Nicky Rod

But Eddie was just starting to break out.

Gordon just started winning EBI.

So I started training under John, you know, right when when everything was exploding.

both me and my brother never really wanted to, you know, work a full-time job doing something that we hate.

Um, and he was always, you know, a very confident person.

So he just went, you know, full, fully started pursuing jujitsu.

Um, so I'm very happy that, you know, he did that.

And I ended up following in his footsteps because you can ask these guys, I'm a lazy sack of shit out of, out outside of the, the, uh, the mat.

Uh, so that's, that's definitely one thing that, uh, I'm very grateful for.

Yeah, exactly.

And he was a big reason, you know, why my parents eventually let me drop out of school.

Because, you know, when they were coming up, there was no money in the sport.

It was very hard to make a full living.

Like, if you wanted to actually make a living, you'd eventually have to transfer to MMA.

And I feel like Gordon and Gary and those guys were, you know, some of the first people to make a very good living off of just jiu-jitsu.

Yeah, for sure.

You know, I mean, growing up, you know, obviously he's my big brother.

I looked up to him a lot.

So I definitely, like I said, I miss interacting with those guys.

I was pretty much raised, you know, in that blue basement, you know, that John was like, you know, a father figure to me.