#13 Anthony Rutherford Gilroy BJJ

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back to Lucky's podcast.
In this episode, I sit down withsomeone I've shared the mats
with and I have a deep respectfor Anthony Rutherford.
I met Anthony back in 2019 atGilroy BJJ, when they would host
most of the Koffee Krew openmats.
He was a purple belt theneffortlessly flowing through
roles and always rocking aShoyoroll GI.

(00:22):
For him, it's more than a brand,it's a vibe.
But beyond the GI and thetechnique, Anthony is a man
shaped by experience,perseverance and the love of his
family.
A black belt in karate, and alongtime student of jiu jitsu.
His journey hasn't been easyfrom struggling with ADHD and

(00:43):
finding direction to overcomingpartying in his twenties and
getting sober at 31.
He built a life grounded indiscipline and growth, inspired
by the unwavering support of hiswife and the infectious energy
of his son, Owen, who hedescribes as crazy, kind,
creative, smart, and full oflife.
O, and their family wouldn't becomplete without the two

(01:05):
American bullies.
In this episode, we deep diveinto his story from childhood to
adulthood, the highs and lows ofhis jiu jitsu journey, and how
he found peace, power, and apurpose on and off the mats.
Anthony, let's get into it.
Thank you for having me here.
I appreciate your interest inwanting to interview me.
Yeah, why wouldn't I, I like theway you flow on the mats, so I

(01:29):
hear that a lot.
People like my style of jiujitsu, they think it's really
creative and it looksspectacular.
But, I just always think ofmyself as a regular Joe.
All right.
Okay.
So let's start from thebeginning, childhood, and a
little bit of your backgroundand what year were you born and
where did you grow up?

(01:49):
So I was born in 1979 in, SanJose, California.
which I always think of as beinga really cool year to be born,
for a couple of reasons.
I graduated high school in 97and I always thought it was cool
that if you were born in 79, yougraduated in 97.
And that just, thatjuxtaposition of those two
numbers.
And that means that I was bornright at the beginning of the

(02:13):
eighties, so I was a kidthroughout the decade of the
eighties, which was a reallycool time to be a kid.
All the movies and cartoons andTV shows and music and style.
It was a fun time to be a littlekid, growing up, you know,
between zero and 10 years old.
Then in the nineties I was ateenager and, that was a really
cool decade to be, a teen.

(02:34):
Again, the music, the fashion,the movies, the culture, the
great decade to be a teen andeven in my twenties, the two
thousands, again, same thing,everything fashion, culture,
movies, TV shows.
In 79, my mother, she met myblood father and they dated for
a bit.

(02:54):
I don't know how long they datedfor, but they had a romance or a
fleeing or affair, whatever youwant call it.
I think it was short livedoverall.
It didn't last very long andthey ended up going their
separate ways.
And so, for the first six yearsof my life, it was just me and
my mom.
She raised me, by herself and welived in, um.

(03:16):
a pretty bad neighborhood on theeast side of San Jose.
Mm-hmm.
Crime, stuff like that.
Always going on around us and, Ididn't really know too much
about all of it.
I saw some of it here, fights,you know, just stuff like that.
Deaths.
Things of that nature, but I wastoo young to really understand

(03:37):
our situation.
But it was tough on my mom, justraising me by herself.
I think I had, you know, likeADHD from a really young age.
So I was a pretty, rambunctiouskid.
Hard to kind of, get me tofollow along and listen.
My mom had a hard time, raisingme, but then she met my dad, the
man who I call my dad.

(03:58):
He came into our lives.
They dated and then married whenI was six years old.
He's a great guy, really goodhusband to my mother and a
really good father figure to me.
He raised me as if I was hisown, adopted me.
And That's amazing.
Yeah.
So I wear his name on my back,Rutherford, and I'm proud of
that because he's just asteadfast, laid back

(04:21):
understanding, guy who,instilled a lot of good
characteristics in me to be agood human being.
He would do stuff like take meto the comic book shop every
weekend to go buy comics.
He would take me to, the icerink at the Eastridge Mall.
Mm-hmm.
In East San Jose, to go playhockey for a few years.

(04:43):
I don't, I can't even rememberhow long I did hockey for as a
kid, as a young kid.
But, he did that.
He, helped me out with myhomework and school projects,
built me a tree house in thebackyard.
He's my dad.
Without him coming into ourlives, I wouldn't have had a
father figure and I could haveeasily slipped into being,
extremely like a juveniledelinquent, like growing up.

(05:04):
He came into our lives and hewas able with the marriage of
him and my mom and them pullingtheir resources together, we
were able to move out of thatbad neighborhood on the east
side of San Jose and move to theevergreen area.
Yeah.
Which is also in the east sideof San Jose too.
Right.
But it's a lot nicerneighborhood.
It is.
It's had its issues, but it's acool environment to grow up.

(05:25):
San Jose is just somulticultural.
It's like people from all walksof life and different cultures
and ethnicities and it is a funplace to grow up.
So, your father sounds amazing.
And, I'm glad you were blessedto have somebody like him in
your life.
Okay, let's go on to the next.
We talked about your dad, andnow let's talk about your mom.

(05:46):
Yeah.
What was your mom like?
So, my mom's really strict andauthoritarian and, she had a
rough life growing up.
Um, She's half Irish and halfMexican.
Her father was a Irish man, andher mother was a Mexican woman,
and her father was a drunkard,constantly drinking.
And when he wasn't at work, hewould, either come home drunk or

(06:09):
from work or he would come homeat all and we'd go to like bars
to go drink and, womanize, youknow, the right philander with
other women.
That wasn't my mom's mother.
And my mom had, a couple ofsisters, three three sisters.
So there's four of them.
And their mother got, sick withthe disease when they were

(06:31):
really young and their motherwas young, she must have been
maybe in her fifties, a prettyearly age afflicted with the
disease and pass away.
Mm-hmm.
And so as she was sick, they,her and her sisters, helped take
care of her until she passed.
But the whole time the fatherwould be absent, you know, at
bars, right.
drinking and womanizing.
And so that, that reallyaffected my mom to have to take

(06:53):
on that burden in her earlytwenties and, see her mom have
to take care of her and hersisters without the father being
really present.
I think that really affected herand, hardened her to like the
world and made her really nononsense.
And, a real go-getter in termsof like doing for herself and

(07:16):
being independent and notrelying on anybody, but just
made it so that she was type ofwoman where she didn't play
around, you know?
Right.
Self-reliance.
Yeah.
And so it was almost her way orthe highway.
And, I think that's why her andmy blood father, it didn't work
out.
My dad, the man who came intoour life, to his credit, was

(07:37):
willing to kind of deal withthat and take that on and be
accepting of the way that shewas and be there for both me and
her.
So that's why, you know, I haveeven more respect for him for
loving her.
My mother was a beautiful woman,but, very hard to deal with.
And so he, my dad, was willingto be a steadfast husband to her

(08:01):
and a steadfast father to me.
Me and my mom, me having ADHDand having trouble listening and
following authority, we reallybumped heads for many years.
She was a good mother to me,cared for me and, provided for
me and always tried to teach mewell.
But, just really harsh and inher approach to, you know.

(08:21):
Raising me, I guess.
Right.
What She expected of you andwhat she wanted from you, right?
Yeah.
She wanted a lot.
Expected a lot.
And I didn't leave up to it'cause, it was, I had trouble
focusing and I had troublefinding, something that I could
be passionate about.
And I think, because of that Iwasn't, I didn't do well at
anything.
What kind of influence did theyhave on you, both your parents?

(08:46):
I think my mother, she alwaysespoused like good, acting right
and doing the proper thing andtrying to stray away from,
trouble.
Okay.
in getting involved in nonsensethat really wasn't beneficial
for you and your life.
And just, always trying to,emphasize education and doing

(09:08):
well in school.
But because I had ADHD, I didn'tdo very well in school.
I was the kind of average inlike mediocre at like, science,
math, reading and writing andstuff like that.
And I think my dad, the man whoraised me, he just taught me to
be calm and cool and collectedand to be analytical.

(09:29):
And analyze things from allangles.
And I think those are the twobig influences that they had on
my life is I'm pretty laid backand calm and can deal with, in
most situations that would bestressful for people.
And also, I have a pretty goodmoral compass that has led me to
stay away from getting involvedin things that would otherwise

(09:54):
land me in big trouble.
Okay.
If that makes sense.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
And then, all thosecharacteristics that you said
your dad taught you, I can seethat, how that flows to the
mats.
Yes.
What kind of stuff were you intoas a kid?
So as a kid growing up, I reallywasn't into sports.

(10:15):
So I didn't play any kind oforganized sports growing up as a
kid.
I was more into entertainmentand movies, TV shows, music, but
my first love, my first interestwas comic books.
And I had a ton of comic booksand I would read them all the
time.

(10:35):
And like I mentioned, my dadwould take me to the comic
bookstore to spend my allowanceon comics and I would draw,
constantly and I actually amvery talented at drawing and I
would just draw all the time andI would try to mimic the stuff
that I saw in comic books and Ideveloped my own style and I was

(10:56):
really good at drawing and artin general.
So, uh, my first love was art.
When I was you know, a reallyyoung kid and maybe before
becoming a teenager, I wasconvinced I was gonna be a comic
book artist and that was gonnabe my job, my career is drawing
comic books for a living.

