An ugly feud just got uglier.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when grappling superstars Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, and Nicky Rod all trained under one roof, led by head instructor John Danaher. The squad eventually imploded, after some in-house drama, with Jones and Nicky Rod moving on to form the thief-crushing B-Team Jiu Jitsu.
So who’s to blame for the band breaking up?
“If [Jones] can’t beat you … like if he can’t beat something, or like win at something, he’ll just try to destroy it,” Ryan told Jake Shields. “He couldn’t beat me, so he joined the team then broke the team up. He couldn’t win ADCC so he tried to crush ADCC. He’s very vindictive. Craig’s Instagram persona is the exact opposite of what Craig is in real life.”
Ryan holds multiple victories over both Jones and Rodriguez and continues to dismiss any talk of future rematches. In addition, Jones started his own grappling tourney to run head-to-head with Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) after slamming event organizers for underpaying its athletes.
He went from Death Squad to death threats in just a few years.
“Jake Shields podcast with Gordon [Ryan} is rock solid, obviously nothing but the truth,” Jones rebutted on Instagram. “We left the gym … B-Team formed because John Danaher was just training us too hard — not because he was slapping the s—t out of people, not because of the abuse Gordon was doing to people along with his partner. All those things … straight over their heads.”
Jones insists he already had a “long conversation” with Shields when the team broke up.
“G-Diddy, Gordon Ryan, for sure he would have gone to the ‘White Party’ — only because he thought it was a Klan meeting,” Jones continued. “But to his pleasant surprise, he would still get to watch his wife work with some baby oil.”
Jones is referring to the recent arrest of rap mogul P. Diddy.
Ryan was victorious at ADCC while Jones and Nicky Rod both took home victories at the Craig Jones Invitational. We’re unlikely to see this feud carry over to the mats, partly because of Ryan’s disinterest but mostly because of his ongoing health issues.