up, the aftermath.

Jiu jitsu is an incredibly dramatic sport, for some reason.

Since the Helio Gracie origin years, there's been warring factions. In the ‘80s in Brazil, the Gracie gym stormed the Naja Luta Livre gym to 'prove' the skill of Gracie jiu jitsu over Luta Livre.

It's bizarre behaviour in a sport where people writhe around on the ground in pajamas, or slip and slide around in lycra and spandex.

Nothing has captured the imagination of jiu jitsu heads in recent years than the break up of the famed Danaher Death Squad (DDS), and the subsequent nonsense that followed.

So, a few months ago, I made the decision to exorcise everything I learned about this from my brain. From the depths of Reddit to countless hours of podcast appearances, I’ve attempted to piece together the jigsaw of lore behind the breakup of DDS and everything that came after.

Enjoy. I think.

Clara x

Renzo and the Blue Basement

The story starts with Renzo Gracie, a 3rd generation member of the Gracie Family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Renzo is the grandson of Gracie jiu jitsu founder Carlos Gracie, grandnephew of Helio Gracie, nephew of Carlos Gracie, Jr. and the son of 9th degree red belt Robson Gracie. Jiu Jitsu royalty.

Renzo Gracie fought in the inaugural Pride alongside his uncle Rickson Gracie - and his MMA experience comes through in his grappling style. Crushing top pressure and fundamentals done to the highest level: basically, some of the few things that still work today in MMA.

During his MMA career, Renzo founded the Renzo Gracie Academy in 1996. It was formally located above a methadone clinic, with many random people stumbling into the gym and then reading the gym’s notice about the Gracie Challenge.

The Gracie Challenge was an open invitation to anyone to try and beat a Gracie Family member in a fight. The purpose of which was to try and prove the effectiveness of Brazilian jiu jitsu. If you didn’t have prior martial arts experience Renzo would ask you to try and beat one of his blue belts. Very very reminiscent of the Vale Tudo days in Brazil throughout the 20th century.

It was a mix of hobbyists seeking escape from ‘90s New York, and some of the highest level athletes the sport has ever seen. Some absolute legends in martial arts have passed through its doors - George Saint Pierre, Chris Weidman and even ONE founder Chatri Sidyongtong.

In the early 2000s, it was also one of the camps participating in the often forgotten International Fight League (IFL), with Dan Miller and Rolles Gracie representing Renzo’s.

Since its inception, Renzo affiliates have popped up all around the world.

It moved to its current location in Midtown in NYC, and the legendary team and the Blue Basement was born. Blue Basement because of the distinctive blue mats - original, eh?

Part of the atmosphere of the gym that “fosters champions” is the high number of advanced belts in the class. There’s black belts and upper belts attending all classes, and are known for helping and coaching the lower belts.

But, in the BJJ meta today it's mostly known for Danaher Death Squad (DDS), an elite squad of grapplers who tore through competitive grappling and changed the course of competitive No Gi grappling throughout the 2010s.

Danaher and the formation of the Death Squad

John Danaher stumbled into Renzo’s on the advice of a co-worker while studying for his PhD at Columbia University. He would train alongside the likes of Matt Serra and Ricardo Almeida and became one of Renzo’s top students. Since a catastrophic leg injury prevented Danaher from competing, he invested his time becoming the best coach he could be.

His methodical approach would help him become one of the most respected coaches in all of Jiu Jitsu and wider MMA.

In 2011, Danaher took over one of the morning classes in the Blue Basement. Around the same time he started teaching this class, Eddie Cummings had just started training at Renzo’s.

Cummings liked Danaher’s approach to jiu jitsu and would attend all of his morning classes. John would also begin teaching Eddie his infamous leg lock system that the team would become known for.

A short time after Eddie began learning from Danaher, Garry Tonon would begin taking his classes. He would make the trip to New York with his instructor Tom DeBlass multiple times every month.

Garry would become one of Danaher’s pupils and his game would improve drastically under John. He would win the No-Gi World Championship at brown belt two times before competing at ADCC.

Eddie Cummings and Garry Tonon would compete at the early Eddie Bravo Invitationals. At these events, they would wipe out the competition, winning multiple tournaments using Danaher’s patented leg lock system. Even though the two were dominating the No Gi circuit, it was just the beginning, and more and more folks would flock to join this winning team.

The Danaher Death Squad name originated from their former teammate Ryan Quinn. He posted it on Reddit one day in 2016 describing what it was like to train with them. The name caught on and everyone within the jiu jitsu world would begin calling the group the Danaher Death Squad. Reddit & BJJ go together like PB&J, which says a lot about the sport.