(11:17):
And I would draw my own comicbooks and I think I even wrote
to, A comic book publisher,Image Comics, and I had sent
them some work I did and said,will you hire me on?
And they sent me back a lettersaying, you draw really well and
when you're of age come back andtalk to us and Yeah, sure.
When you know, but in due time.

(11:37):
Exactly.
Yeah.
That is cool.
So you can send me a couple ofyour drawings.
That'd be awesome to post themfor you.
I'll send you a couple of photosof, some artwork that I've done.
I think you'll think they'recool.
I, the thing is when I became ateenager, I kind of, left my art
to the wayside.
Yeah.
The talent, it still existsthere.
It's always there, but if youdon't use it, it gets rusty.

(12:00):
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
So it's like anything else.
You have to practice to refineit.
Yeah.
Okay.
You also mentioned you were intoskateboarding and rapping.
Yeah, I was into skateboardingfor a little bit.
I wasn't really great at it andI was too scared to like fall on
my face and, you know, scrape itup or break my arm or something
like that.
I learned how to ollie and howto like nose slide on the curb

(12:24):
or whatever.
Skateboarding is cool.
But rap music, I grew up when wemoved, me and my mother and my
dad when they got married and wemoved outta that really bad
neighborhood in the east side ofSan Jose and moved to the better
neighborhood in Evergreen.
There was a bunch of kidsplaying on a block, and my mom
was driving around, driving mearound the neighborhood looking

(12:45):
for kids for me to play withwhen we'd first moved there and
there was a group of kids andshe kicked me out of her car and
she said, I make friends withthem, I'll be back.
And so this was like a blockaway from our house.
And so I made friends with thosekids and there was, a couple of
brothers, not brothers, butbrothers, and so I became really
good friends with them and, theyput me on the, like hip hop and

(13:08):
rap music and, you know, theybought rap albums and would
record them for me on cassetteand I'd listen to'em and I just
fell in love with hip hop music.
It just spoke to me like thebeats, the rhymes, everything.
So I would go and start spendingall my allowance money on rap
albums instead of comic books.
This is when I was coming out ofbeing a young kid and into my

(13:30):
like, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
Spent all my money on rap music,and I would buy albums and
record the albums for them, andwe'd exchange, and we'd just
hang out all the time.
And I just, it spoke to me somuch.
I don't, I just fell in lovewith it to the point where I
started writing my own raps andI was just like.
Try to get as good at rapping asI could.

(13:52):
And so that became my thing.
And so I stopped drawing comicbooks and drawing.
And just was like writing rapsall the time, like in my bedroom
and like, you know, spitting myraps for my friends.
And I got really good at thattoo.
Like, I got really good atrapping.
In fact, I've had so many peopletell me like, you're just as
good as any other rapper outthere.
But, I think in my late teensand like twenties.

(14:15):
I would go to like parties and Iwould like rap on the mic, on,
on beats while DJs were playing,like at, you know, house parties
and stuff like that.
Right.
But, as I got into my twenties,I was like, I can't do anything
with this.
I'm from the suburbs.
This isn't gonna be a career forme.
But, yeah, When you got older,did you do any type of open
mics?
Did you try.

(14:35):
No, not really.
It really just at parties, Ijust did, it fun for fun.
But yeah.
Yeah.
but yeah, that was my secondlove, like hip hop and rap
music.
Like anybody who knew me backthen they knew.
Like, I just loved to rap.
Who's the your favorite artist?
Oh, that's so hard to say.
Okay.
It's like you can't choose one.
It's, there's so many, it's asetup question.

(14:56):
I don't know.
I put that to the wayside as Igot into my twenties and, went
to college and focused onsomething else.
Right on.
How did having ADHD affect yourchildhood and teenage years?
Let's go into that a little bitmore.
Yeah, I touched on it earlier.
It was just hard for me to focusand, I was never really
interested in anything and Icouldn't really put my all into

(15:18):
anything, whether it was like,math or science or history or
english, any kind of schoolsubject.
And I just didn't really havesomething that I could point to
and be like, yeah, that's what Iwanna make my career out of.
If I would've stuck withdrawing, I could've made that a
career if I was serious aboutit.

(15:38):
But, I just, yeah, I put thatoff to the wayside as I got more
into, Hip hop and rap music andall of that stuff.
And so it was just hard for meto do well at anything because
nothing really sparked myinterest enough to be passionate
about it.
So I think like for a long time,all the way up until my, like

(15:59):
mid twenties, I was sort of lostfor direction.
Okay.
On what to do with my life.
Yeah.
That usually happens.
Let's talk about your schoolyears now.
how was junior high for you?
Junior high was All right.
Nothing special about it.
I ended up moving, from San Josedown to Gilroy for my high
school years.

(16:20):
And so I lived here in Gilroy,during high school.
And high school was really fun.
Gilroy at the time in the midnineties was, it was a smaller
town.
And everybody knew everybodyand, I made a bunch of friends
and, my cousins lived down here,and so I'd run around with them
and their friends and made otherfriends.

(16:41):
And it seemed like back thenthere was house parties like
every weekend.
Wow.
And so, me and my friends, westarted getting into drinking.
Smoking weed.
And so in high school not onlydid I have ADHD, so it was hard
for me to focus and do well withmy schoolwork, but I also, got

(17:01):
heavy into, drinking, all thetime drinking beers.
Do you think it was calming foryou?
Oh yeah.
The beer.
So that kinda like, leveled youdown and you kind of
self-medicated.
Yeah.
And the weed smoking too forsure.
You came back in, in retrospect,you know, when you first start
out, you're just partying,Absolutely.
Having.
Fun and, hanging out with yourfriends, but then it it
steamrolls and so into mytwenties, it just was something

(17:23):
that I couldn't stop.
But in high school it was just,it was a lot of fun times and,
so high school was like, justagain listening to lots of rap
music, drinking forties, smokingblunts and long loads.
And that carried off into mytwenties.
And so I graduated from GilroyHigh and I moved away to Austin,

(17:43):
Texas for about a year to livewith my aunt and uncle.
'cause they had a place outthere and they said, Hey, if you
don't have anything to do.
You're not sure what you wannado.
You come out here, see how youlike it living out here.
So I lived out there for a yearand that was fun.
I made friends and dated and,had some jobs and stuff, but it
wasn't home.
So right after about a year, Ipacked it up and came back.
And then at the time my cousinshad moved to Santa Barbara to go

(18:04):
to school there at UCSB.
So I ended up moving there andliving in Isla Vista, IV is the
little college town right nextto Santa Barbara and I live down
there with them.
And that was even more partying.
It's just like party land oflike just, all kids living
together.
Oh, yeah.
In a, in dorms and Yeah.
Yeah, in houses.
Like a square mile of just kidsall living in houses.

(18:25):
So like every week day, youknow, it could be like a Tuesday
or a Wednesday or a Thursday,and it'd be like somebody's
having a party, or even if itwasn't a party, everybody's
hanging out, smoking anddrinking and stuff.
But I did a little too much ofthat and I had to come, back up
here to San Jose.
I came back and my parents, werein San Jose at the time.

(18:46):
I had to figure something outfor, a career.
And I had a few jobs that wereselling hats at like lids, the
store lids, right.
Or the sunglass hut or whatever.
Mm-hmm.
Doing so I had a brief stint asan exterminator working for a
pest control company, and Ilistened to the radio all the

(19:07):
time.
Okay.
I listened to it like for eighthours a day while I was working
and I had the bright idea.
I was like, I could do that.
You could, I wanna be in radio.
You know what I'm gonna, I'mgonna get in radio.
So I got back in school, I wentto San Jose State, got a degree
in broadcasting, was on theSJSU, radio station for several

(19:32):
years.
I, uh, worked for KMEL as anintern.
And then after that I, I workedat, A local station in San Jose
called 1590 KLIV, which is a allnews radio station.
So yeah, I remember listening tothat radio station.
Yeah, I started out there doingtraffic and weather on the
weekends and then parlayed thatinto doing the national and

(19:53):
international news, on some ofthe weekdays.
And then after that I worked formix 1 0 6.5 In San Jose.
KEZR.
Yeah.
And, I was like the overnight DJthere for a long time, years and
years, and a few other littleradio stations, little small
stints and stuff.
And so I was able to buckle downand focus and not only get the

(20:13):
broadcasting degree, a degree inbroadcasting, but also, you
know, make a little somethingoutta myself.
Yeah.
But.
Radio at that time.
This was like the mid twothousands.
I was in my mid twenties goingto my late twenties.
So a lot of the money had exitedthe industry.
A lot of online stuff had comeabout, YouTube was starting to

(20:37):
grow.
Mm-hmm.
Netflix, started and there was,online streaming radio and
whatnot.
Advertising money, the moneythat makes a radio station exist
and work, was starting todisappear.
And so you had that, but also atthe time, I think in the
nineties, bill Clinton had,signed into law or something

(20:59):
that like, de monopolization orsomething of entertainment
companies and conglomerates, andso they could gobble up,
businesses, companies couldgobble up radio stations.
And so instead of, used to be alot of independent radio
stations mm-hmm.
So a lot of different choicesand options for getting, jobs.
But what happened was, onecompany in particular, was Clear

(21:19):
Channel and they would come inand they would buy up all these
radio stations and thetechnology had evolved to where
they could, Broadcast, amongst abunch of radio stations,
simulcast, recordings.
So they would have a DJ like inArizona, it'd be like a guy like
Supers Snake who's doing a show.
And they just record that showand then disseminate it out

(21:40):
across a bunch of radiostations.
Oh, wow.
And then just kind of splicing,him saying different call signs,
call letters of the stations.
And so they're able to like,have multiple stations.
All running the same show, andyou get away with not having to
pay a dj.
Right.
Having to hire a DJ to actuallyrun a show.
You just pay a board op to runthe board.

