Nicky Rodriguez "Nicky Rod"

Nick "Nicky Rod" Rodriguez was born August 30, 1996, in Clayton, New Jersey, and his path to grappling stardom ran through wrestling rather than a childhood spent in gis. He wrestled from sixth grade through high school at Clayton High School and later competed for one season at NCAA Division III Ferrum College, posting a 23-4 record and placing fourth at the East Regionals. That wrestling foundation — heavy top pressure, relentless scrambling, and a mat-based approach to controlling larger, more technical opponents — became the base he later grafted submission grappling onto.

Rodriguez didn't start training jiu-jitsu until 2018, and by his own account he began mainly to stay in shape after a friend brought him to class. What followed was one of the fastest rises the sport has seen: after only about two weeks of training, he entered his first submission grappling tournament and won both his advanced 230-lb bracket and the absolute division. He joined the Renzo Gracie Academy under coach John Danaher, and within roughly a year of starting the sport he was competing at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Championship — still a blue belt — where he took home a silver medal in 2019, an almost unheard-of result for someone so new to the discipline.

When the Danaher Death Squad splintered in 2021 amid a widely reported falling-out, Rodriguez chose not to follow Danaher to his New Wave project. Instead, he joined training partners Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, and Ethan Crelinsten to co-found B-Team Jiu-Jitsu in Austin, Texas, which opened in August 2021 and quickly became one of the most influential no-gi gyms in the sport. Competing under the B-Team banner, Rodriguez added a second ADCC silver medal in 2022 and, in 2023, won the ADCC North American Trials without conceding a point across the entire bracket. On December 23, 2023, he was promoted to black belt by his own training partners and coaches — Craig Jones, Ethan Crelinsten, and Nicky Ryan — a fitting arc for a competitor who earned his rank from the team he'd helped build.

Rodriguez's biggest breakthrough came in the sport's new prize-money era. At the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational in August 2024, he won his weight division outright — finishing every match by rear-naked choke — and collected the tournament's $1 million top prize, instantly becoming one of the highest-earning grapplers in the sport's history. That performance, combined with his ADCC pedigree and his wrestling-heavy, finish-focused style, helped position him for a move into a new arena: in 2026, Rodriguez signed with UFC BJJ, the UFC's dedicated grappling promotion, and was booked to face two-time IBJJF no-gi world champion Elder Cruz in his promotional debut.

From a wrestler who picked up jiu-jitsu to stay fit to a black belt, ADCC medalist, seven-figure tournament champion, and UFC BJJ competitor in under a decade, Rodriguez's rise stands as one of the more remarkable modern examples of a late-starting athlete reaching the top of grappling through raw physicality, relentless pressure, and a willingness to test himself against far more experienced opponents from day one.

Wrestling-based top pressure and relentless scrambling built into a finish-first, rear-naked-choke-heavy no-gi game