B Team Jiu Jitsu

Background

The B-Team, a submission grappling team based in Austin, Texas, was created in 2021 following a split within John Danaher’s Danaher Death Squad. Its original leaders were Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, Nick Rodriguez, and Ethan Crelinsten. Around the same time, Danaher, Gordon Ryan, and Garry Tonon formed New Wave Jiu Jitsu, also in Austin. In 2022, B-Team member Jay Rodriguez secured a win at the ADCC North American West Coast trials in the 88kg division, while Izaak Michell won the ADCC Asia and Oceania trials in the 99kg division.

Michell later left the team due to disagreements over duties, compensation, and ownership. At the 2022 ADCC World Championships, seven B-Team athletes competed across all weight classes. Nick Rodriguez earned a silver medal in the +99kg category, and Craig Jones took silver in the -99kg category. In January 2023, Damien Anderson announced plans to open a B-Team location in New Jersey.

From August 16 to 17, 2024, Craig Jones hosted the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI), which was scheduled as counterprogramming to the 2024 ADCC World Championship broadcast. On May 6, 2025, Jones posted on Instagram that Jay Rodriguez had been banned from the team and gym due to alleged predatory behavior toward female members. Rodriguez later confirmed this in two of his own Instagram posts.

From August 30 to 31, 2025, Jones held the Craig Jones Invitational 2 (CJI 2), a team-based tournament that the B-Team won. After CJI 2, Jones closed the B-Team academy. The gym now operates under new ownership, rebranded as Simple Man Martial Arts, with Nicky Ryan serving as head coach. Notable current and former members include Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, Nick Rodriguez, Ethan Crelinsten, Jozef Chen, Haisam Rida, and Jay Rodriguez.

Origins from a Fracture

The B-Team Jiu Jitsu emerged in 2021 from a significant rupture within the grappling world. What had been a collective under John Danaher's Danaher Death Squad fractured, and from that split a new entity was born in Austin, Texas. The founding group brought together Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, Nick Rodriguez, and Ethan Crelinsten—athletes who had trained under the Danaher system but chose to chart an independent course.

The timing was striking: around the same period, Danaher himself, along with Gordon Ryan and Garry Tonon, established New Wave Jiu Jitsu in the same city. Austin suddenly hosted two major grappling organizations born from the same lineage, creating an immediate competitive and philosophical tension. Craig Jones, an ADCC silver medalist in his own right, became the face and head of the new team, and the organization quickly earned recognition as one of the premier grappling groups globally.

A Year of Silver and Trials

The 2022 ADCC season became a defining proving ground for the young organization. In the lead-up to the world championships, Jay Rodriguez captured the North American West Coast trials in the 88 kg division, while Izaak Michell claimed the Asia and Oceania trials title at 99 kg, demonstrating that the B-Team's depth extended well beyond its headline names. At the 2022 ADCC World Championships, the team fielded seven athletes spanning every weight class, a testament to its breadth.

Nick Rodriguez brought home silver in the +99 kg category, and Craig Jones himself earned silver at minus 99 kg, underscoring that the head coach remained a top-tier competitor. The dual-silver finish, combined with full-roster representation, cemented the B-Team's reputation as a world-class grappling outfit. However, the year also carried a shadow: Michell departed the organization amid disputes concerning responsibilities, compensation, and ownership of the team, an early sign of the internal tensions that would later shape the group's trajectory.

The Craig Jones Invitational

In what became a bold statement of competitive identity, Craig Jones launched the Craig Jones Invitational on August 16 and 17, 2024. The event was deliberately scheduled to counterprogram the broadcast of the 2024 ADCC World Championship, a move that positioned the B-Team not merely as a participant in the sport's biggest stage but as a rival force capable of drawing its own audience. Jones, who had already earned an ADCC silver medal earlier in his career, used the platform to showcase his athletes and his training philosophy on his own terms.

The following year, from August 30 to 31, 2025, Jones held a second edition of the Invitational, which introduced a team-based tournament format. The B-Team claimed victory in that team competition, a fitting capstone to the organization's competitive narrative. The two events collectively illustrated Jones's ambition to build a brand and a competitive identity that stood parallel to, rather than subordinate to, the sport's most established institutions.

Closure and Rebranding

The B-Team's final chapter was marked by both controversy and transition. In January 2023, Damien Anderson announced the opening of a B-Team location in New Jersey, signaling geographic expansion. Yet by May 6, 2025, Craig Jones publicly announced via Instagram that Jay Rodriguez had been banned from the team and gym due to alleged predatory behavior toward female members of the B-Team, a claim Rodriguez subsequently acknowledged in two posts on his own social media.

Following the second Craig Jones Invitational in late August 2025, Jones made the decision to close the B-Team academy. The physical gym in Austin did not disappear, however; it passed to new ownership and was rebranded as Simple Man Martial Arts, with Nicky Ryan taking the role of head coach. The organization that had risen from the Danaher Death Squad fracture and earned global recognition thus concluded its existence as a unified entity, leaving behind a roster of notable athletes including Jozef Chen, Haisam Rida, and others who had carried the B-Team name.