(22:01):
And so, a lot of opportunitiesto work as a DJ were also
disappearing at that time.
Right.
The money was, dwindling down towhere it was like you couldn't
make a career unless you werelike a top guy.
But a top guy was never gonnaexit their spot, for the
mornings.
Right.
Or the midday or what have you.

(22:22):
So I kind of saw the writing onthe wall as I enjoyed it.
It was fun.
I put a decade into it.
I think I did it pretty well,but I wasn't like, Howard Stern
or like some sort of superstarthat was gonna make a big money
making career out of it.
Right?
And so, in my thirties, myfriend came to me, a high school

(22:42):
friend, and he said, I'm gonnastart a construction company.
If you want to help me build it,we can build it up and we can
make a lot of money.
And so I exited the radiobusiness About 10 years after I
started.
So somewhere in my mid thirties.
But, that was my short-livedradio career.
Oh, wow.
That sounds amazing.
Sounds fun.
It was.
Okay.
And so you got into constructionwith your friend.

(23:05):
How did that work out?
It worked great.
He's.
was a really smart guy andtaught me everything that I
needed to know about business.
Showed me how to make money,showed me how to be a go-getter
when it comes to running yourown business.
I did that, in my mid thirtiesand did it for about seven
years.

(23:26):
It was really instrumental that,so when I became the co-owner of
Gilroy bjj mm-hmm.
I had all the tools that Ineeded to be a business owner.
That exit out of radio andjumping into construction was a
big flip, a big 180 from, youknow, sort of entertainment,
correct.
To construction, which isbuilding and numbers and all of

(23:47):
that.
When you step back and you look,I look at my life, it's almost
like God has a plan.
Yes.
And that was part of the planfor me to become a savvy
business owner that helped me totake Gilroy BJJ and turn it into
what it is nowadays, which is,it's so much bigger in every way
than it was when I came here andwhen I took it over we've

(24:07):
expanded so much in terms ofstudent base and, everything.
Cool.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So now that you talked about,Gilroy, BJJ, let's go into your
martial arts journey.
Before jiu jitsu, you earned ablack belt in karate.
How did that shape your approachto martial arts?
Yeah.

(24:27):
this is where my story gets realinteresting.
Okay.
So I told you that for the firstsix years of my life, it was
just me and my mom that herrelationship with my blood
father just fell flat on itsface.
They went their separate ways.
So growing up, I knew that mydad.
Wasn't my blood father.
And I knew that there was someother person out there who, had

(24:51):
helped conceive me, but I didn'tknow who he was or where he was
at, or why I hadn't heard fromhim, why I hadn't bothered to
come into my life and asked tobe a part of it.
Thought maybe he was just somedeadbeat that wrote me off and
was, maybe either dead or hadsome other family and didn't
care.
So somewhere in my latetwenties, right before I turned

(25:15):
30, I would say maybe 28 onMySpace, when MySpace was still
around, I got a message fromsome chick was saying, my name's
Holly.
And I was like, who's this?
Is this some girl I met at theclub?
And she messaged me and she sentme a photo and it was a photo of
a guy dressed in a Super Mariocostume at like a Halloween

(25:39):
party or something, right?
Guy looked exactly like me.
It was me, but it wasn't me.
And she said, I am your bloodfather's wife.
We've been looking for you foryears, and we finally found you.
And, you have brothers andsisters and we live in Las

(26:00):
Vegas, and if you want to get toknow us, we want to get to know
you.
We've always wanted to get toknow you.
Wow.
So if you wanna, you want tocome out here and meet us, you
can.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, yes.
I gotta go.
I gotta find out what this isall about.
Absolutely.
So I flew out there and I met myblood father.
And it turns out that he was akarate master, like a sixth

(26:24):
degree black belt in karate atthe time.
Wow.
Who owned a karate school out inLas Vegas?
It was really Pahrump, but LasVegas is the nearest place.
And had affiliate schools inWest Virginia and San Jose and
Gilroy.
Affiliate schools from of hisschool, which was the
headquarters.
And so I met him and he waslike, I always wanted to be a

(26:45):
part of your life, but yourmother didn't want me to be a
part of your life.
I wanted to reach out manytimes, but you know, I think he
had sent letters and stuff, butshe kept those from me.
Maybe she thought that it wouldjust kind of tear our little
family apart, the one that wehad with my dad.
So whether it was right orwrong, that's what it was.
It turns out that I had abrother and three sisters And

(27:07):
that he had been involved in allof their lives.
So he was somebody who, I don'tknow if you wanna call him like
a playboy, but my siblings wereall from different mothers.
So he was, you know, he wasaround, he was a ladies man.
Yeah.
But he took responsibility forall his children.
Yes.
I came to realize that hewould've been in my life too, if
he had the opportunity.
I think he would've.
And that he was a good man.
And so he introduced me tokarate.

(27:29):
And he said, this is what I do.
This is what I've done since Iwas a teen and through my
twenties.
And he's a competitor, karatecompetitor.
And he introduced me to karate.
And at that time when I was 28,about to turn 30, I was sick and
tired of partying.
I'd basically.
I drank every day and smoke weedevery day.

(27:52):
If I wasn't at work, I'd behanging out with my friends and
hanging out or going to parties,bars, clubs.
Frat parties.
Mm-hmm.
Anywhere, you know?
Right.
You just hang out and smoke,drink.
Those are my two biggest vices.
Drinking beer and smoking weedRight.
Not super bad.
Mm-hmm.
By some accounts.
Not hard drugs, but I was.

(28:13):
You know, partying.
Partying every day.
Yeah.
And I didn't want to go into mythirties and especially into my
forties, just being that person.
So I decided that I was gonnaquit and drop everything.
So I got sober.
But I needed something to occupymy time in my mind.
So this came into my life, rightat the perfect time.
And I said, I'm gonna do karatewith all my free time.

(28:35):
And so at his San Joseaffiliate, I started attending
classes.
Great.
And I just did that all thetime.
So I was doing karate, andkarate's a cool martial art.
It's got its things about itthat are very much applicable
to, street fights.
And can be used in a physicalaltercation.
It gets used in MMA all thetime.

(28:57):
There's a cool video on YouTube.
It's like karate for MMA.
Okay.
And it's got like.
Clips of Lyoto, Machida, StevenWonderboy Thompson, GSP, all
doing karate moves in the middleof actual fights and pulling off
the karate moves.
Nice.
And then that's inter splicedwith video of like karate

(29:17):
masters from like black andwhite footage and other kinds of
footage of them doing thosemoves in the kata.
Right.
Uhhuh where you're doing likekarate on the air and stuff.
So it's a legit martial art, butit gets a bad rap as being not
as effective as say, jiu jitsuwhich I agree with.
Yeah.
but anyway, so I started doingkarate and I enjoyed it, but, I
had so much energy and so muchtime on my hands.

(29:39):
Like a couple years into doingkarate, I was like, I want to
study another martial art aswell.
Okay.
But I was like, what should Ido?
I was like, should I do, anotherstriking art like a Muy Thai?
Should I learn Muy thai orboxing?
But I was like, no, I shouldstudy some groundwork.
Should, supplement my standupwith a little bit of, groundwork
and I'd heard about jiu jitsu,but I didn't really know what it

(30:00):
was.
I mean, you kind of hear aboutit from UFCs, but I was like,
what is it?
So I'd go on YouTube and I'd gowatch clips, of jiu jitsu
tournament matches and, it blewmy mind.
I was like, I'd watch like aclip and it'd be somebody who is
like, they were in trouble.
Like they had their back takenand they're about to be choked.

(30:22):
And then they would like flipthe script and escape and then
take the other person's back,right?
And put'em in like an arm bar.
And I'd be like, what?
What is that?
That's like magic.
That's and it looked like dudesdoing like tricks on each other,
like skateboarding tricks.
Like if you watch skateboardingvideos from the nineties And you
see somebody skating and they'redoing tricks like, rail slides
and flipping the board allaround and stuff.

(30:44):
Right?
And I was like, this looks likethese guys are skateboarding on
each other.
And I was like, this is lookscool.
And I was like, I want to dothat.
I wanna learn that.
So I was like, okay, I'm gonnado that.
I found a jiu jitsu school and Istarted jiu jitsu and I felt
deeply in love with jiu jitsu,like right off the bat.
And so I stuck with karate untilI got my black belt, which only
took about five years orsomething like that.

(31:06):
Uhhuh, it doesn't take very longto get your black belt on
karate.
But after I got my black belt, Iwas like, I'm focusing full time
on jiu jitsu, and I just took adeep dive into jiu jitsu and
never looked back.
How old were you then?
So I started jiu jitsu inFebruary of 2011.
So I would've been 31, about toturn 32.

(31:28):
So I started late in life.
I started jiu jitsu, like at,yeah, 31.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can you walk us through yourbelt journey from white to black
and tell us a little bit of eachphase and what it taught you.
Yeah.
I just wanna say one other thingabout my blood father is that,

(31:48):
um, he passed away earlier thisyear.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Yeah.
And he lived out in Las Vegas.
Initially when I had first, youknow met him in those years,
subsequent years.
I spent a lot of time going backand forth hanging out with him
and my siblings.
But as time went on, I kind of,got busy with everything.

