Firas Zahabi's Pick for Best BJJ School in the World

My favorite grappling match of all time is Paul Harris versus Gary Toney. It was a great fight. And Paul Harris was probably like 25 pounds heavier than him. More. How much heavier was he? I don't know, but he came in overweight. Did he? He's just, you know, you got tested positive already. Oh, for sure. Now he's out of UFC. He's not, he's not... Gary tested positive from beating the same room as him. That's how positive he is. At one point he takes Gary and throws Gary. Like literally just... And it's like Gary just kind of rolls. Yeah. That's what Jiu Jitsu is. Yeah. You know, just going with the flow of it all. And you fought him to a draw. And I thought, well, he got the better of him, but the rules is there's no sub. Right. It's a draw, but Gary, if there was no time limit, Gary's going to sub him. He was gassing out. You know, he was slowing down and Gary was just picking it up, picking it up on him and he was tearing. He was going to catch him. Yeah. Well, another great one is Cyborg versus Gordon Ryan, where Cyborg was a multiple time Jiu Jitsu champion, veteran of the game. Gordon Ryan had only been doing Jiu Jitsu like five years. Yeah, times have changed. Something crazy like that. John Denohars found a way to teach you Jiu Jitsu in a nutshell. Like he's just now the most efficient trainer in the history of Jiu Jitsu. Yes. His Gordon won double gold again. Yeah. And in stunning fashion too. And after knee surgery. Yes. Yeah. John has created a new way. The best Jiu Jitsu place in the world today is New York, Hansel Gracie Academy. The way that they're, I'm telling you, they're the purple belts today are scary as hell. Like if you roll with their purple belts, like he's a super seasoned black belt. Like I had one of my students, I promoted him to brown belt and I got in a lot of trouble from John. Because I took him from purple belt to brown belt and the guy had subbed, my student had subbed like five black belts a year. And I was like, okay, time for a brown belt. And John's like, no, he's not good enough yet. I'm like, okay. But he subbed five black belts in competition. Like real good black belts. And he's like, so what? You know, he did just have a new standard now. Their purple belts today at Hansel's John, it's a new standard. These guys are so good. It's scary, man. You better know the leg lock. Like I learned leg locks from them. It's crazy too that it's in Manhattan where the price for rent is so goddamn high and they still have like a thousand students. It's crazy. It's like, it's, if you go there and you're a stud, if you're a stud and you go in that practice room, you're a regular Joe. Like I don't care for your GSP. I don't care for it. You are like, this is going to be a hard day and you better be nice. You know, they can better be humble when you come in here, you know, like I've I've I just sent Kevin Lee there, you know, like I'm telling you, they're so good this generation like the generation under me and George. They're so good. They got so good so fast and Eddie Cummings opened up his own place, right? Um, I think he's at another club. You think he opened up his own place. He was John's student like I used to roll with Eddie back in the day. He wasn't that great like he you could see he's but he's a very intelligent guy. Very and then all of a sudden you got super good. Like I'm telling you night and day like I'd roll with him once and he was okay. You know, then I came back like six months later a year later and he's like freaking he was unbelievable and John had just been in developing these new Johns in there eight hours a day man figuring out little things and sleeping on the mat and teaching Eddie this teaching and Eddie's not a freakishly athletic guy. He's a good athlete but not like it's not as athleticism is it's the technique the skill think like he's catching me in things. I don't even know what they are and that's what it is. That's that's jujitsu once they innovate something. You don't know what it is. It's like you're getting caught in that and that's what John does innovating all sorts of things in the game that now his student who's a Pearl belt is better than that black belt over there. They had one blue belt. They promoted him at Abu Dhabi Pearl belt. He's a blue belt at Abu Dhabi. He got on the podium and they gave him his purple belt. I'm forgetting his name. Now it's Nick Nick something the guy is it. I can't remember. He's new. He's brand new on the story. I haven't big. Yeah, I haven't even been training with him once yet. Like I haven't gone to New York in a little bit. I didn't go to I didn't go to New York last time. I didn't go to Hansel's last time. I was in New York Google Nick Rodriguez. Hansel Gracie. He's like a heavyweight right? Yeah, he's a big boy. Yeah, didn't he beat Cyborg? He's not he didn't beat him by decision. Yeah, I think he beat him. I'm not sure. I think he did. I think he was the one now that I'm thinking of it who they said was going to have a grappling match. Against Oh, rock hold. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I think that's what it is. Yeah, I think he's rock. Wow. Yeah, I'm telling you they're good man. They're good. They're getting good. So fast. It's crazy. Look at Nicky Ryan. Yeah, listen, I love that kid. When he was like 15 and came to my gym, like now he's like, I don't know, 16, 17. Yeah. Is it true? Meet the guy who won third ADCC trials after just six months of training also freakishly strong. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. For sure. Very good athlete. Yeah, Nick Rodriguez. There it is. Yeah, six months. That is just fucking right. Yeah, they're getting good. So fast. It's just how does someone come in third place and Abu Dhabi with six months of training? Like what in the fuck man? John has a system though. Like it's so he was a model that he started doing this. It says making money being on fitness model or something crazy. What does that mean these days? Like you could have an Instagram page where you stick your ass out. Different. It's a dude. Do it. How old is he? He's like 19. I think he's really young. Does it say it doesn't say his age. I think he's young. Like maybe he's 21 or something like that. But I feel like he's pretty young. I got to roll with Nicky Ryan and I've been doing shit so long. And then he's been alive, you know, and he's so good. Dude. Yeah, 23. Okay, I'm wrong. He's so good. It's ridiculous. Yeah, man. He's a really interesting guy too because his brother's so big and he's like, what is he like 150 pounds or something like that? No, a little more. I would say 160. He's not huge, but yeah, his brother's a goddamn gorilla though. Yeah, that's a big fella and they're smart kids. I mean John like schools them like to be smart. It's incredible and they did they start out with him with John. Yes. Well, actually no, I think they were in a neighboring school, but like that. This is John's curriculum. Like I you know, like I have to be honest like I've been in the practice room with them many times like everything they do is is John man. I'm telling you like there's not a movement in there. That's not him. He's incredible. He's incredible. He is incredible and how ironic is it? What's going on here? Yeah, there it is Polaris 12 103 kilogram catch weight. What is that? Two what is that? A way to 20 20 to 10. Is that what it is? But it's 2.2 for that soon. Yeah. 4.3 times 2 is about 9 10. So one of the 1 5 times 2 is not okay. It's like because so Rockhold when he fought at light heavyweight. I wonder how much weight he cut to get to 205. That's interesting though 30th of November. Okay, that's real fucking soon. A couple days few days. Yeah. Oh, it's on UFC 5 pass. Oh shit. Sunday. I think this Sunday. Oh shit. You gotta watch it. I'm definitely gonna watch it.