Notable DDS members

Eddie Cummings was one of the original members of DDS along with Garry Tonon. He would go on to win two EBI tournament titles and one of the early Polaris super fights. Cummings would have a falling out with the team and leave to coach at another school in New York. To this day, Eddie and the other DDS members are still not on the best of terms, and for all intents and purposes disappeared from the sport.

Garry Tonon was one of the original DDS members and one of the most prominent members of the group. He would win 4 EBI championships, which really made the squad’s presence known in the jiu jitsu world. Tonon has now transitioned to MMA and currently has a 9-1 record and is currently signed with One FC.

“King” Gordon Ryan is considered to be one the great jiu jitsu athletes of all time. At just 26 years old, Ryan is one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the sport. Winning 3 ADCC championships, 2 No Gi world titles, and 4 EBI tournaments. Gordon will most likely be considered the greatest of all time once he calls it a career, if gastroparesis doesn’t stop him first.

Gordon’s younger brother Nicky Ryan made waves in the sport as a young prodigy. Beating numerous world champions all before he turned 18. Nicky no longer lives in his brother’s shadow and has carved his own path within jiu jitsu. He beat Urijah Faber at Polaris 10 and tapped legend Masakazu Imanari at Polaris 8. He was 17.

Nicky Rodriguez (Nicky Rod) also took the jiu jitsu world by storm at 2019’s ADCC championship. He had barely been training jiu jitsu for a year - he was a former NCAA wrestler - and took second in the 99kg+ tournamen, beating two former champions in Cyborg Roberto Abreu and Marcus Almida. Since then, he’s become an absolute titan when it comes to EBI overtime, and is now a black belt.

Craig Jones was one of the last big names to join DDS. After competing against them for a few years under the Absolute banner, Jones decided to settle in the US and join them. He was already considered one of the best jiu jitsu athletes in the world, but cites the competitive training environment at DDS as elevating his game.

Even Jake Shields, the former Strikeforce champion and UFC vet started training with DDS late into his career. Shields made the transition to compete in pro grappling and chose to train with DDS. He still competes frequently in pro jiu jitsu events throughout the world, and has become an incredibly polarising figure on social media.

Covid, Puerto Rico and the break up

In 2020, the jiu jitsu world was shocked to learn that the Danaher Death Squad was leaving Renzo’s school. They decided to part ways and leave the famed Blue Basement to start their own school.

The NYC Covid restrictions did not allow any of the athletes to train, which seriously impacted their livelihoods. Everyone in the team was happy, except Danaher, who was less keen given how long he’d been living in the city.

But, it was an exciting time. They wanted to make a training hub, where the best athletes from all over the world would come and train with them.

With the help of ADCC’s Mo Jassim, they began to train in a small gym called Combat 360 in Puerto Rico. Given the high level, competitive nature of all the athletes fleeing the Covid restrictions, it makes sense that Jassim's vested interest in ensuring they remained able to train to be part of ADCC 2022 made this a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The project was the focus of a FloGrappling documentary, showcasing an almost idyllic life of a bunch of guys grappling and growing in beautiful surroundings.

But, after just a few months of island life, DDS came to an end.

Everything from the Covid-19 outbreak and the death of Gordon and Nicky’s beloved father Gordon Sr (‘Big Gord’) were cited as reasons for the end. It was also cited that it was difficult for people to travel to the island due to Covid, which really hurt the plans of expansion.

We'll never know the truth and real reasons why, but let's try to piece together some reasons why.

Differing philosophies

It was clear from the FloGrappling documentary on the move that there were clear differences in philosophy. Gordon's episode was focused on his perfectionism, his S&C and the seriousness he approaches the sport. In Craig's episode, he spends his rounds shit talking Oliver Taza and Ethan Crenlinsten, lying about speaking Spanish and taking the Flo guys out to eat a 'meat volcano'.

Splits in super camps are super normal - when you have a bunch of high level guys training together, everyone will have ideas on the best way to do things, and they'll know the environments in which they thrive in.

The guys who went on to form B-Team - Craig, the Nickys and Ethan - have a much more lighthearted approach to training. It's still an incredibly competitive environment but they aren't taking jiu jitsu too seriously. B-Team's launch post was literally 'we can't guarantee you a gold medal but we'll get you to the podium'.

In an interview and profile on his former gym Absolute MMA's website, Craig claimed he got into martial arts by watching martial arts movies. No wonder he doesn't take things too seriously when his inspiration was Steven Seagal.

This is completely counter to John Danaher's philosophy to training. If you've watched ANY of his instructionals, his cerebral approach to the sport shines through in his use of Japanese terms, and his inability to wear anything but a rashguard, even to weddings.