(32:10):
Right.
I know.
Wife, family, kid training,everything.
So.
I, wasn't able to make it outthere as often and towards the
end of his life here in therecent years, I hadn't been out
to see him much.
And then I got the call that hewas sick and he was in the
hospital and I went out to visithim and he was not, I don't even
know.
I think he knew that I wasthere, but it was hard for him

(32:33):
to, expressed that'cause hecouldn't talk.
And he passed not long afterthat.
And they had a good funeral forhim.
But, um, it broke me up that Idon't think I got a chance to
tell him how much it, it meantthat when he finally did come

(32:53):
into my life.
And he introduced me to martialarts.
That set me down a path wherethat was like my true calling,
and I didn't know it through myyoung childhood and my teens and
my twenties, right?
I was lost and I didn't haveanything that really sparked my

(33:14):
passion.
But when he came into my lifeand he introduced me to martial
arts, it set me down a path thathas led me to where I am today
as a black belt in jiu jitsu.
A jiu jitsu school owner.
Mm-hmm.
A competitor who's won gold manytimes.

(33:34):
Someone who's looked up to inthe community and an influence.
And without him coming into mylife and giving me that gift,
who knows where I'd be.
I'd probably still be maybe lostlooking for a path.
And I, who knows, maybe I'dstill be lost in, in drink and

(33:55):
smoke, you know?
Yeah.
And so I didn't get a chance totell him that before he passed,
but I'm sure he knew.
I hope so.
I think so.
I think he did.
Yeah, for sure.
Wow, that's really deep.
It's amazing though.
Okay.

(34:17):
So now, is there anything elsethat you would like to mention
in regards to your dad or yoursiblings?
No.
Okay.
Sounds good.
All right, so now let's take awalk down your belt journey and,
um, starting with white all theway through black and, in each
phase what each belt taught you.

(34:40):
Yeah.
white belt was okay.
You know, it was, an interestingtime.
When you start out jiu jitsu,everything is so new and you got
all this information coming atyou a mile a minute, and you're
trying to absorb it.
You pick up some stuff, but noteverything.
And, but what you do pick up itworks.
It helps you get to that nextlittle notch up, where you can

(35:01):
tell that you're buildingskills.
I tried competing a handful oftimes at White Belt, mixed
results.
Lost a tournament, won atournament, lost a tournament.
But white belt was just sort ofan interesting, fun time.
I guess I'd describe it.
Okay.
When I got to Blue Belt, wellbefore I got to Blue Belt, I was

(35:25):
attending, Caio Terra's Academyin San Jose and I was up for, I
wanna say I was up for a bluebelt promotion, but it was
really belt testing or he didback then.
Okay.
I think he still does.
But, I was up, I was due to betested for my blue belt.
And I tested for it and Ifailed.
And that promotion ceremony, Ididn't get my blue belt and it

(35:47):
was because I didn't know thetechniques and I didn't know
them well enough.
And that really stuck with me.
It bugged me, I thought maybe itwas a foregone conclusion that I
was gonna get my blue belt, butI didn't understand that I
didn't.
Really know the techniquesright?
As well as I should have, right?
And so that actually lit a fireunder me to focus, to buckle

(36:08):
down and focus on technique,right?
Mm-hmm.
And his, His slogan is Techniqueconquers all and Correct.
And I studied so hard that nextgo round and six months later
when the next belt promotionceremony was coming around and
they were doing testing again.
I like aced it.
And even at the promotionceremony, he said something
like, this dude surprised me.
Like he just knew exactly whatto do and that made me feel good

(36:32):
and it really instilled in methat like technique had to be
the cornerstone of what you'redoing here in jiu jitsu I think
a lot of people, they come intoa jiu jitsu Academy and they use
that as a place to grapple and Idon't wanna say fight, but you
know, muscle stuff.
And they have fun and you can dowell muscling stuff, but they're

(36:56):
really not learning and growing.
There's just being, I thinkRoger Gracie has a clip where
he's saying, most guys trainedto be tough and you can get
tough.
But if you want to get good atjiu jitsu like you have to focus
on learning jiu jitsu.
That really just, it embedded inmy mind.
And so at Blue Belt.
I really took that to heart andwas just really, like at Blue

(37:19):
Belt, you become a collector ofas much technique as you can.
Right.
And so you kind of feel like youhave a suitcase that you're
packing full of techniques.
And then later on when you getto Purple Belt, you start taking
out techniques that you don'tuse so you can solidify your
game, right?
Choose your type of game thatyou wanna play.
But at Blue Belt, it was a funtime of really diving deep into

(37:40):
technique and, getting razorsharp at everything.
But I had decided that at BlueBelt I didn't want to compete
and that I just wanted to getsuper good at jiu jitsu and that
I wanted to be one of those guysthat when somebody would come
into an academy from outta townand roll with, they would be
like, who the hell is that guy?

(38:01):
Why don't we know his name?
You know?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
And so at Blue Belt, I made it apoint, I'd never competed at
Blue Belt, but I made it a pointto get as good as I possibly
could at anything and everythingthat was jiu jitsu, right?
Blue belt was cool, but thenthat purple belt I had decided,
I changed my mind and I decided,you know what?

(38:22):
I am gonna start competing.
I don't want to be just anobody, a no name who's just
hiding away at a gym.
I wanna go out there and I wannaprove that my jiu jitsu, I can
hang with somebody.
And at least somebody my age, myweight, Yeah.
That my jiu jitsu is good enoughto go out there and win gold in
the tournaments.
But at Purple Belt I was eatinga little more it sounds funny
'cause I'm like a tall, skinnyguy, but I was eating a lot more

(38:44):
than I do nowadays.
And so I'd packed on somepounds.
I'm naturally a lightweight.
We walk around about 1 63, but Ihad packed on the pounds and I
was weighing like one close to180.
I was competing at middleweightand every tournament that I
entered at Purple Belt, I lost.
Every single match, like everytournament.
But the thing was is I had areally good guard'cause I was

(39:07):
used to playing off my back.
Okay.
Because I was such a light guylike coming up that I don't
think of myself as a heavyweightand being able to smash people,
right?
And so I'd always play off myback and I'd play guard and my
guard was really good.
And a lot of my matches wouldend like zero, zero.
Mm-hmm.
Come down to rest decision.
Or it'd end like two zerobecause they got a like a take

(39:29):
down where like I'd go to pulland they would do like maybe
like a stuff, the leg orsomething.
a fakey foot sweep.
Yeah.
So like the ref gives'em twopoints automatically.
Okay.
but they couldn't pass my guardso it end two zero or it might
end two.
Two.
But Like it would come down torest decision and they give the
decision to the other person orThey'd win.
It'd be two, two and anadvantage.
So I'd win my lose by theserazor thin margins.

(39:50):
But like I was going up againstguys who are natural middle
weights.
Like that was the weight classthat I was competing at Purple
Belt, and I just didn't know howto carry the weight, didn't know
how to move, really well orquickly, or flow with the
weight.
And these guys did, that wastheir natural weight, right?
So I just lost and lost, but Inever stopped.
Right.
I just kept on competing andthen towards the end of Purple

(40:13):
Belt, that's when I startedwinning one gold and then one
gold.
Nice.
And then I got my brown belt,and then that's when I really
started winning.
And I was just winning goldafter gold and like destroying
people.
And so brown belt was a reallyfun time.
I was like training all the timeand really coming into my own
and like.

(40:34):
Starting to just go on a delugeof winning, as a competitor.
And so Brown Belt was probablythe funnest belt.
At Purple.
I was like losing my mind tryingto figure out what was wrong
with my jiu jitsu, why isn't itworking?
And like I was, most people saythey have their funnest time at
Purple Belt, but it was a reallygrowing, like growing pains.

(40:58):
Era for me.
For you, Uhhuh.
Yeah.
But I stuck with it.
And at Brown Belt it just, itall came together.
And I was just like winning.
And then now that I'm at a blackbelt, I've only been a black
belt for a year and a half.
It's black belt, it's fun.
I got a lot more on my platebeing a school owner now.
And doing all the stuff likemarketing and administration and

(41:18):
Right.
You know, cleaning, All thejobs.
Being an instructor who teachesa majority of the classes, which
I enjoy a lot.
I enjoy being a, an instructormore than, I enjoy being a
competitor, but I feel compelledto compete because I'm like,
what am I doing all thistraining for if I don't go out
there and use it to compete?
You train so much and for solong it's like I just, I want to

(41:39):
go out there and test myselfagainst other people.
Still constantly.
What?
Even if I lose, yeah, I'm on alosing streak now.
I haven't won a tournament infour tournaments.
but before that I was on a fourtournament winning streak, and
so the wins for me, they comeand they go in like large
swaths.
Part of the other thing aboutthe way I compete is I'm like a,

(41:59):
I'm a finisher.
I'm always looking for thesubmission.
Okay.
So I'm always looking to finishthe fight right away.
Mm-hmm.
And it's like, how can I tapthis person out like as soon as
possible and end this, I don'twant to do this for five
minutes.
Yeah.
You don't wanna have to fight itthe whole time.
Yeah.
And if you look at a lot of mywins, like all my wins is not
all of'em, but a lot of'em arelike.
Submission.
Submission.
Submission.
And there'll be like lots ofdifferent submissions, Barato.

