Welcome to Bloody Elbow Presents ‘Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals.
Welcome to ‘The Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals. Tune in each week, Wednesdays at 2pm CST, on our ‘Bloody Elbow Presents Podcast Network’, for interviews, current events, and analysis of everything going on in the world of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling!
Your host is Danny O’Donnell. In addition to hosting this podcast, he is an MMA journalist contributing here at Bloody Elbow, as well as at Black Belt Mag. O’Donnell himself is a BJJ black belt who trains at the Marcio Andre Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Phoenix, AZ. Danny is joined by his Co-Host, Jake Watson, who is also a trained BJJ black belt, as well as the Assistant Coach affiliated with the Maracaba BJJ Academy out of Mesa, AZ. Jake is also an occasional commentator for flograppling.com.
We debuted the show recently at ‘Episode 121’, since we are picking up the pod off of Libsyn Directory, as it’s been running awhile now under its own steam. Over time, we will have all previous 120 episodes uploaded into our Bloody Elbow Presents Playlist for the show, for your listening pleasure. O’Donnell’s goal is to turn this podcast into the biggest Jiu-Jitsu Podcast out there and we intend to help him get as far as he can, so be sure to join us and check it out!
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June M. Williams
Our guest this week is Alejandro Wajner, one of the stars of the ‘Daisy Fresh’ documentary series on FloGrappling.com, a purple belt under Heath Pedigo; he is also the head wrestling coach at Mount Vernon Township High School. In this episode we discuss how he ended up training with the Pedigo team, the injuries he’s sustained as a purple belt, and his plans to return to competition, and much more…
Enjoy the interview!
Q1: How did you get into grappling? Can you talk a little about wrestling and how you were first introduced to that sport?
Q2: I’ve heard Bellator treats their fighters great. I believe it was Corey Anderson who said he got paid much better in Bellator. Why wouldn’t the UFC do that?
Q3: I didn’t know that Bellator was Strikeforce 2.0. I thought Scott Coker had just switched roles; but it turns out he just bought out Bellator?
Q4: When did you first get into MMA? Obviously wrestling has a huge connection to it, so I’m sure it was through wrestling, but do you remember a specific moment either through watching a fight or training with friends that you decided to pursue fighting?
Q5: Were you training in the gi when you started or was it all no-gi, MMA style jiu-jitsu?
Q6: I see in your Instagram bio you have a BA in studio art. So you went to college to get a studio art degree?
Q7: Do you remember the moment you decided to pursue jiu-jitsu instead of MMA? You talked about that moment when Heath called you to come to PSF. Do you remember the first time you thought, “I’m going to be a professional jiu-jitsu competitor vs. I’m going to be a professional MMA fighter”?
Q8: Can you talk about how people assume that everyone from PSF has a traditional wrestling background? And I think, correct me if I’m wrong, you’re one of the only guys on the team that has that collegiate wrestling experience. Can you talk about that, and about how your wrestling experience has influenced the culture at PSF?
Q9: What makes PSF different from all the other places you’ve trained? You’ve trained in a lot of gyms with striking and MMA. How does PSF differ from some of those other training environments?
Q10: How has it been having Mikey Musumeci and Dante Leon on the team? How involved have they been at PSF headquarters?
Q11: What exactly happened to your knee and how has the recovery process been going so far?
Q12: You said they took out your whole meniscus. Do you know why they did that? Was the tear so bad that they couldn’t save any of it?
Q13: How did the opportunity to coach wrestling at Mount Vernon Township High School come about and how has it been going?
Q14: Do you think that your knee injury has contributed to your success as a coach? In terms of freeing up time for you where you weren’t as focused on being an elite competitor, so you could devote more time to your athletes.
Q15: Do you want to talk about some of your goals for yourself and your team for 2022?
You can follow Danny on his brand new twitter — @DannyOD_BJJ, or he can be found on instagram — @dannyod_bjj. His co-host, Jake Watson can be found on instagram — @disciple_jiujitsu & @maracaba_bjj. The show’s instagram is @openguardcast, it can also be found on Facebook here. You can check in on this week’s guest, Alejandro Wajner on instagram, or on Facebook here. PSF can be found on insta as well — @pedigosubmissionfighting. For tons of free content, visit the Pedigo Submission Fighting YouTube channel.
Be sure to tune in for next week’s show and learn more about the world of jiu-jitsu, on Wednesday, February 23rd, at 2:00pm CST, for Episode 125. Check out last week’s Bonus Episode, which featured Elder ‘El Monstro’ Cruz, as well as today’s Episode 124 on our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel, right here…
If you enjoy our shows, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on whichever BE Presents Podcast Channel happens to be your listening platform of choice: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, OverCast, Player FM, & Amazon Music – For previous episodes of the show, soon you can check them all out in our playlists on all of our BE Presents channels.