He's a very serious guy, in spite of the rashguard thing. He calls his 'second tier' athletes 'juniors'- this happens when they lose in competition. Oliver Taza gets called a junior when he loses, and big Dan Manasoui is also somehow... still a junior despite dominating in competitions and breaking legs (his inverted kneebar as a counter to rubber guard at Fight Pass Invitational 4 against Fedor Nikolov was NASTY).

It all seems incredibly patronising from the outside, and in contrast to the way many of the team wanted to behave.

The podcasts

Danaher presided over the team - they were his 'death squad', after all - and on the Lex Fridman podcast gave his insights into the split. He stated that with living together 24/7, people get on top of each other and tensions flare. There was 'no escaping one another'. Anyone who isolated with people during the pandemic knows how that goes.

Craig spoke out on The Fight Dietician's podcast about the split, and basically agreed with Danaher, confirming that tensions just got too much. But, he stated there were more egos than others that contributed to it.

But, there's been more come out since the split that makes Craig's decision to leave and start B-Team make more sense beyond egos. And there's one guy at the centre, with the biggest ego of them all.

Gordon Ryan

Anyone who has made it this far in a long read about grappling lore will know who Gordon Ryan is. He is an exceptionally talented grappler with tummy troubles and an insane 154-9 record. He calls himself the king, and to be fair to him, when it comes to submission grappling, he is.

He's also roided to the gills, and has been a lot more open about that recently. When the UFC announced their split with USADA (before agreeing a contract with another anti-doping body), he went on Instagram to talk at length about how steroids are a Good Thing, Actually. It's easy for him to say when he's not the one taking Alex Pereira's left hook to the face. Agreeing to a bout against Pereira on gear would be signing a death sentence.

The very blatant steroid use isn't the only reason he's divisive in the sport. He talks a lot of shit on Instagram, and does a lot of incredibly cringeworthy things.

One such cringey thing was the Mazda Miata giveaway. Gordon had a giveaway with his book where if you bought his book you could win his convertible Mazda Miata, and a fan claimed 'no one had ever done anything like this in BJJ'. It's a car. According to Car & Driver magazine, a Miata is worth under $50,000. A nice car, but when you have Youtubers giving away 10 $200,000 Teslas, the song and dance made about this seems pretty sily.

So, Craig, bought his own Miata, proclaimed 'I finally won something', threw Gordon's book out of the car and proceeded to do donuts.

Very funny at the time, but giving away a Miata to try and flog your book and then being relentlessly trolled for it? Cringe.

But it’s not just being cringeworthy.

More seriously, there's also been xenophobia. In April 2020, Ryan sparked outrage when he shared a parody trailer dubbed ‘Star Wars: Rogue WUHAN’ that depicted Chinese people as hunters of alien meat after devouring all animal life on Earth. The trailer is a collage of scenes from various Sci-Fi films featuring Chinese actors, claiming Donald Trump sent him it. It has since been deleted, thankfully.

There’s also the racism. Ryan took aim at the Black Lives Matter protests that took place during 2020 throughout the United States and across the world. His Instagram account was and probably still is peppered with far-right talking points, including his glee at Trump deploying the U.S. military, ANTIFA conspiracies, and claiming that systemic racism does not exist.

Pretty abhorrent.

In short, he's a very talented grappler with a questionable personality, and an outrageously big ego.

Brothers divided

One of the pieces that has led a lot of people to be incredibly curious about the split of DDS is that Gordon's little brother Nicky Ryan didn't go to New Wave with him.

During their time in Puerto Rico, a key figure in the Ryan's life - their father Big Gord - sadly passed away. He was incredibly supportive of their grappling careers and was a frequent figure on the barricades at competitions.

It was reported that Gordon bullied Nicky regarding inheritance when his dad died - Gordon believed he deserved more because he took care of his father for longer.

On the Lex Fridman podcast, Nicky stated “During the initial split, we [Nicky and Gordon] definitely hated each other at the beginning, but it’s definitely started to calm down."

Craig, being a bit older and wiser, took it upon himself to remove Nicky from the situation after seeing his mental state.

Craig and the B-Team guys have been trolling Gordon since. If it was just because of an inheritance feud and some personality tensions, it might be a bit of a dogpile.

But let's go deeper into the lore according to Reddit, because there's a lot more apparently going on.

Don’t send a cuck to do a bull’s job

'Don't send a cuck to do a bull's job' was the announcement video for Quintet when Team New Wave pulled out and B-Team stepped in. They competed as the B-Team Bulls and even rocked full Chicago Bulls rash guards and walked out to the Alan Parson's Project. They've also put out Cuck merch.

Where... does it come from?

For the uninitiated, there were rumours circling from mid 2023 when Reddit user u/RealProfessor8328 posted on r/BJJ:
It has since been anonymised and deleted through a service called Redact, but the text remains on a thread on Sherdog.