(42:21):
Oh really?
You don't have a favoritesubmission?
Oh no.
If you look at all mytournaments, it's like I'll tap
somebody out with a Barato Plataor a Kimora or a triangle arm
bar, and I'll just take whateverI can get.
And so I don't really win.
If you look at my wins, I don'twin by points.
I don't have like, oh, I won bytwo points, or I won by an
advantage.
Usually when I lose it's'cause Ilose by points or by an

(42:42):
advantage.
And so I never, when I'm doingjiu jitsu, I don't really think,
how can I score points or right.
I'm down on points I need tocome up.
I guess that's part of myproblem as a competitor is that,
you know, you got, I've beentold by people, you've gotta get
into the spirit of like, youknow, this point game, right?
Yeah.
The point game and strategy andstuff like that.
But I just, I like to finishpeople.

(43:02):
That's, to me, that's jiu jitsu.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah.
I agree with you.
So anyways, black belt, it'sbeen a mixed bag, but, black
belt's, the big links, right?
Everybody's sharp, everybodyknows what's going on.
Yeah.
And so I'm having.
Right now I'm in a slump, but,it's like I'm really learning to
just, hold on to that idea ofperseverance.

(43:24):
Yeah.
And dedication and, fortitudeand stuff.
And so come into another winningseason soon enough.
You will.
I'm gonna have to readjust somethings, but black belt's been
cool.
It's been good.
Right on.
Cool.
Alright.
Anthony, let's talk about,Gilroy, BJJ and what stood out

(43:46):
here.
I know that Carlos is, one ofthe owners here Yeah, he's the
other co-owner.
The co-owner here from thebeginning.
And, I've heard a lot of goodthings about Carlos from my
coach Stan.
Yeah.
And also, you know Ben fromSolidarity.
Yeah.
Kiko so can, He's an amazingman.

(44:08):
He's like a big brother, like afather figure, a mentor, an
instructor, a friend.
He's everything to me.
He's one of these people thatcame into my life and just.
He's helped me out in so manyways, and I know he's helped out
tons of other people, throughoutthe jiu jitsu community and just
in general.
And he's just such a good guy.

(44:28):
Me and my wife, when we firstmet and moved in together, we
lived up in San Jose, near SouthSan Jose.
But in 2020 we sold our houseand moved down here to Gilroy in
the middle of the pandemic shutdown.
And moving so far down south, Idecided that when things opened

(44:49):
back up that I was gonnacontinue my jiu jitsu journey
here at Gilroy, BJJ.
So I came in and I was a purplebelt at that time in 2020, A
four strike purple belt on theverge of getting my brown belt.
I didn't get my brown beltbefore I left the school that I
was at before, which was AKAokay.
Under Ron Kessler.
So I, just moved down south andI was, I've always been the type

(45:13):
of person where it's like, I'mnot a big traveler.
I'm not into driving longdistance to like go train,
right?
Mm-hmm.
I don't wanna spend an hour inthe car to drive up, to train
and then hour back.
Me and my wife's, relationshipit wasn't new at that time.
We had been together for sometime, but I always hold like
family time as sacred as I can.
Right.
And try to make as much time forit as possible.

(45:34):
'cause I spend so much time, atwork, but then also training.
I decided that training downhere in Gilroy would allow me
to, drive five minutes there totrain five minutes back.
So I came to Gilroy and I thinkit was evident to Carlos and
Morgan, who was the otherco-owner at the time that I had
razor sharp jiu jitsu When Isigned up to compete, I
destroyed everybody that I wentagainst.

(45:56):
And so they gave me my brownbelt right away.
Nice.
They were asking me to fill inand teach a lot of classes, and
I was doing that and I wouldteach everything, every class
that they would ask me.
I was sure, yeah.
Give it to me, give it to me.
And I was really coming into myown as an instructor.
Begun instructing, back at AKAfor a few years before I came

(46:17):
down here and was able tocontinue that tool.
Teaching is a great tool for itis improving your own jiu jitsu
Absolutely.
And understanding all the littleintricacies of why you do what
you do and what you need to doto make something effective.
And so I was teaching everyclass they would ask me to fill
in for, I was kicking ass as acompetitor.

(46:39):
And the training here was great.
but there was like a old guardof guys who had been training
here for a long time and theywere, had a little buddy group
or whatever, and I was sort ofan outsider, And, Morgan, the
other CO had decided that he wasgonna move outta state and so he
sold his half, to Carlos.
And Carlos was looking for apartner to be here and run the

(47:02):
school and teach.
And when I found out that's whathe was looking for, I said, I'll
buy in and I'll be your partner.
You stepped up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he said, that's awesome.
And he said, yes, 100%.
So he sold me the other half andI took it and ran with it.
And man, we've made a hugesuccess out of Gilroy BJJ in all

(47:24):
metrics.
And I've just, grinded hard to,blow the school up, Yeah.
In terms of like schedule and,level of jiu jitsu and
membership size.
It's been a great experience andCarlos has been so instrumental
in like not only teaching meeven more about business that I

(47:45):
hadn't learned from my friendwho I had helped build that
construction company out of.
Mm-hmm.
Because jiu jitsu is an entirelydifferent industry than
construction.
There's things that Carlos hasknown from running a school for
decades that like he was able toimpart on me that I wouldn't
have necessarily known.
And teaching me a lot aboutbeing a competitor.

(48:07):
About resiliency, the mentalaspect of it.
Teaching me a lot about jiujitsu in general and about,
competition, strategy, and justeverything.
And so he's just been, um,another great figure and it's
come into my life outta nowhereand like really just been
steadfast and a great guy.

(48:28):
And, I don't know if he gets asmuch credit as he should for all
the things that he's done.
There's so many people thatcould tell you stories about how
he's helped him out in huge waysand so, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
He's just a great guy.
So I was really happy to bethere.
He got married, a little whileback and I was happy that I
could be there for that and thatwe've just become real steadfast

(48:49):
friends and brothers.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
What are the biggest lessons jiujitsu has taught you over the
years?
I would say three lessons thatif I was gonna impart wisdom on
anybody starting their jiu jitsujourney or whatever point you're
in.
Number one is focus ontechnique.

(49:10):
Really study the techniques, themicro movements that make them
work.
Really, you know, drill them andtry to embed them in your mind.
I tell people, don't just comeinto class and just watch, you
know, during class and then gohome and put it outta sight,
outta mind.
Go home and think about thosetechniques, while you're having
dinner.

(49:30):
Think about'em while you're inthe shower.
Think about'em while you layyour head down to rest and
you're trying to go to sleep.
Do the mental work um, it wasjust as important as doing the
physical work and try to hitthose techniques in class.
Don't just get shown a techniqueand then when it's time to roll,
you just go to your A game.
Like you gotta try to use thosetechniques and yeah, they're

(49:52):
gonna fall apart when you try todo'em.
You don't know how to do'em yet,but you gotta do'em over and
over again.
I tell people, like when you'rea kid and you're playing like
Nintendo and you're playingMario Brothers and trying to
jump the little Mario guy overthe lava pit and he falls into
the lava and dies.
You don't just turn the game offand go, I'm done.
You just keep trying to jump'emover and over again, so you get

(50:13):
that timing right and then youcan do it no problem.
And you just have to be a dog,like a dog with a bone.
When it comes to techniques andyou have to constantly be
expanding your game.
Never know where a role is gonnaend up.
And if you don't have the answerto something, then you're
probably gonna lose because jiujitsu's like a language where
we're speaking back and forthand you start out learning

(50:35):
letters, you start out learningwords, you start out learning
sentences, then you can, youknow speak paragraphs or
whatever, and then we're havinga conversation.
If I say something, ask you aquestion, then you have the
answer.
Then you ask me a question, Ihave the answer.
Then we go back and forth andback and forth until I ask you a
question that you don't have theanswer to.
And so that's the game of jiujitsu and so it's good to know a

(50:58):
little something abouteverything.
Of course, you gotta pick maybea game that like fits you best
and that could be your A game.
But while you wanna rely on thatand like say competition.
When you're training, you reallywant to just exercise, all parts
of the jiu jitsu game or, Maze.

(51:19):
I liken it to a maze wherethere's so many different
pathways that it can take, butyou have to explore all of those
pathways and order to know whichway they turn and go and stuff
like that, having fun andexperimenting, but, trying to
focus on technical ways to getout of things and get into
things and whatnot.
So focus on technique.

(51:39):
Don't just come in and try andmuscle stuff.
You can hold people down and youcan bust out at things and
explode outta things, but Whatare you gonna do when you face
someone who's just as big andstrong as you?
Yeah.
And just as explosive, You'll beflat on your back.
Yeah.
The second thing.
I tell people is be consistent.
if you really want to get goodat jiu jitsu, you've gotta

(52:00):
dedicate yourself to it.
I think a lot of people justview it as an activity where
they just, they come in likeonce a week and then, You don't
see'em for another week or theycome in twice a week and then
that's it.
But for me, I think the way thatI got good at jiu jitsu was I
was like, I'm just gonna, I'mgonna do jiu jitsu every other
day.
Okay.
Week in and week out, no matterwhat.

