Welcome to the BJJ Beat! On this recurring feature, we’ll tackle the biggest news from the professional grappling scene, and roll everything up in an easily digestible and familiar jiu-jitsu format.
William Tackett defends exclusive UFC BJJ contracts with misleading info
UFC BJJ and its exclusive contracts have been a hot topic ever since the multibillion dollar organization decided to expand to jiu-jitsu and try to use a similar business model they have in MMA. Those very contracts helped them dominate and keep a stranglehold on the sport, but it also led to multiple class action lawsuits from fighters, with the first one seeing UFC settle the case for hundreds of millions.
Grappling star Craig Jones called those UFC BJJ contracts “exploitative,” but one UFC BJJ star is defending the promotion he is currently signed to. William Tackett, the older brother of UFC BJJ welterweight champ Andrew Tackett, argued for the UFC.
“If you fight for Who’s Number One (WNO) three months before your UFC BJJ match, and you snap your tibia and fibia in a Pato lock, are you going to fight for UFC BJJ now? Definitely not in three months, probably not for another year. So guess what, the UFC’s investment that they’ve poured into the marketing — which is expensive, bro,” Tackett argued.
“For you to buy like a 15 second commercial on UFC 307 or something, it’s going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. So they’re dumping that marketing into us, which is a lot of money that they could be making from other sponsors, like Monster Energy and Prime… they’re dumping that into us. They’re not going to let that go to waste by fighting on another show.”
Tackett went on to list the benefits from having the UFC Performance Institute as a defense to these contracts, saying athletes get also free dieticians and physical therapy among other things.
UFC PI benefits are nice and all, but Tackett’s main argument is fundamentally flawed. The UFC makes a large amount of money from sponsorships, but they are in no way declining blue chip sponsors and sacrificing “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to promote UFC BJJ events. After selling everything they can, UFC simply uses extra airtime during their own events to promote other cards and other ventures for free.
It’s unclear if this is a regular UFC talking point, or something Tackett came up with himself, but it’s just flat out false. UFC regularly promotes their own events, ventures and agendas on broadcasts — from UFC cards, to Power Slap, and even politicians and random right wing figures. Equating this to the amount they charge sponsors for TV spots, is at best, a misunderstanding of how things work. At worst, it’s a misleading and dishonest way to justify controversial business practices.
William Tackett will get a middleweight title shot at UFC BJJ 4 this December.
Felipe Pena vs. Luke Griffith battles for Gordon Ryan’s vacated belt at WNO 31
With the “very sick” Gordon Ryan pretty much retired, WNO is moving on and putting his now vacant heavyweight belt on the line. As announced during the WNO 30 broadcast, a rematch between Felipe Pena and Luke Griffith has been rebooked for WNO 31 in December 5, 2025.
The bout has been originally booked for WNO 28 in June, until it got scrapped due to injury. It’ll finally happen in December, although the pair already did rematch in the months in between. As part of the team tournament, Pena submitted Griffith with an armbar at CJI 2.
Pena will likely be the favorite again, as he is now 2-0 against Griffith, with both wins by submission. Their first match was an exciting back-and-forth affair in 2024 that saw Pena winning his second ADCC world title.
Move of the Day
UFC BJJ star Renato Canuto wins MMA bout via soccer kicks
IBJJF world champ and UFC BJJ title contender Renato Canuto has won his second MMA fight, and interestingly enough it didn’t come via submission. The grappler instead finished the fight with some brutal soccer kicks to the body.
Watch the finish below as Canuto dominated at Tuff-N-Uff 149.
Polaris Squads final set for stacked Polaris 34 card
Polaris has been hosting entertaining team tournaments this past year, and “Polaris Squads” will be having their grand finale on November 1, 2025. The finals will have Team Europe facing off against Team Asia & Oceania, and featuring a pretty stacked line up of BJJ stars.
Team Europe will have deep roster with Jozef Chen, Mateusz Szczecinski, Owen Jones, Eoghan O’Flanagan, Taylor Pearman and Santeri Lilius.
Team Asia & Oceania, won’t have one of their top competitors in Kenta Iwamoto anymore, but will field a line up that has Lucas Kanard, Igor Tanabe, Oliver Taza, Tommy Yip, Herjraat Rashid, and Mohammed Avtarhanov.
Outside of the team tournament finals, the stacked Polaris 34 card will also have two of the top pound-for-pound women in the sport. ADCC champ Ffion Davies will have her final bout with Polaris in a 61kg title bout against Margot Ciccarelli, while CJI and WNO champ Helena Crevar will try to get a win back against Sula-Mae Loewenthal for the 66 kg title.
John Danaher reunites with B-Team
While the original Danaher Death Squad had a pretty bitter split and continued rivalry for years, things are seemingly in a better place now — at least outside of the never ending Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones feud.
John Danaher taught a seminar at Simple Man Martial Arts — formerly B-Team — as part of a fundraiser for a local grappler that fell into a coma due to a brain tumor. It’s there that Danaher reunited with longtime former students like Nick Rodriguez, Nicky Ryan and Ethan Crelisten for a good cause.
“I was thinking ‘dude it’s going to be kind of awkward teaching,’” Danaher said after the seminar. “Then within literally three seconds, all of us had regressed to like the blue basement (gym) in 2018, and we’re laughing and having fun and talking like old times.
“What screws things up is separation,” he continued. “Once people get back together — it’s like going back home to Thanksgiving, within five minutes you’re all back in your childhood roles. Same thing in this regard. It was fun.”
To close things out, here are other interesting BJJ stories you might have missed:
- First WNO Open Weight Grand Prix champ! – Declan Moody recently won ADCC Trials (again) then followed up with a big win at WNO 30.
- PRIDE rivalries reignited! – A brutal kimura had Team Nogueira winning the Quintet 5 tournament over Team Sakuraba.
- IBJJF, ADCC and now UFC world champ! – Mackenzie Dern won big at UFC 321 and has now won major titles across different sports and rulesets.
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