1. Gordon would regularly have sex in front of Nicky when Nicky was 13/14. Gordon would make Nicky watch him have sex and get off on it.

2. Gordon pressured Nicky into losing his virginity to Sonny. [Sonny is Gordon's long term partner]

3. Sonny withheld PEDs from Ethan and Nicky for not doing their chores in Puerto Rico.

4. As mentioned, Gordon bullied Nicky re inheritance when his dad died

5. Nicky was struggling with bad depression and Mr. Craig Jones took it upon himself to remove Nicky from the situation and establish the B Team.

Now, there's nothing wrong with consenting adults doing this stuff, but the problem obviously arose when Nicky was a teenager, as teenagers can't consent.

On one of B-Teams AMA YouTube videos in late 2023, Nicky Rod jokingly asks Nicky Ryan how he lost his virginity, and Nicky Ryan laughs and says “I don’t think we should get into that” and everyone in the background laughs too.

Furthermore, in a press conference ahead of Craig's appearance at Polaris at the end of 2023, Dan Strauss read out a question alluding to the Cuck/Bull story and Craig laughed it off and said he ‘couldn't talk about it’.

It could just be a funny inside joke, it could be something they agree on as a way to troll Gordon, or there could be some truth to the Reddit rumours.

If there is any truth to any of this, though, it's easy to see why Craig would be so vitriolic in his trolling, especially when it comes to Nicky being a child when this all happened.

Nicky Rod v Gordon Ryan

It's not just Craig and Gordon who have beef.

At UFC Fight Pass Invitational in December 2022, Ryan accused B-Teams Nicky Rod of greasing after Nicky broke Gordon’s foot in EBI overtime with a gnarly toe hold. Gordon still won - bear in mind.

Nicky denies it, officials at the event deny it and it felt like he was clutching at straws to justify why he couldn't submit Nicky in regulation time.

Gordon has also regularly accused Nicky Rod of juicing despite Nicky claiming to be a natural athlete.

To deny the rumours, Nicky did a random drug test with Youtube anabolic gatekeeper Derek at More Plates More Dates. The random test revealed that he wasn't juicing, but just had a naturally high level of testosterone - on the contrary, it was revealed he had high cholesterol and was pre-diabetic. In some ways, Gordon calling Nicky out may have saved him from some gnarly long term health issues.

Gordon has still not let this go, and it’ll be interesting to see if this continues ahead of them potentially meeting each other at ADCC 2024.

Where are we now?

The break up caused a power vacuum in the BJJ competitive landscape - DDS was tearing through No Gi competitions in the 2010s for so long.

It has allowed other teams to break through, notably the DDS rival Atos dominating ADCC 2022. It has also smaller, independent gyms around the world to shoot their shot in major competitions.

For instance, B-Team vs Polaris on Quintet was a super fun match up, with the Polaris team comprising of a bunch of European talent from non-affiliated gyms.

We’re also seing teams like Pedigo Submission Fighting become beloved through the Flo documentary series, as well as getting wins on promotions like WNO.

The general consensus is that the break up has been good for BJJ as a whole. The two camps have allowed their own styles to flourish. Danaher’s new school, New Wave, is still very much his style of coaching. A focus on the fundamentals, core philosophies and precise strategy. B-Team, on the other hand, is far scrappier. That’s not to say it’s a team without a focus on fundamentals, but watching B-Team vlogs, rounds and comp prep, their style is unrelenting.

Furthermore, team-based competition is always fun to bring higher stakes to the sport. At ADCC 2022, Gordon Ryan v Nicky Rod in the +99kg category now both were on opposing teams was a genuinely highly anticipated match up with some lore behind it.

The break up has also allowed Craig Jones and the B-Team guys to really come into their own on social media. During the documentary, Danaher mentioned how much he loved Craig’s sense of humour, but now he has his own team, it feels like he’s taken this to another level. For a sport that definitely takes itself too seriously, it’s a breath of fresh air.

And B-Team are thriving. They’re smashing through ADCC trials, Fight Pass Invitationals and smaller competitions. Craig himself has become an ‘international correspondent’ bringing grappling to war zones, as well as taking part in superfights on Karate Combat, planning a multi-million dollar jiu jitsu event, as well as being a steroid salesman.

For New Wave, Gordon is be preparing for ADCC 2024 after overcoming some health issues, with a superfight against Yuri Simoes, as well as continuing to spout some of the stupidest and hateful shit on social media. Prodigy Helena Crever has been sweeping through every tournament she enters, striking fear into the heart of every blue belt hobbyist trying their skills at a local IBJJF. Taza still isn’t officially a ‘senior’.

Nothing but nonsense, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead as ADCC creeps closer.

PS: If you made it this far, and you feel like I’ve missed anything, please let me know! The lore is truly unending.