(52:21):
And if there's some dinner to goto or some party, I'm sorry,
I'll be training.
Or if it's really important,like a wedding or something,
yeah, then, I'll make up forthat day.
Like the next day.
And so being consistent andjust, and doing it week in, week
out, and I think.
A lot of people just aren't,they let life get in the way.
Yeah, they do.
They get talked into otherthings or they're just like, I'm

(52:44):
not gonna go today, but youjust, you gotta go.
Yeah.
Day in and day out, every otherday or something like that.
So consistently.
The third thing is not lettingthe hardships, the struggles
that come with jiu jitsu infectyour mind.
Yep.
Because that's the hardest partis that, yeah, you'll get some
bumps and bruises and tweaks andstuff and you'll get some

(53:05):
injuries, but the mentalStruggles that come with it are
what's really gonna trip you upand make you wanna quit, right?
Mm-hmm.
Especially early on as like awhite belt, a lot of white
belts, three months in, sixmonths in, they're like, I can't
remember anything.
I'm not good at this.
I'm never gonna be good.
And then they just fall off andthey quit before they even make

(53:27):
it to blue belt.
And I try to tell'em like,you're not supposed to remember
everything.
Correct.
You're supposed to.
There's too much information foryou to get it down the first,
second, third time you see iteven after you, you've seen it
for, quite a while.
There's little bits ofinformation that you're missing.
You remember some of it.
But as years go on and you seethose techniques again, that's

(53:48):
where you fill in these littlepieces that you forgot about.
So fast forward six, sevenyears, then you'll be a lot
better at doing an arm bar,right?
You'll be a lot better atescaping the back and stuff.
And so, for the people juststarting out, you can't let that
mental anguish push you to wantto quit.
And for the people who are deepin their journey, stuff like
slumps where like your jiujitsu's not working like at

(54:11):
purple belt.
When I was dealing with a realbad like slump in my jiu jitsu
and then even now at Black Belt,I'm dealing with the slump
that's like really messing withmy mind.
Or losing tournaments andletting that affect you.
Mm-hmm.
Like how it looks to yourstudents or the greater jiu
jitsu community.
Just not letting it mess withyour mind, because that's why,

(54:35):
how most people wash out andthey quit.
And especially most people dobefore the magic happens.
Before you get real good at jiujitsu.
How do you help your studentsget through that mental part?
I talk to'em, I tell'em thatI've gone through the same
thing.
I tell'em how I felt and how.
How it is for everybody.
I think everybody goes throughthe same thing.
I think so.
Some people are more vocal aboutit than others.

(54:56):
Some people are better atmasking it.
And there's some people whodon't deal with it at all.
There's special people out therewho are just really good and
people who can remembereverything.
Or there's people who trainharder, more and there's that
aspect of it too.
We can always do more, but it isjust, life in general.
You know, jiu jitsu, builds thatfortitude and that perseverance

(55:17):
that will bleed into other partsof your life so that when the
going gets tough that you don'twanna pull out and quit.
Right.
Okay.
Competitive experiences.
You've won and lost incompetition.
Can you share a story thatstands out to you?
I wouldn't say there's any oneparticular story, but, across

(55:38):
the breadth and the width of mycompetition, career, I've had
some high highs and I've hadsome low lows.
I wish I was a world beater thatjust won all the time and, could
just post, win after win.
And I've gone on long runs whereI've.
I've won, saying at Brown Beltand even at Black Belt.
So far I've had some largeswaths of winning, but also

(55:59):
large swaths of losing.
I try not to get too happy andhyped about my wins'cause
there's always the nextcompetition that you gotta look
forward to and that you couldeasily lose that one.
I also don't take my losses toheart too much either because
those kind of come and go.
And if you compete often enoughand long enough, you run into

(56:20):
all kinds of weird situationswhere your opponent gets given
points that they shouldn't havegot.
You don't get given points thatyou should have got.
You lose by an advantage or youget destroyed just completely.
I've had competitions where Iprepared really well and felt
like a million bucks, and then,went in and destroyed everybody

(56:43):
like, like I should.
Mm-hmm.
But then I've had ones wheresame setup, and then I did
abysmal, and it was like, wow, Iwasn't expecting to do that bad
'cause I felt great.
And then on the flip side, I'vehad, camps and in, in training
leading up to a competitionwhere I felt like crap.
And I was like, man, I'm gonnalose.
And then I pull off some amazingstuff and tap out all my
opponents with crazysubmissions.

(57:03):
And I was like, I did not thinkthat was gonna happen.
And I've had, times where I wassuffering in my training and it
really translated into sufferingand competition and everything
in between.
So it's a mixed bag.
I always try to keep in mindthere's nobody who wins
everything, right?
I don't think there's a singlejiu jitsu fighter on this
planet, who has zero losses.

(57:26):
Everybody's bound to lose.
There's people who win more thanothers.
And like I was saying I couldalways do more for training,
like in preparation for acompetition, but since I'm a
school owner and like themarketeer and the administrator
and cleaner and instructor whoteaches most of the classes, and
also I'm a husband and a father.

(57:48):
When it comes to being aninstructor, trying to make sure
that my students get theirmoney's worth for their
training.
Yeah.
Above mine.
Sometimes at the end of classwhen there's rolling and it's an
even number of students, they'repaying to be here and I would
never be like, you sit out whileI train because I gotta prepare

(58:09):
for competition.
I think sometimes that's adetriment.
And so sometimes when I goagainst some of my competitors,
I wonder does this person run anacademy?
Do they, are they teaching abunch of classes?
Do they have a kid?
Are they marrying or they dothey have as much on their plate
as me?
And a lot of times, no.
And so sometimes that translatesinto them being able to focus on
their preparation forcompetition more than me.
And that, yeah, that equals aloss.

(58:30):
But, it's all in the game.
I'm just trying to test myselfalways and just see where I
stack up.
Sometimes I do really well andsometimes I don't.
But again, like I was saying,it's like, what am I doing all
this training for?
If I'm not gonna, go out thereon the competition mats and see
how I do?
Yeah.
Also just putting outta my mindlike what it's gonna look like
if I do bad, if I do horribly,what's it gonna look like in

(58:51):
front of my students?
What's it gonna look like infront of the greater jiu jitsu
community?
And I think it's hard for me toget a match sometimes.
'Cause I'll sign up forcompetitions and nobody else
will sign up for my agedivision.
I'm an old guy, I'm a master'sfour, so I'm 45, about to be 46.
And there's not a lot of blackbelts at that age, at my weight
class at least.
Who sign up?
To compete anymore.
And I wonder, oh, maybe it's'cause they did a lot of their

(59:13):
competing earlier on, theystarted jiu jitsu a lot earlier
than me and did a lot ofcompeting and now they're over
it and maybe they're teaching,classes and running a school and
that's what they've decided tofocus on.
But maybe there's a lot of blackbelts who they don't want to get
out there and put their jiujitsu on the line and they don't
want to test themselves and theydon't wanna look bad in front of
their students and they don'twanna.

(59:33):
That can happen too.
They don't want that air ofinvincibility to be, you know,
taken away.
I give you a lot of credit forbeing out there and competing.
I've only had my black belt fora year and a half, so I feel
like a young black belt, eventhough I'm an old guy.
Yeah.
And so I feel like I've got putin my work, put in my time.
Absolutely.
And win, lose or draw, just,keep at it.
And so I've had some amazinghighs that I wouldn't have had

(59:56):
if I hadn't thrown my hat intothe ring.
Yeah, there you go.
How has competing helped shapeyour game and mindset?
It's starting to shape it in aninteresting way because my style
at jiu jitsu has always been, Iview jiu jitsu as an art more so

(01:00:17):
than anything and also a toolfor self-improvement, right?
Mm-hmm.
From building fortitude andperseverance and, I view it as
an art.
I like the wild style, likereally cool looking crazy jiu
jitsu and I think that's why alot of people like watching me
roll.
Yeah.
And enjoy my style.
I've gotten a lot of complimentsand, a lot of people who just

(01:00:38):
dig my style.
But when it comes tocompetition, it's a lot more
intense, it's a lot more,aggressive.
And you have people out therethat strategize in a way where
they fight not to lose and theyfight to not get any points
scored on them.
And like I said, I'm alwaysdoing jiu jitsu, like, how can I

(01:00:59):
finish this person?
Where's the submission at?
Not how can I score two pointsor how can I.
You know, come up an advantage.
And I've lost a lot of timesbecause of that.
'Cause I'm not in that mode.
And I'm starting to understandthat if you wanna win in
competition, you have to havethe kinda strategy of like,
score your two points here andthen hunker down, right?

(01:01:19):
Eat away time on the clock.
And there's so many people that,that operate in that fashion and
is so foreign to me.
Yeah.
And so I'm having to reevaluatethe way I go about, trying to
win a competition.
'Cause that black belt,everybody's savvy and
everybody's knowledgeable.
And like for lower belts or forpeople who are not as good at

(01:01:40):
jiu jitsu as me, I can pull offsome beautiful stuff and make it
look real fun.
And that counts for something.
I like that.
I like putting on a show forpeople, but.
In terms of just winning, if youwant to just have w after w
behind your name, there's peoplethat do that strategy of I'm
just gonna score my two pointsand I'm gonna not get swept.
I'm gonna fight not to loseposition or get off balance and

(01:02:03):
hunker down.
Yeah.
So I think your mindset inregards to how you were as a
purple belt and brown belt.
Was constantly attackingCorrect.
And trying to submit.
Yeah.
I think eventually in time doingthe same way as black belt,
you're gonna start catching alot of more things in the
future.
Yeah.
So just keep your game going.

(01:02:24):
It's amazing to watch.
It's awesome.
I appreciate that.
Yeah.
I think jiu jitsu is a beautifulart, and I think that, like I
said, just watching people, whenyou get somebody who's really
creative and it just looks likethey're doing tricks.
The other way I think about jiujitsu is you're a wizard and
you're learning how to do magicand like you're in a school and
like you're learning from otherwizards how to do magic, and

(01:02:46):
then you're doing magic trickson people and it's like you're
throwing arm bars at somebody.
Do they know the counter spellto defeat the arm bar.
And so I just like getting wildwith it.
I like all those crazysubmissions like Barato Platas
and to Rico Platas and, reversetriangles, shotgun arm bars from
the back and stuff.
So that's the way that I thinkI'll always view jiu jitsu, if

(01:03:09):
you're not doing it for fun andyou're not doing it to be
creative and you're not doingit, to experiment and play.
I feel like it's kind of likesad or miserable way to go about
jiu-jitsu, but I don't know.
You're just gonna have verynarrow game, right?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So I was on your Instagram, justlooking at some of the things
that you were doing, what was itlike attending the CJI and A DCC

(01:03:33):
in 2024?
And where was it at?
It was in Las Vegas and, it wasa good time.
I went out there with Carlos,you know, nice.
my brother and we went out toboth events.
The thing about attending thoseevents or any event in general,
I've always been this kind ofperson where it's I get that
there's, certain atmosphere anda funness about attending a live

(01:03:55):
event, but unless you'respending big money to be like
right up there at the front alot of sporting events you end
up with like nosebleed seats orseats aren't very good.
You can't see very well.
Yeah, everything's expensive.
The hot dogs, the beers.
I don't drink beer, it's not asenjoyable as sitting on your
couch and watching it on TVwhere you get all the angles and
you get the commentary and stufflike that.

(01:04:15):
And we did splurge and got somegood seats, but they weren't
like right up front.
Even though you're pretty closeto the action, I think I decided
after that.
Go around.
'cause we had gone to A DCC thelast time.
Like two years before.
And I had some good seats thattime.
But like I decided after thislast go around, I was like, if
we ever go back, we're gettinglike right up front, we're gonna

(01:04:36):
splurge and get those seatsright up front.
Because you want to be right upthere in front of all the
action.
But man, those are just likemarathon sessions.
Really bet have to be a jiujitsu head to sit there for.
10, 12 hours.
Oh.
Watching jiu jitsu straight andto enjoy all the matches.
Wow.
I didn't know it was that long.
Yeah.
You get there I don't know, it'slike 10 in the morning or

(01:04:59):
something, and you stay theretill nine or 10 at night just
watching match after match orsomething like that.
It's a marathon session to justsitting there and watching jiu
jitsu and, it's a fun event forsure, but, The seats aren't
super comfortable either.
So some of those ones up front Ithink are more cushiony.
Yeah.
You can see the action.
The thing about A DCC isinitially, they have several
matches going on all at once.

(01:05:20):
Okay.
And so you're like.
Watching over here, then turningyour attention over there, then
turn your attention over hereand if you're not paying
attention, some big move willget pulled off on another match
on a mat and it's kinda hard towatch.
That was the cool thing aboutCJI is it was one match at a
time.
But they both had their plusesand minuses and they cool events
for sure.

(01:05:40):
Right on.
Yeah.
You always stood out with yourflow and Shoyoroll Gi, what is
it about that brand thatresonates with you?
So I got put on the Shoyorollearly on in my jiu jitsu
journey.
I started, like I said, inearly, 2011.
And sometime within that firstyear, like even before 2012,

(01:06:02):
like I just, I took notice ofthem as a brand and they were,
they were gaining popularity,but obviously they were nowhere
near like how big they aretoday.
But I just recognized rightaway, like they had the freshest
style and being like a hip hophead and being into stuff that's
fresh and, you know, it was easyfor me to recognize like, oh,
this is the brand.

(01:06:23):
they got fresh style.
I like it.
And you know what, I'm gonnamake this the brand that I rock
nonstop, you know?
And Right.
I just made a choice that I hadto decide this is gonna be my
brand.
And some people do that.
Yeah.
There's some people, they choosea brand and they stick with it,
and then there's other peoplethey'll wear whatever and it
really wasn't like a fashionthing where it's I wanna look
cool.

(01:06:43):
But obviously they made cool gisback then.
They were like making like theyank and the white Mamba and the
seven Sun and the Golden StateGi and stuff.
and I had all of those and Ijust spend all my money on
everything they put out.
'cause I always thought it wasfresh.
They'd always come out with coolcolorways and they had cool
t-shirts and The guys whostarted are from Guam and they

(01:07:05):
started out real small, I thinkout of a garage and just like a
story of a company startingreally small.
Mm-hmm.
But like guys who had love forthe sport, like right, dedicated
practitioners and like buildingit up year after year into being
bigger and better than it wasbefore.
And always just keeping thatfresh sense of style.

(01:07:27):
And I think there's a lot ofgear brand companies that come
into the space and, people that,I wouldn't call it like they're
trying to get rich quick, butthey'll dump a lot of money,
like hundreds of thousands ofdollars into getting some
product Manufactured andadvertising and fly by night.
And some of them take hold andlast for a little while, but
there's a lot of'em that havecome and gone.
Shoyoroll always stood the testof time'cause they've always

(01:07:49):
had, a fresh sense of style andalways just built it up little
by little, never try to get toobig for their britches.
And, it's just a true story ofguys doing it the right way and
having love for the art witheverything that they do, right?
And so I just always rock theirstuff and.
I wore it like not only auniform on the mat, but I'd wear

(01:08:12):
all their stuff.
They're really almost like astreet brand as well.
Like they, they make cool likeshirts and hoodies and hats and
jackets and stuff.
So I would wear their stuff allthe time, even out and about.
if you look at every picture ofme, it's like I'm wearing.
I'm wearing a Shoyoroll shirt.
Like the day my baby was born, Iwas wearing a Shoyoroll shirt,
like my wedding day, likebeforehand in the, the hotel

(01:08:34):
room with my groomsmen.
I don't know, I just felt anaffinity for that brand.
And that's just all I've everworn.
So, um.
I have an old training partnerof mine who knows the guys who
started it and when I became ablack belt, he told them, Hey,
you should check this guy out.
He's a black belt.
He owns a school in the townthat I live in now.

(01:08:55):
'cause he had moved down here toGilroy.
And, he's a competitor.
He wins gold and he's a cooldude.
They looked at my social mediaand then they contacted me and
they were like, we heard aboutyou.
Give us a call.
Nice.
And so I called them and Italked to them and we were on
the phone for a long time.
Nice.
And just talking about allthings Shoyoroll, like the
history of the company and um,the history of jiu jitsu gear

(01:09:18):
brands in general.
I'm a jiu jitsu nerd and likeI'm a huge jiu jitsu head and
know like.
Just about the history of jiujitsu in general, but also the
history of Shoyoroll and likejust the gear brand space.
And so I was just like, we werejust going back and forth.
That's why the phone call lastedso long.
And at the end they were like,you know what you're talking

(01:09:40):
about.
And you're the kind of personthat we want to have on our
team, you are the quintessentialperson.
Nice.
That, you know, we want torepresent us.
So they were like, we wanna putyou on the team.
And so they sent me out gear andI have access, if I really
needed something, I could tell'em, Hey, I missed this drop, or
Right.
Do you have this old batch thatyou know is hiding in the corner

(01:10:00):
over there in your warehouse?
Send it out to me.
But I don't, I've got so much oftheir gear.
I don't bug'em about that.
But those guys, bear and Turtleand AJ, they're cool.
They're really cool heads andI'm just happy that, that has
come into my life as well.
Another blessing that jiu jitsuhas led me to, and it's it's

(01:10:20):
amazing.
If you're dedicated to jiujitsu, it will reward you with
all the things that you want.
Becoming a black belt, becominga school owner, becoming a gold
winning competitor, becoming, anambassador for your favorite
gear brand.
That's a great story.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing that.
Sure.
Let's go into your personal lifeand your motivations.

(01:10:41):
How has your wife supported yourgrowth, both on and off the
mats?
Oh man, I wouldn't be where I amtoday without her.
She came into my life, at a timewhere I was down in the dumps
and suffering.
I had, been let go from a radiojob, I think, and, I had just
exited a relationship with agirl who, she was studying to be

(01:11:03):
like a doctor, an oncologist orsomething like a cancer doctor,
and was like going to Stanfordor something.
And at the time I was in radio,it wasn't really going anywhere
because like there's not a lotof money in it.
And I really wasn't.
Trying to put my all into it'cause the passion wasn't there.
Not like my passion for jiujitsu That would come about

(01:11:23):
later, right?
I think she just saw oh, thisguy's not on my level and I'm
gonna, I'm gonna walk off intothe sunset.
So I'd been dumped, had to moveoutta the apartment that we
shared, lost my job, and man, Iwas lost and my wife came outta
nowhere.
And we went on a date and earlyon she was like, just fell in

(01:11:47):
love with me.
And she was like, I wanna bewith you.
I wanna be yours, and I want youto be mine.
And if you trust me and you'rewilling, we can ride off into
the sunset together and we canmake a life together.
I promise you, I'll support youin every way and we'll be
together forever.
And I believed her.
So I said, let's do it.
And she never wavered from thatpromise, when it came to jiu

(01:12:09):
jitsu anytime I wanted to gotrain or go compete or, I went
and trained jiu jitsu on ourhoneymoon in Hawaii.
Anytime I wanted to go to aseminar, anytime I lost a
competition and came home, shewas there to rub my back and
gimme a hug.
We've done everything together.
We've been inseparable eversince.
And we've bought homes together,sold homes together.

(01:12:30):
We've had a kid, we've, done somuch and, she's my rock.
She's exactly what I needed toreach the level that I'm at.
She holds it down at home when.
I'm busy working and when I sayworking, not just teaching, but
going out there and competing, Iconsider that to be work.
Yeah.
Going to koffee krew, that tome, that's work.
I'm working.
She's everything that I think aguy would want and need to like,

(01:12:54):
reach full potential and I waslucky enough that she was like
an angel that came into my life.
I wouldn't say I'm religious,but I'm a believer in Christ.
I don't talk about it too much.
I don't think that you can leadother people to believing in
what they need to believe inuntil they're ready.
But I've prayed, for things andthat's one of the things I paid
for and prayer was answered.

(01:13:15):
Nice.
And yeah, she's my everything.
That's amazing.
That's beautiful.
Yeah.
Now, tell us about your son,Owen.
Oh, man.
He's, he is a crazy, creative,funny, fun kid.
He's the best of me and my wife.
He gets his smarts from her.
He's as sharp as a tack and,he's, you can tell in his sense

(01:13:37):
of humor and he gets hiscreativity from me.
So he's always trying to buildstuff out of cardboard and clay
and drawing and stuff like that.
He's super talented.
He's into the arts too, sothat's great.
He's gonna be some kind ofeither like a comedian or he's
gonna be like a movie directoror some kind of artist.
He is a little mini version ofme.

(01:13:58):
He's pushed me to become abetter human being and look at
life from a differentperspective.
Not just all about me, but youknow what it's like for a little
boy to grow up and he's got ADHDlike I do.
Yeah.
And so having some grace whendealing with him.
And understanding what it waslike for my mother to deal with
me.
As a wild child growing up.
Yeah.

(01:14:18):
And wanting to steer me awayfrom that wildness, veering off
into like delinquency.
I have him to thank for pushingme to be a better man and a good
father.
Yeah.
And so, those two man, they'remy world.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can see that.
Absolutely.
Okay, here's another little fun,question.

(01:14:39):
What's life like with twoAmerican bullies?
Great.
I love American bullies, man.
I've never had one before.
let's see.
We got our first American bully,maybe late 2023.
We had gone to the shelter inSan Martin, the little town
between Morgan Hill and Gilroy,where they have the animal

(01:15:00):
shelter, the county, I think,animal shelter.
Yeah.
When we found her, They didn'tknow what her name was at the
shelter, so they named herBeyonce.
And the reason why they namedher Beyonce is because whoever
owned her before she had aninfection in her uterus.
Aw.
And.

(01:15:21):
Whoever owned her I guess,didn't have pet insurance or the
money to pay for a surgery.
And so they dumped her in frontof the animal shelter.
Oh, that's sad.
Overnight.
And when the people came, shewas laying in the pool of her
blood.
Aw.
And almost dead.
That's so sad.
And so they did the surgery tosave her and she came back to

(01:15:42):
life.
They named her Beyonce'cause shewas a survivor.
Did you keep the name or did youNo.
You're like, no, no.
My son is super into, it'sreally weird.
My son's always been intovillains.
So whatever, from an early age,whatever it was, he was always

(01:16:03):
down with whoever was thevillain.
So we'd show him Star Warsmovies and be like, who's your
favorite character?
And he'd be like, Darth Vader.
They're The ones that have themost fun.
Yeah.
They cause the most chaos.
Why not show'em like Marvelmovies?
who's your favorite Marvelcharacter?
Thanos.
And his favorite character ofall time was like, captain Hook.
That's one of his two favoritecharacters of all times.

(01:16:24):
The other one is Joker, so he isthis is a girl.
Let's name her Harley for HarleyQuinn.
Oh.
Yeah.
Very cute.
She's just a great dog.
American bullies are a mix of abunch of different, bully
breeds, they're almost like pitbulls.
They got some pit bullishness to'em.
A lot of people, she's a scarylooking dog in some respects,
but like the sweetest dog ever.
And they're just so loving andlike I was so in love with her.

(01:16:46):
They're love is sounconditional.
Yeah.
And then the other Americanbully that, just came into our
lives, he belonged to somebodywho, had to find a new home, for
him because they were dealingwith some life issues where they
couldn't care for him anymore.
And when I saw a post onFacebook, I just had a feeling

(01:17:06):
it was time for another dog tocome into our lives.
And yeah, it was an Americanbully and it was just a really
beautiful chocolate, miniaturebully, like micro bully or
whatever they call it.
Yeah.
And so I contacted the personand I was like, we gotta, we got
another American bully that welove to death and we'd love
another one.
And we've got a great home.
And so he came into our lives asa boy, and so I'll give you one

(01:17:29):
guess what his name is now.
Joker.
Yes.
So his name is Joker, and he's arambunctious, funny little
American bully.
And he's a sweetheart too.
And man, they're just, they'regreat dogs.
And so I don't think we'll everget another type of dog, even
when, they're both not hereanymore.
I think that's, we'll getanother American bullying.

(01:17:52):
Just stick with that breed.
I love it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
Okay, so let's start wrapping itup and, let's tell the audience,
where we can find you, onInstagram.
tell'em a little bit about yourschool Gilroy, if they'd like to
attend.
Yeah, so if, you wanna find meon Instagram, I think it's

(01:18:13):
Anthony F.
Rutherford.
Same thing with, Facebook.
Real simple.
Just, nothing fancy, nothingfunny.
The name of the school, theschool that I co-own with Carlos
Mellow is Gilroy, BJJ or GilroyBrazilian jiu jitsu in Gilroy,
California, and we've gotclasses every day of the week.
Except for Sunday.
We got kids classes.

(01:18:34):
We got classes, two times a dayfor adults.
One in the midday, which is,growing, and a big class that's
really coming into its own.
And we got evening classestaught by Carlos that, everybody
also really enjoys and we justhave a really good thing going
on, man.
It's like a machine at GilroyBJJ where the way that it runs
and the way that, the studentscome in and get their training

(01:18:56):
and get good work in and it's,it's a fun place to be.
And the people that are herereally enjoy it and it's a cool
group of people.
I was talking about, when Ifirst came here, there was like
the old guard of, a group ofguys that, when I took over,
they went their separate ways.
And so we've had to build theschool back up.

(01:19:17):
But everybody that's here,really enjoys it.
And we enjoy everybody that'shere.
It's a fun environment and weteach really good jiu jitsu, fun
jiu jitsu and it's open foranybody who wants to come in.
Whether it's just a drop in tovisit or you wanna sign up, it's
the place to be.
Awesome.
Yeah, I've been here a couple oftimes, and I've took instruction
by you.

(01:19:37):
It's a great school.
I love coming here for KoffeeKrew.
Yeah.
And I just wanted to say, oneother thing, if we're wrapping
up, is, I wanted to just touchon Koffee Krew.
Yes, Go for it.
Real quick, because, for manyyears, koffee krew was,
headquartered here in Gilroy.
BJJ.
Yes.
And then, Kiko and Fernando andBen and Kirby, they opened up
Solidarity in San Jose.
And so naturally koffee krew,relocated over there as the

(01:20:01):
headquarters.
but there's always gonna be aspecial place in our hearts for
the koffee krew here and viceversa.
And I go to koffee krew prettymuch every weekend, no matter
where it's at, unless it's realfar away, like when Kiko goes to
Texas or some crazy place.
But, usually when he does thatand they have koffee krew here

(01:20:21):
at Gilroy, they come back home,or former home.
But, I think koffee krew is,such a great thing to see how
far it's come and how big it'sexpanded to be.
When it was here, you know,sometimes it would be fairly
small when they're firststarting out, 20, 30 people.
Correct.
But Now it's like every weekendyou go, it's could be 70, 80.
Mm-hmm.
People.
I'm sure there's even been aninstance or two where it's

(01:20:43):
reached up to 90 people maybe.
Some people leave before itends, so they don't all get in
the picture.
True.
And it's hard to account foreverybody that was there or
whatever, but it's steamrollingand it's great to see what Kiko
and them have built it up to be.
And it's a tool that is open foreveryone to utilize, to help
improve their game.

(01:21:04):
And just the comradery and thefun atmosphere that, exists
there when koffee krew ishappening is just, it's a really
great site to see.
And thank you to them for,facilitating that.
And you wouldn't be here with metoday if it wasn't for that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
They are the biggest drive forme to do this podcast, to share

(01:21:24):
my photos.
every Sunday that I can make it.
So it's just trying to exposemore of the, jiu jitsu, how
beautiful it is, how amazinglyawesome and, unique it is.
So as long as I can continue toexpress that and help you guys
push forward in your businessesand your jiu jitsu journeys.

(01:21:45):
Yeah, I'm gonna continue to dothis.
Cool.
Awesome.
Anthony, I would like to thankyou for being on the podcast.
I am looking forward to puttingthis one out.
Thanks.
Okay, thank you.
Bye Bye.